[lit-ideas] More on Bennett and Race

From: "M.A. Camp" <macampesq@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:25:31 -0500
The Rules Of The American Race Game
Frontpagemag.com
^<http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19693>|
10/3/05 | John Zmirak

Excerpt:
The current flap over former Secretary of Education William
Bennett's<http://www.bennettmornings.com/>remarks last week reveals
just what a bizarre set of taboos Americans have
imposed on themselves when it comes to race—and what a political booby trap
leftists have managed to rig around the subject, ready to explode in a burst
of career-destroying shrapnel at the slightest misstep. Yes, it was
insensitive of Mr. Bennett to notice the
fact<http://yglesias.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/29/16450/9195>that black
Americans commit violent crimes in highly disproportionate
numbers. It's worth making a special effort not to incriminate the vast
majority of law-abiding black citizens—many of whom grow up poor in broken
homes, subjected to stronger temptations than those of us who grew up
differently. Given the history of eugenics
<http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm>in
the last century, one can understand a certain touchiness on the
subject.
But the ferocity with which liberals pounced on Bennett—so soon after
accusing President Bush of racism for FEMA's failure to (do black Mayor Ray
Nagin's job for him and) rescue black New Orleanians—betray a profound
political cynicism, and a willingness to seize crassly (and selectively)
upon human tragedy to make cheap rhetorical points.

 To recap the Bennett flap: Mr. Bennett is being condemned for a slip of the
tongue which contravened the rules of polite discourse which govern how
crime is depicted in mainstream media. Bennett was speaking on the radio
about an assertion by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, who claimed in their
ludicrously overpraised book *Freakonomics* that abortion decreases
crime—essentially by imposing capital punishment in advance on babies who
are more likely to grow up as felons. Let's leave aside for a moment how
morally repulsive this idea is—reeking of precisely the same eugenic logic
preached by Margaret Sanger <http://www.spectacle.org/997/richmond.html> ,
founder of Planned Parenthood, who called for "more children from the fit,
fewer from the unfit." Worse than evil, this argument isn't even valid. It
has been comprehensively dismantled <http://www.isteve.com/abortion.htm> by
the clear-thinking and candid Steve Sailer <http://www.isteve.com/> , who
showed that the crime decline attributed by Dubner and Levitt to legal
abortion in fact had far more to do with a decline in the popularity of
crack, and the election of mayors such as Rudolph Giuliani in New York.
Since blacks are disproportionately the victims as well of violent crime,
any improvement in public order will save far more black lives and
livelihoods than white. Of course, because most such tough-on-crime mayors
are Republican, they won't get the credit for this.
--
Cheers,
M.A. Camp, Esq.
[lit-ideas] More on Bennett and Race

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