Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) has slammed Fox News' Bill O'Reilly for using what she termed racist code words. Ironically, her attack was in response to O'Reilly saying "race hustlers" such as Lee don't want to have a conversation and that they "get voted into office by portraying their constituents as victims."

On his Thursday evening program, Bill O'Reilly interviewed Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) about Ms Lee taking a line in a speech Ryan made about poverty, the "tailspin of culture in our inner cities" and calling it a "thinly-veiled racial attack."

When it seemed that Ryan was being too passive in his answers, O'Reilly asserted, “They don’t want a conversation. They don’t want to solve the problem. These race hustlers make a big living, and they get voted into office by portraying their constituents as victims" (see video above).

As if she were trying to prove O'Reilly's point, Rep. Lee's office issued this response:

Unfortunately we’ve come to expect language like “welfare queens,” “food stamp president,” and now “race hustlers” from the right wing and Mr. O’Reilly. It is disgusting and divisive and should never be accepted in our national discourse.

For us to achieve the American dream for all, we must engage in this conversation that has been sparked about race and poverty, even if it is difficult for some. Racial discrimination, poverty, and income inequality remain issues that must be debated and addressed, and these kinds of "code words" only get in the way of solving the real problems.