Fox News aired an appallingly racist segment on New York City's Chinatown

Blatant racism is apparently what constitutes "gentle fun" for Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who aired an appallingly insensitive segment on New York City's Chinatown on his show Saturday night. In the clip, Fox News' Jesse Watters goes to the Manhattan neighborhood to ostensibly conduct on-the-street interviews about Donald Trump's positions on China, but the final product amounts to little more than mocking the residents with racist stereotypes. "Am I supposed to bow to say hello?" Watters asks two women, while he queries a third about whether they call "Chinese food in China just 'food?'" Watters asks another man if he knows karate — which is historically Japanese.

The segment is also edited to splice in footage from films as "reactions" to the people in the interviews. When Watters asks an elderly woman how she feels about Trump "beating up on China," she either doesn't understand the question or chooses not to answer — a reaction that is punctuated by a film clip of a woman screaming, "Speak! Speak! Why don't you speak?"

While reflecting on the segment, Watters is contemptuous of the residents of Chinatown: "They just sit there and say nothing," he told O'Reilly.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"It's gentle fun," O'Reilly reassured. "I know we're going to get letters. It's inevitable. But it was gentle." You can watch the clip below. Jeva Lange

Update Oct. 6: Watters has since responded to the torrent of criticism with two tweets.