Bill Bennett- *Updated*
"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."
He hasn't backed off his comments after recieving a wave of condemnation from Democrats, African Americans, and the White House. He defends his words by saying:
""I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means, I'm not racist, and I'll put my record up against theirs [his critics]...I've been a champion of the real civil rights issue of our times -- equal educational opportunities for kids. We've got to have candor and talk about these things while we reject wild hypotheses. I don't think people have the right to be angry, if they look at the whole thing. But if they get a selective part of my comment, I can see why they would be angry. If somebody thought I was advocating that, they ought to be angry. I would be angry. But that's not what I advocate. I don't think I do [owe an apology]. I think people who misrepresented my view owe me an apology.""
What Mr. Bennet just doesn't get is that his assertion fundamentally assigns blame for crime problems on the number of black people that inhabit this country. It's the equating black with wrong, black with illegal, black with jail, black with danger, black with crime that is so reprehensible and ignorant. A lot of people have belief structures that support that kind of reasoning, which is why race still manages to be a caustic issue for our country. And it's why we have to work hard in putting down this kind of thinking.
Comments like this make me mad as hell. I sincerely hope that the President and other Republicans strongly condemn Mr. Bennet and go out of their way to highlight his ignorance and prejudice. Just incase you didn't know, Bennet served as Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1981-1985 and secretary of education from 1985-1988. From 1989-1990, he served as "drug czar" in the administration of the elder Bush. He is also the author of "The Book of Virtues" and numerous other books about education, morality, and parenting.
* FURTHER REFLECTION *
I was all set to write about how in the book "Freakonomics" of which I have a copy and read (most of), the author draws a strict correlation with the drop in overall national crime rate with the increased rate of abortions over the last twenty years. Because of this I was thinking that Bill Bennett took up that mantle of reasoning. But looking back at his statements he disavows the "Freakonomics" book and goes right into narrowing a broad discussion about unwanted children, dysfunctional family systems, and how abortions could have possibly prevent those environments, and centered the discussion like a laser beam on his view that black people are inherently criminal.
He is saying that blacks are fundamentally criminals and if there were no black babies and therefore no black people then you would reduce the crime rate. What context could possibly excuse that kind of reasoning or statement. I know he isn’t arguing for the aborting of black babies, but he is equating blackness with criminality. He is saying it's a foregone conclusion that blacks cause high crime, and if there weren’t any more black children then crime would go down.
There is no difference between Levi, the kids at church, or play-group when it comes to criminality. They are all equally open to being good citizens or good criminals. Bill Bennett’s statements argue that there is a difference between the ones that are black, and the ones that are white. I included his effort to put his quote in context in an attempt to be fair to him. In his opportunity to clarify what he was trying say he showed a complete lack of sensitivity and was more concerned about deflecting blame for his words on other people's misinterpretations.
He specifically called out black people and black babies as root causes of crime, you can't get any more prejudice than that. Bill Bennett's own words convict him I definitely do not believe he is a racist just because he is a conservative. I dont' know why he is a racist, but he obviously has a complete lack of sensitivity or understanding of how his words would offend or further racist thoughts or ideas in this country.
If there is to be a discussion about crime and African Americans then you talk about the forces that lead people to commit crime (poverty). Those factors and forces can be debated and they are debated by the black community too. Black on black violence, poverty, drugs, media influences, poor education, generational family dysfunction as aspects of the etymology of crime. There are ways to talk about that, and it is being talked about in all kinds of communities. Bill's statements forego any sense of understanding the complexity of human beings, crime, or the forces that shape people. They simply go into racial stereotyping and profiling.
One last attempt for Bennett to set the record straight. Here is the the final question of n interview between him and Sean Hannity on the Hannity and Colmes:
HANNITY: Explain. I want you to explain, though, for people that see that one quote, that read that one quote, what do you say to them?
BENNETT: What I say to them, Sean, is if they were given the impression that I, you know, am in favor of such a horrible idea as, you know, my critics are suggesting, they need to look at the whole quote. I don't believe that. And I'm sorry that people have misrepresented my views so much that that has given folks that impression. You're right about a person's life. I've got a life, you know, take me in the totality of my actions and I'll tell you, I will stand with my record.
One must be very careful one gets into these arguments and we try to do it. But, you know, we try on this show to do serious and controversial issues. And it's a big country and it's a free country. We don't put liberals down. We don't put people down with whom we disagree. We talk about serious things in a serious way. And if you're not allowed to talk about these subjects, then it's not the country it's supposed to be.
You've got to be able to condemn these horrible ideas as I did.
I am not saying you are for aborting black babies, but you are equating crime with race and that's indefensible.
5 comments:
Okay, I'm going to play devil's Advocate here simply because it's too easy to jump down this idiot's throat.
I don't think Bennett is being villified for being a racist, I think he's being villified for being inexcusably un-PC. That being said, I believe that what he said was as true as your own response to it. Whether or not he should have said it or even chosen the words he chose is definitely in the negative. He's an idiot and, as you said, everyone should be condemning his comments. But, not for their truth. For their insensitivity.
See, his comments are too broad. Almost pathetically so, which is probably the reason why he doesn't think he should apologize: he's thinking logically, coldly, and factually and everyone around him is responding emotionally.
Here's the bottom line: If he had said, "...you could abort every white baby in this country and your crime rate would go down", he would be 100% correct. Of course there's a correlation between abortion and the crime rate and it's not entirely due to economic status (though that does play a major role), but simply because you're lowering the odds. That may sound overly simplified, but the fact is: less people, less potential criminals.
Where Bennett misstepped is when he chose African-Americans as his example. Does he not know our country's history?!? Equating crime with blacks was like thumping a bruise on the Nation's arm. It's a blight we're trying to forget and pathetically attempting to reconcile. While the universality of his statements cannot be denied, the fact that he spoke them at all is, to use his own words, morally reprehensible. One just doesn't toss out cold facts dealing with infanticide, much less targeting a historically punished quotient of our society. His "hypothetical proposition" is something that we know portions of our society would actually condone. Of course our response is going to be angry and indignant. How could it not be? His statements make us draw the natural conclusion that he is equating being black with being a criminal (and he may have well been, but my whole post here is judging him purely from his comments and not by his intentions which I couldn't possibly have knowledge of). I know I'm giving Bennett a tremendous amount of leeway and an absurdedly high benefit of the doubt, but I believe that it's important for us to look at things (especially anything involving race in this country) from as many perspectives as possible. I'm not making a case for this jackass, just trying to give a different take on it.
Jonathan:
Great comment and truth be told Bennett probably does deserve a little benefit of the doubt. Perhaps I should back off my assertion (specific or implied) that he IS a RACIST. But I do think he has a prejudicial view of African Americans and crime.
This controversy seems to hinge on two separate readings of his quote. One reading is that he is advocating the aborting of black babies as a means to reduce crime. I strongly believe that he is NOT saying that, and in fact if you read all of the quote he clearly states how morally reprehensible that would be, and I believe that he is against anything remotely resembling that.
The other reading, and the one that bothers me so much, is what I wrote about in my blog. To me it shows Bennett's prejudice towards associating African Americans with crime. He knows better than that! Even in his interview with Sean Hannity he attributes poverty as the number one cause of crime, and not blacks. So why would he say such a thing? Or why wouldn't he say that aborting all of the babies of any ethnic group white, black, hispanic, or asian would reduce crime? That seems like an easy fix to put his quote back into his original context. But he didn't do that? He stood by his assertion and clung to his comments specifically about black people.
Jonathan, perhaps you are right in that he was just viewing it from a cold statistical vantage point. If he was, then that kind of goes against what his defenders have been saying about how kind, gentle, smart, and compassionate he is. However, I think that might be part of it, but I also think his view came out of a "Crash" like understanding of race (I haven't seen the movie, but my understanding is that it exposes everyday prejudices that we might think, but not say).
You are so right that when it comes to race we do have to look at things from as many perspectives as possible. That deliberate effort is what keeps us from becoming overwhelmed by our prejudices against people of different cultural, socioeconomic, and even spiritual backgrounds. Political correctness might be a hinderance in speaking candidly sometimes, but it also causes people to stop and think about their words before they say them. You can be definitive and principled and still talk about issues in a way that takes into account the sensibilities or understanding of the people who you are addressing.
If Bennett was just a partisan pundit, then it would be a minor story and would just go away. Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, and Randi Rhodes have all said things that equal or surpass what Bennett said. Yet, Bennett is (was) a person who actually decided policy and was placed in positions of power and influence greater than any pundit. There is an expectation that people of that caliber have better sensibilities than that, and it is clear the Bennett doesn't or he would understand, especially in light of what Katrina whipped up, that his comments are dripping with racial profiling and prejudice.
Thanks for your take, I appreciate it.
Of course it's wrong. Both morally and practically. But if we are honest with ourselves, all of us at one time or another have bought into the idea that black/dark is somehow evil or bad.
Examples:
The outcast of the family is known as the black sheep.
It's ok to tell a little white lie.
I mean just look at the defintion of black in the Webster's dictionary.....
Main Entry: 1black
Pronunciation: 'blak
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English blak, from Old English blæc; akin to Old High German blah black, and probably to Latin flagrare to burn, Greek phlegein
1 a : of the color black b (1) : very dark in color his face was black with rage (2) : having a very deep or low register a bass with a black voice (3) : HEAVY, SERIOUS the play was a black intrigue
2 a : having dark skin, hair, and eyes : SWARTHY the black Irish b (1) often capitalized : of or relating to any of various population groups having
dark pigmentation of the skin black Americans
(2) : of or relating to the Afro-American people or their culture black literature , a black college, black pride, black studies (3) : typical or representative of the most readily attended parts of black culture, tried to play blacker jazz
3 : dressed in black
4 : DIRTY, SOILED , hands black with grime
5 a : characterized by the absence of light, a black night, b : reflecting or transmitting little or no light, black water, c : served without milk or cream , black coffee
6 a : thoroughly sinister or evil : WICKED, a black deed, b : indicative of condemnation or discredit , got a black mark for being late
7 : connected with or invoking the supernatural and especially the devil, black magic
8 a : very sad, gloomy, or calamitous, black despair, b : marked by the occurrence of disaster, black Friday
9 : characterized by hostility or angry discontent : SULLEN, black resentment filled his heart
10 chiefly British : subject to boycott by trade-union members as employing or favoring nonunion workers or as operating under conditions considered unfair by the trade union
11 a of propaganda : conducted so as to appear to originate within an enemy country and designed to weaken enemy morale b : characterized by or connected with the use of black propaganda black radio
12 : characterized by grim, distorted, or grotesque satire, black humor
13 : of or relating to covert intelligence operations black government programs
- black·ish /'bla-kish/ adjective
- black·ly adverb
- black·ness noun
As you can see Bennett's train of thought is not unique. All of us at some level have been ingrained with that idea. It is racist and completely wrong, but kids are still being taught it today. Before we condem Bennett, we need to admit the racist in all of us even if it is at a subconscious level. At minimun, all of us are gulity of taking the defintion of black at face value and have neglected to delve beneath the surface.
CJE
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
I think you've missed Bennett's point entirely. First, there is a statistical correlation at work here, not a correlation of nature. Blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime in this country. They're also, as a result, disproportionately victims of crime. That doesn't mean that blacks are inherently criminals, just that proportionately more blacks right now commit crimes than do Hispanics or whites, for whatever reason, and there are plenty of social problems rooted in the history of slavery and Jim Crow to explain that.
Second, this example has force precisely because it so aptly epitomizes the great totalitarian ideologies of the last century, which advocated ethnic cleansing for the greater good.
Third, Bennett raised this as a deliberately outrageous example to disprove the notion that ends justify means. If it had been in any way acceptable, it wouldn't have worked as an example.
All that should keep us from accusing Bennett of a thought crime. There's insufficient evidence to convict, to put it mildly.
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