Posted on 10/12/2005 2:39:14 PM PDT by Olydawg
Republicans have a bad rep when it comes to racism — from Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott’s endorsement of racist former Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., to President George W. Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina. Now conservative commentator William Bennett is adding fuel to the fire with his comments that aborting black babies will make the crime rate go down.
Racism continues to be a divisive topic in America — one Republicans would like to ignore.
Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary and national drug policy director under the Reagan administration, said on his nationally syndicated morning radio show Sept. 28, “If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
Bennett’s insensitive comments came at a time when America was healing from Hurricane Katrina and the slow government response to victims in New Orleans, whose population is 70 percent black.
According to an Oct. 1 Washington Post article, Bennett said crime and race have been on the minds of Americans in light of the situation in New Orleans. Bennett argued that his comments were not noteworthy because he made them on public radio.
But the fact that Bennett was a former secretary of education and national drug policy director is a testament to how insidious his comments were. The fact that a man who equates black people with crime worked under an administration that supported the war on drugs and limited funding to inner-city schools is ridiculous.
Republicans who make insensitive remarks are not a new phenomenon. According to a 2002 Christian Science Monitor article, Sen. Lott said he supported Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1948 racist campaign. Lott, who appeared in the 1990s before the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white-supremacist group, told its members they stand for the right philosophy. The media lambasted Lott for his comments and hurt his reputation.
Bennett, who refused to apologize, said his comments were simply a hypothetical argument.
“I will not bow my head to any of these people,” Bennett said in a Sept. 30 CNN interview. He also said America has real issues with race and needs to discuss them candidly.
Bennett is right, but the main issue is one that he is furthering. America continues to sweep racism under the rug, unless it threatens the lives of white Americans, such as the Los Angeles riots and Hurricane Katrina.
Bennett pointed a finger at the media for branding him a racist after its barrage of criticisms toward him. The fact of the matter is, while Bennett may claim he is not a bigot, but he is guilty of one thing — ignorance. His implication that crime is mainly a black problem is stereotypical, and even to consider the thought of genocide is despicable, especially coming from a man of his stature.
The media characterizes crime as mainly a black problem. Blacks appear disproportionately on the evening news as criminals.
According to an Oct. 3 USAToday.com article, in 2003 more than twice as many whites as blacks — 6.7 million to 2.6 million — committed crimes. Whites made up 71 percent of all arrests that year.
Rapper Kanye West noted the media vilified blacks during Hurricane Katrina as looters, while they portrayed white families as victims. Networks cut West’s comment that Bush does not care about black people for West Coast viewers during what was a live broadcast of the Hurricane Katrina Benefit concert, but Bennett’s comments broadcast freely over the airwaves.
Bush has remained virtually silent about Bennett’s comment, except for a brief statement issued by the White House deeming it inappropriate. This is proof Bush does not care what black America thinks.
This should serve as a wake-up call for Republicans to address their political platforms and crack down on conservatives for blatantly spreading racist agendas. Some may disagree with the way Bush responded to Hurricane Katrina and its racial implications, but one thing is for sure — Bennett does not care about black people.
How come the liberal media never covers the hatred by blacks in the Dem party for Jews? Never, ever, never.
"According to a 2002 Christian Science Monitor article, Sen. Lott said he supported Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1948 racist campaign."
Strange how they forgot to mention that Thurmond was a Dem back then.
Strange how they took Bennett's comments as far out of context as possible, leaving out the "it's morally reprehensible" part.
"According to an Oct. 3 USAToday.com article, in 2003 more than twice as many whites as blacks — 6.7 million to 2.6 million — committed crimes"
Then why isn't it 10 times as many since whites make up 10 times the population as blacks?
Man, this article is a crap-fest on wheels.
Strange how they make no mention of "Sheets" Byrd.
Interesting that Byrd is not mentioned...
Interesting that Byrd is not mentioned...
"Bush has remained virtually silent about Bennett’s comment, except for a brief statement issued by the White House deeming it inappropriate. This is proof Bush does not care what black America thinks."
Really? To me it was proof of how far Bush will bend over to appease the PC crowd.
Is the damn "Black Caucus" considered "racist???
Yes, it does, so when is Jesse Jackson going to stop being a racist?
The only reprehensible stereotyping going on here is the one that paints Republicans as racist.
Meanwhile pro-Democrat cartoonists draw ugly and blatantly racist pictures of Condoleeza Rice, and it doesn't draw a whisper of criticism from the Dems - but that doesn't indicate any kind of problem in their party.
Y'all really should go to the site and post FEEDBACK to her....it's at the bottom of the article.
"Bush has remained virtually silent about Bennett’s comment, except for a brief statement issued by the White House deeming it inappropriate. This is proof Bush does not care what black America thinks."
There it is, folks. Mary has proof. Mary's also a moron.
Really. It's almost as though he's deliberately out to make conservatives look bad by quietly corroborating the liberalist worldview.
Of course, the phrase "compassionate conservative" already accomplishes quite a bit in that department.
And here's what another moron left in feedback section for her column:
While I don't fundamentally support Bennett's comments,it is important to take a closer look at the sociology implicit in his view. The link between criminality and black babies suggests that blacks are born into a social system so terribly flawed that it's production of criminals outweighs its production of good citizens. If Bennett is echoing the feelings of the majority of whites, then blacks should be alarmed to effect an immediate mobilization of resources and efforts to defend black women and black babies while they simultaneously seek to correct this problem.
But there are about 8 times as many whites as blacks.
I just posted a reply to her article. I wasn't profane, obscene, or rude - although I was direct. Nothing in my posting there could be construed in any way to be to be threatening, racist, or anything other than a response to the article. I'll bet 100-to-1 odds that it isn't allowed to be seen.
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