Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is making the rounds to promote his latest book, "
Killing Patton," but when he showed up at "The Daily Show" on Wednesday, O'Reilly and host Jon Stewart spent the time arguing about the concept of "white privilege."
Stewart started the debate, immediately telling O'Reilly the only thing he wanted him to do was admit that white privilege exists.
"If there's white privilege then there has to be Asian privilege, because Asians make more money than whites," O'Reilly countered.
Stewart said the Asian immigrant experience in America is very different from that of blacks who were initially brought here against their will and made slaves. Further, he said, white males have set the system, thereby being able to most benefit from it.
"There has been a systemic, systematized subjugation of the black community," Stewart said.
"Sure. That was then. This is now," O'Reilly said.
"There was white privilege, but it no longer exists?" Stewart asked.
"Maybe you haven't figured it out that there is no more slavery, no more Jim Crow, and the most powerful man in the world is a black American, and the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, is black," said O'Reilly, addressing the audience, who at that point began booing.
O'Reilly admitted there are residual effects suffered by black people today because of past racism, but said that anyone able to work hard today can succeed and shouldn't blame their failure on white privilege.
O'Reilly also agreed with Stewart that "collectively" black people carry a larger burden than whites.
But Stewart said that burden is also carried individually.
"They don't stop and frisk Wall Street bankers," he said.
O'Reilly said it was "unfair" that black people weren't allowed to live in his hometown of Levittown, New York, in the 1950s, but said society has since changed.
"It was harder for me than it was for the white guy in Garden City. It's all relative," O'Reilly said. "It's harder if you're a ghetto kid, but can you do it? Yes!"
People who are "fair-minded," acknowledge black kids from poor neighborhoods still have it harder, he said, but added that that fact should not be used to condemn modern society.
O'Reilly did agree with Stewart in the end that white advantages in society are a "factor," playing off the name of O'Reilly's show,
"The O'Reilly Factor."
"Your humility has moved me. You are like Pope Francis that has taken the Catholic Church to a new era of acceptance and humility," Stewart said, ending the segment. "You, Bill O'Reilly, can lead the flock of the Fox fearful to a better place. I believe in you."
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