[Beck:] I don`t know jack. I am so willing to fold on so many things, if someone would bring up I`ve done my homework. I know what I believe. But I am not so egotistical that somebody couldn`t bring an argument to me that was reasonable and say, "Hey, Glenn, no, it`s this way." It would cause me to ponder and reflect, and I would do more homework. And I would be man enough to admit, "Boy, did I have that one wrong." Aren`t most people like that? I`m not a freak. All right. So last night was Major League Baseball`s all-star game, and I, like millions of Americans, you know, I watched something else. I watched my show and then I watched a really good E! "True Hollywood Story" about the cast of "7th Heaven." No. Actually, let me just say this: I`m not a sports fan at all. Glenn Beck is to sports what Glenn Close is to sports. So it seems to me, because I lived in Philadelphia for a while, with whacked-out athletes they`re whiney, juiced up, pampered, gazillionaires. However, one word that I really don`t associate with, with modern professional athletes, the world "slave." Yes, slave. Bill Rhoden, he`s the author of "Forty Million Dollar Slaves: Rise and Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete." You please tell me, sir, because I have only had a chance to read a chapter of your book, about Michael Jordan, please tell me, for the love of Pete, that you don`t actually believe that these are $40 million slaves?
[William C. Rhoden, Author, "forty Million Dollar Slaves":] Yes, well, some are even $80 million. But, you know, the title of the book actually comes it comes from a comment that a white fan said to Larry Johnson. Larry Johnson is the guy he used to play for the New York Knicks. And at the beginning of the 2000 season, the Knicks were out in Los Angeles. And during a time out, as a team went over, this white guy stood behind the bench and said, "Johnson, you`re nothing but a $40 million slave," and we have that in the book. And it comes from something Johnson said the previous year, when he had boycotted the media, wouldn`t talk. And finally, when the NBA finally said, "You`ve got to talk." He goes, "OK, you want me to talk? I`ll talk." He said, "You know, my teammates, these guys out here, we`re rebellious slaves. We`re rebel slaves." And he went on, of course, the next day
[Beck:] Hey, William...
[Rhoden:] You would have killed them. And the idea is this, Glenn, is that the idea I traced the black athlete from the plantation, when there were plantation, they were slaves who were actually athletes, they were boxers, runners, racers, and they were all slaves. And what I`m saying is that the relationship between black athletes on those plantations and black athletes today and owners has not really fundamentally changed, and that`s, I think, where we begin the book, is that that mentality, that relationship of power has not changed. They`ve increased the numbers. They`re making, as you said, gazillions of dollars. But yet they really don`t have any ownership in this industry they helped create. And that`s the beginning. Slave is a metaphor, but it`s real.
[Beck:] Yes. Things haven`t fundamentally chained changed?
[Rhoden:] Chained. See, you`re right, chained.
[Beck:] That`s weird. Yes... ... because as I remember, I mean, you know, the slave thing, I wasn`t there, but I seem to remember chains, and whips, and working. I don`t remember $40 million a year. If that`s true, put me on the frickin` plantation, man. Put me on the plantation.
[Rhoden:] Well, you don`t want to be on that plantation. But this is an interesting thing.
[Beck:] Excuse me? I`ll be on that no, seriously. If God gives me the talent that I could throw the football like that and I could make $40 million, put me on I`m begging you, Lord in heaven, put me on that plantation right now. I mean it.
[Rhoden:] Can you sing?
[Beck:] Let me tell you something. I am so offended. And you should be offended as a black man that you are taking the history of something as evil and as diabolical as slavery and making a buck off it for a book. I mean, come on, man.
[Rhoden:] Well, here`s the thing. Slavery was always mostly a state of mind, and there were athletes...
[Beck:] It still is a state of mind.
[Rhoden:] Exactly, exactly. But then there were shackles. Today there are no shackles, and this is what I get into the book.
[Beck:] But who is enslaving? Who is enslaving? It is the athletes that are enslaving themselves. And you know what many of the athletes are enslaving themselves to? The frickin` ghetto, man. It doesn`t matter how much money you make, you still bring the drugs and the corruption and everything else. You have an opportunity to escape.
[Rhoden:] Absolutely.
[Beck:] And they don`t.
[Rhoden:] Oh, no, absolutely. See, and everything you said just talks about the emotional shackling of the mind. Here you are, as a group of athletes, making collectively probably billions of dollars, and you still think that, you know, the white people should still make the money. You hire the white agents, white doctors, white real estate people. All the people around you are white, when you have an opportunity, as you said, to create a whole new model. I`m really agreeing with you, in that we`ve got an opportunity collectively now, as opposed to 1940 when there was a very minute presence, the `50s when there was a
[Beck:] But wait a minute. Wait a minute.
[Rhoden:] And they should be doing something collectively to create a new model and breaking the shackles.
[Beck:] Bill, you again are separating us by race. I am so offended.
[Rhoden:] I`m not doing it.
[Beck:] Yes, you are.
[Rhoden:] I`m not doing it. It`s been done.
[Beck:] You are saying you are absolutely I read your chapter, sir, on Michael Jordan. You are absolutely the guy is colorless. America does not see...
[Rhoden:] What is Glenn, if you woke up...
[Beck:] Michael Jordan is not black; he is not white; he`s just an amazing...
[Rhoden:] Glenn, the man is an African-American. Have you seen Michael Jordan?
[Beck:] It doesn`t matter. Did you listen to Martin Luther King`s speech?
[Rhoden:] He didn`t see anything about being...
[Beck:] I dream of a time when people don`t judge me by the color of my skin but the content of my character.
[Rhoden:] But you did not say "color blind." There`s no such thing as color blind.
[Beck:] There can be! There can be!
[Rhoden:] In what world do you live?
[Beck:] Why do you, sir why do you insist that Michael Jordan you say that he`s a slave. You, sir...
[Rhoden:] I didn`t say that he was a slave.
[Beck:] You, sir, are the plantation owner, because you want to enslave him to the black cause. If he wants to do something on the black cause, that`s great, but he doesn`t have to because he`s black. I don`t have to do anything for whites or conservatives. If I decide to, great.
[Rhoden:] All you`ve got to walk to through the "New York Times" studio, the CNN studio, you don`t have to do anything for white people, because it`s all being done. You see what I`m saying? Michael Jordan has an opportunity.
[Beck:] Unbelievable.
[Rhoden:] He was at the epicenter of power. And, by the way, by the way, Dr. King didn`t say and please don`t insult Dr. King. Dr. King did not say...
[Beck:] I would say the exact same thing back to you, sir. Please.
[Rhoden:] No, you just did, Glenn. Glenn, you just insulted...
[Beck:] Don`t insult Martin Luther King.
[Rhoden:] No, you just insulted Dr. King...
[Beck:] Really?
[Rhoden:] ... by twisting around his words. If you listen to the speech...
[Beck:] Yes, I`ll listen to it again.
[Rhoden:] ... he didn`t say anything about color-blind society. If you woke up tomorrow, Glenn...
[Beck:] Judge me on my character, not the color of my skin.
[Rhoden:] That doesn`t have anything to do about a color-blind society.
[Beck:] OK. Well, you and I disagree, sir. Best of luck to you on your book what is the name of it again "40 Million Dollar Slaves," interesting theory. Thanks for your time.
[Rhoden:] Thank you.
[Beck:] All right. Let`s go "Straight to Hill" with Erica Hill, the anchor of "PRIME NEWS" of Headline News. Erica...
[Erica Hill, Cnn Headline News Anchor:] That`s a mouthful, isn`t it?
[Beck:] It really is. It`s too much. We should leave your name out.
[Hill:] Wrong!
[Beck:] Erica, today I was getting off the radio show, and I come out, and my network radio studios are in Radio City. And I come to the elevator, and there`s these guys who are just big as houses, and they`re wearing these huge I mean, just nothing but bling. They`re rap stars wearing these nothing-but-bling watches, and I collect watches. And I said, "Can I see your watches?" And they`re like, "Yes." And one of the rappers I don`t even know who they were one of the rappers looked at me and said...
[Hill:] "You`re Glenn Beck"?
[Beck:] He said, "I watch you every night." I said, "Shut up. Really?" And he said, "That Erica Hill hates you."
[Hill:] That`s not true.
[Beck:] I said, "What?" And he said, "Yes, you always you`re always cutting her off. She doesn`t like you."
[Hill:] That`s not true. It`s just this little banter thing that we have.
[Beck:] Rappers say it; it is true.
[Hill:] Well, I`m letting that rapper gentleman know right now that I don`t hate Glenn.
[Beck:] Well, look at that. Did that look like the biggest lie ever?
[Hill:] No.
[Beck:] That was the biggest I didn`t believe you.
[Hill:] You know how you can tell?
[Beck:] Say it like you mean it.
[Hill:] But you know how they say you can tell if someone`s lying? If they point at you with their non-dominant hand. But I`m pointing with my right hand, and I`m right-handed. Take that!
[Beck:] No, how you know people are lying is when they look away, and that`s exactly what you did. You said, "I want you to know"...
[Hill:] I didn`t look away. I looked right in the camera.
[Beck:] ... "I didn`t really" that`s what happened.
[Hill:] I really do love Glenn Beck.
[Beck:] See, now you`re lying to me, and now we`re out of time for the news.
[Hill:] How about we do some news tomorrow?
[Beck:] OK.
[Hill:] Same time, same channel?
[Beck:] Look, America, nothing really happened here. That`s just the way we roll on this program. I learned that from the rappers.
[Hill:] Did you get the watch?
[Beck:] I didn`t get the watch.
[Hill:] Did you get a lead?
[Beck:] I didn`t get anything. It`s the story of my life. Erica...
[Hill:] Well, send them my love the next time you see them.
[Beck:] Thanks a lot. You bet.
[Hill:] See you later.
[Beck:] Bye.