Bill O'Reilly offends Hawaii and Asian-Americans, Hanabusa wants apology

The host of Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor”, Bill O’Reilly made an attention-getting remark on his television program on Thursday night when he was speaking about the liberalism of people living in the state of Hawaii. He determined that the state has been quite heavily Democratic – liberal – and found it strange that the state is currently that way because, he said: “Asian people aren’t liberal by nature.”

He went on to slam liberals by saying that Asians are industrious people unlike stereotypical liberals. O’Reilly also said that Hawaii is a state that is in extreme debt and also that Hawaii has a lot of social problems due to the lack of drug law enforcement which has led to rampant drug addiction among its people.

O’Reilly summed up his opinion on Hawaii having become such a pool of Democratic liberals in spite of the fact that the state is 35 percent Asian by saying:

Bill O'Reilly slams HawaiiBill O'Reilly slams Hawaii

Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They’re usually more industrious and hard-working.

On Friday, the day after the controversially critical remarks Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa from Hawaii said:

Leave it to Bill O'Reilly to thoughtlessly insult 1.3 million people with one sweeping misstatement. Let's set the record straight. For the fourth quarter of 2012, Hawaii's major economic indicators were all positive. Visitor numbers are up, showing strength in our number one industry. Unemployment is down and personal income is up. The state's debt is stable and reasonable.

She went on to say:

However, I think O'Reilly's attempt to characterize Hawaii's Asian-American population is most insulting of all. Claiming that Asian-Americans are not liberal by nature because they are 'hard-working and industrious' is the kind of one dimensional and paternalistic attitude that we should have gotten past decades ago. Hawaii's -- and America's -- Asian-American communities are as rich and diverse as any in our nation. Attributing any broad set of characteristics to any large group only serves to encourage attitudes that 'they' are somehow different from 'us'.

Hanabusa's strongly negative reaction to O'Reilly ended with her calling for an apology from Bill O'Reilly.

“The O’Reilly Factor” featuring the conservatively outspoken Bill O’Reilly is a daily program airing at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.