I find nothing wrong with Bill Bennet's comments, but lots wrong with all the righteous indignation that it has triggered. Here is a fact: compose about 12% of the US population. But the commit much more than 12% of the "street" crimes. Even if you blame this FACT on some current white conspiracy, or past white injustices, you cannot change the FACT. Thus in Bennet's phylisophical excersize, he used a FACT. And he used that FACT to illustrate the absurdity of "the ends justifying the means." Only an idiot would think that Bennet advocated aborting all black babies. And only an ignoramous would deny that blacks indeed are committing a disproportionate share of street crimes. I would really like for more people in my nation to GROW UP, and spend more time being righteously indignant about FACTS, rather than about somebody publicizing a FACT.
It was painful to listen to what he said though. It was like watching someong walk face-first into a steel I-beam. I know what the point was that he trying to make, but he did a horrible job making it and should have known better that in this PC, hypersensitized world we live that he shouldn't even have attempted going there.
I feel bad for him though, because I think he's a good man.
It is a hypersensitive world, but I think comments like Bennett's, Barbara Bush's and Trent Lott's betray their ambivalence toward blacks and the poor.
Just to illustrate the silly, PC-induced clumsyness of discussing race between whites and blacks, I stopped by a friends house recently, who happens to be black and he was watching the season premier of C.S.I. I came in at the middle of the episode, so he was explaining to me what was going on. He made a reference to one of two characters in particular scene and I said "you mean the guy on left?" and my friend says "yeah, the black guy". Now I don't know if I made a concious effort to not refer to the character as "the black guy" or not, or maybe I did so unconciously. Who knows. All I know is that a lot of white folks are so paranoid that they're going to say something that will be taken as racially offensive by black folks that they make complete fools out of themselves in the process.
Here's a black chick who's reached the same conclusion I have:
"Why do black Americans, people who live in the greatest country in the world where they have the kind of freedom that blacks in other countries can only fantasize about, believe they’re the most put-upon and oppressed race in the history of the world? Get in line! Many cultures have done much worse to all kind of people, including people of their own race."
I disagree with her anti-abortion view (I think that poor people should get *more* abortions, and the our tax dollars should pay them $1,000 cash for every one!).
Let me revise my abortion policy: I don't want to pay people for abortions. That would encourage people to get pregnant so that they coulc get another $1,000. Instead I advocate this:
1. Tax dollars pay for abortions. 2. Tax dollars pay people $5,000 cash to to each man to get a vasectomy, provided that the man already has at least one child.
Check out this excerpt from my new favorite chick:
In the aggregate, blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes relative to their numbers in the general population. It follows, statistically speaking, that the fewer blacks there are, the fewer crimes will be committed. This is not a racist statement, people. It is a statistical reality. Blame black criminal thugs for preying on their own people, not Bill Bennett for pointing it out.
The problem with the black subculture in general — not each and every individual black person — is that facts have little meaning. Emotions and hair-trigger reactions to anything racial are the norm. It sets a bad precedent for our children. They must learn to use their minds, to reason and to think critically about these issues, not throw tantrums because somebody said something they didn’t like.
"Because males commit more violent crime than females, it is also statistically true that aborting all male children, regardless of race, would reduce violent crime….To do so would be monstrous. But saying so doesn’t mean that I hate men. It means that I am mathematically literate."
I am in heaven with this blog featuring black people who use facts and logic, and no excuses.
“Young black men, ages 15 to 24, while only 1 percent of the population, commit up to 20 percent of all violent crime.” The data found by the Department of Justice agree well with this statement in regards to homicide (link #1 below). At least half of the violent crime–including murder, rape, and robbery–can be assigned to blacks (link #2 below)."
Who commits the other 80% of violent crime? Is there a statistical breakdown that shows which ethnic groups kill more people?
I'd bet that white folks commit a lot of violent crime, and I would be that it is proportional to the number of white people in the population.
I'd bet that poor people commit a lot of crime (violent and otherwise) and if you could graph the income of convicted criminals you would find that most of them were poor or near poverty.
Color is not a determinant of criminal behavior. Class is much more indicative. Blacks have a disproportionate amount of poverty.
In denying that Bill Bennett's comments were racist, we make more assumptions about race with the statistics that are used. All of this ignores the fact that class is more the factor than race.
Bill Bennet verbalized FACTS. Facts cannot be racist. Here are some FACTS:
1. Men compse 50% of the US population. Men commit well more than 50% of what we are calling "crime" here (muggings, murders, burgleries, drug sales, assaults, rapes, etc.). Aborting all male fetuses would reduce the crime rate.
2. Asian and Indian immigrants in American commit far less crimes than their fraction of the population. Aborting all Asian and Indian fetuses would *INCREASE* the crime rate.
3. White people in America and Europe commit more per capita crime than do Japanese in Japan. Assuming that honkies would behave the same way if they lived in Japan, an influx of honkies into Japan would increase the crime rate there.
None of the above facts are "racist" or "sexist". They are FACTS. They have no capacity to be racist or sexist.
Bill Bennett thinks that racism and abortions are both wrong. A caller to his show advocated abortions because the practice produced a favorable outcome, which is a lowered crime rate. Bennett knows that whereas the US population is about equally divided on the question of abortion's morality, he knows that Americans are about 100% opposed to racism. So he merely showed that race-ifying the act -- aborting all black fetuses -- would increase the favorable outcome (reduced crime), and that this would not make the act any more righteous. And just as the caller would not be persuaded to advocate racism just because it would produce less crime, he should not expect convincing an anti-abortion advocate to change his views simply because abortion may produce a positive outcome.
Bennet not only showed that he understand phylosophy and reason, most Americans do not. Do you, Nadir?
And do you realize that the anti-abortion people are advocating a policy that would result in *MORE* black people, since black people get three times the abortions that white people do, per capita? These are the same whites that you assume are "racist", including George Bush.
And yes, Nadir, in addition to lowering crime by killing all men and all blacks, you could reduce crime by killing all poor people. These are facts. We as a people in the US 100% oppose these methods of reducing crime. Some people, like Bill Bennet, also opposes using abortion as a method of reducing crime. When the caller tried to persuade him to support abortion because it reduces crime... Do I really need to explain to you, Nadir, the basics of rhetoric and philosophy?
15 comments:
I find nothing wrong with Bill Bennet's comments, but lots wrong with all the righteous indignation that it has triggered. Here is a fact: compose about 12% of the US population. But the commit much more than 12% of the "street" crimes. Even if you blame this FACT on some current white conspiracy, or past white injustices, you cannot change the FACT. Thus in Bennet's phylisophical excersize, he used a FACT. And he used that FACT to illustrate the absurdity of "the ends justifying the means." Only an idiot would think that Bennet advocated aborting all black babies. And only an ignoramous would deny that blacks indeed are committing a disproportionate share of street crimes. I would really like for more people in my nation to GROW UP, and spend more time being righteously indignant about FACTS, rather than about somebody publicizing a FACT.
Paul says: "Thus in Bennet's phylisophical excersize, he used a FACT."
It's a fact that you can't spell, son. I'm righteously indignant about that.
It was painful to listen to what he said though. It was like watching someong walk face-first into a steel I-beam. I know what the point was that he trying to make, but he did a horrible job making it and should have known better that in this PC, hypersensitized world we live that he shouldn't even have attempted going there.
I feel bad for him though, because I think he's a good man.
It is a hypersensitive world, but I think comments like Bennett's, Barbara Bush's and Trent Lott's betray their ambivalence toward blacks and the poor.
They just don't think before they speak.
Just to illustrate the silly, PC-induced clumsyness of discussing race between whites and blacks, I stopped by a friends house recently, who happens to be black and he was watching the season premier of C.S.I. I came in at the middle of the episode, so he was explaining to me what was going on. He made a reference to one of two characters in particular scene and I said "you mean the guy on left?" and my friend says "yeah, the black guy". Now I don't know if I made a concious effort to not refer to the character as "the black guy" or not, or maybe I did so unconciously. Who knows. All I know is that a lot of white folks are so paranoid that they're going to say something that will be taken as racially offensive by black folks that they make complete fools out of themselves in the process.
Nadir hipped me to one of my favorite new news source, which had the good sense to post this excellent defense of Bill Bennett's comment:
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/10/03/billbennett/
Here's a black chick who's reached the same conclusion I have:
"Why do black Americans, people who live in the greatest country in the world where they have the kind of freedom that blacks in other countries can only fantasize about, believe they’re the most put-upon and oppressed race in the history of the world? Get in line! Many cultures have done much worse to all kind of people, including people of their own race."
I disagree with her anti-abortion view (I think that poor people should get *more* abortions, and the our tax dollars should pay them $1,000 cash for every one!).
Let me revise my abortion policy: I don't want to pay people for abortions. That would encourage people to get pregnant so that they coulc get another $1,000. Instead I advocate this:
1. Tax dollars pay for abortions.
2. Tax dollars pay people $5,000 cash to to each man to get a vasectomy, provided that the man already has at least one child.
Paul, you're a real wack-job sometimes.
Check out this excerpt from my new favorite chick:
In the aggregate, blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes relative to their numbers in the general population. It follows, statistically speaking, that the fewer blacks there are, the fewer crimes will be committed. This is not a racist statement, people. It is a statistical reality. Blame black criminal thugs for preying on their own people, not Bill Bennett for pointing it out.
The problem with the black subculture in general — not each and every individual black person — is that facts have little meaning. Emotions and hair-trigger reactions to anything racial are the norm. It sets a bad precedent for our children. They must learn to use their minds, to reason and to think critically about these issues, not throw tantrums because somebody said something they didn’t like.
God, I do love facts and logic married together:
"Because males commit more violent crime than females, it is also statistically true that aborting all male children, regardless of race, would reduce violent crime….To do so would be monstrous. But saying so doesn’t mean that I hate men. It means that I am mathematically literate."
I am in heaven with this blog featuring black people who use facts and logic, and no excuses.
“Young black men, ages 15 to 24, while only 1 percent of the population, commit up to 20 percent of all violent crime.” The data found by the Department of Justice agree well with this statement in regards to homicide (link #1 below). At least half of the violent crime–including murder, rape, and robbery–can be assigned to blacks (link #2 below)."
Who commits the other 80% of violent crime? Is there a statistical breakdown that shows which ethnic groups kill more people?
I'd bet that white folks commit a lot of violent crime, and I would be that it is proportional to the number of white people in the population.
I'd bet that poor people commit a lot of crime (violent and otherwise) and if you could graph the income of convicted criminals you would find that most of them were poor or near poverty.
Color is not a determinant of criminal behavior. Class is much more indicative. Blacks have a disproportionate amount of poverty.
In denying that Bill Bennett's comments were racist, we make more assumptions about race with the statistics that are used. All of this ignores the fact that class is more the factor than race.
Bill Bennet verbalized FACTS. Facts cannot be racist. Here are some FACTS:
1. Men compse 50% of the US population. Men commit well more than 50% of what we are calling "crime" here (muggings, murders, burgleries, drug sales, assaults, rapes, etc.). Aborting all male fetuses would reduce the crime rate.
2. Asian and Indian immigrants in American commit far less crimes than their fraction of the population. Aborting all Asian and Indian fetuses would *INCREASE* the crime rate.
3. White people in America and Europe commit more per capita crime than do Japanese in Japan. Assuming that honkies would behave the same way if they lived in Japan, an influx of honkies into Japan would increase the crime rate there.
None of the above facts are "racist" or "sexist". They are FACTS. They have no capacity to be racist or sexist.
Bill Bennett thinks that racism and abortions are both wrong. A caller to his show advocated abortions because the practice produced a favorable outcome, which is a lowered crime rate. Bennett knows that whereas the US population is about equally divided on the question of abortion's morality, he knows that Americans are about 100% opposed to racism. So he merely showed that race-ifying the act -- aborting all black fetuses -- would increase the favorable outcome (reduced crime), and that this would not make the act any more righteous. And just as the caller would not be persuaded to advocate racism just because it would produce less crime, he should not expect convincing an anti-abortion advocate to change his views simply because abortion may produce a positive outcome.
Bennet not only showed that he understand phylosophy and reason, most Americans do not. Do you, Nadir?
And do you realize that the anti-abortion people are advocating a policy that would result in *MORE* black people, since black people get three times the abortions that white people do, per capita? These are the same whites that you assume are "racist", including George Bush.
And yes, Nadir, in addition to lowering crime by killing all men and all blacks, you could reduce crime by killing all poor people. These are facts. We as a people in the US 100% oppose these methods of reducing crime. Some people, like Bill Bennet, also opposes using abortion as a method of reducing crime. When the caller tried to persuade him to support abortion because it reduces crime... Do I really need to explain to you, Nadir, the basics of rhetoric and philosophy?
Here's Star Parker, a former leftist and "welfare mom" on this topic:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46767
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