One day after Bill O’Reilly revealed he thinks President Barack Obama has a “grievance against whites,” he “just asked” if the reason General Colin Powell endorsed Obama is because they both benefited from affirmative action. Guest and Fox News contributor Arthel Neville smacked down O’Reilly but good.

O’Reilly: General Powell has been, in his books, quite candid about him using affirmative action to succeed, alright, and Barack Obama did use affirmative action to, you know, be educated and something like that. Do you think that there is any racial business here? Neville: No. O’Reilly: And I’m not saying that pejoratively. I’m not saying that in a negative… But a connection – the general and the president came up the same way.

Right, he doesn’t mean it in a negative way, he’s just wondering if the guy who has a racial grievance was endorsed by another black guy merely because they’re both black and both benefitted from affirmative action. Incidentally, O’Reilly believes affirmative action gives minorities an unfair advantage over whites.

Neville was great at smacking down O’Reilly. She said,

Neville: Does that mean that if Mike Huckabee supports you, is it racism? Absolutely not… I understand what you’re trying to say there, Bill, but I think it’s disrespectful. I think it’s disrespectful to General Powell, it’s disrespectful to the president… You can’t take such a pedigree and try to dilute it to pigmentation. O’Reilly: You don’t think shared experience enters into General Powell’s endorsement? Neville: You’re telling me that if President Obama had not done a good job, that Colin Powell, General Powell would have supported President Obama regardless? Absolutely not. O’Reilly: No, I’m saying that he might be cutting him a little more slack… It’s just a provocative question which is what I do here.

He looked chastened.