Comments on: What to Do About the Racist Remarks of William Bennett?

By: Dr. Laniac

Dr. Laniac — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 19:52:00 +0000

It's repugnant because he makes the link between blacks and crime, as if it's just a given.

As Media Matters points out, the example he was basing that on, from the book Freakonomics, had no racial aspect to it at all. That was supplied by the mind of Bill Bennett.

And given the rash of race-baiting specifically targetted at African American survivors of hurricane Katrina by other right-wing talkers, it smells even worse than it already did. Was he intentionally feeding that trend? Was it just his innate sense that black people=criminals?

Either way: repugnant.

By: Frederick Clarkson

Frederick Clarkson — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 18:29:00 +0000

Well, Ken. We do not agree. Bennett makes the clear, and repeated assertion that if you aborted black babies the crime rate would go down. I don’t think context helpd Bennett on this one. His repugnant view comes across loud and clear. But let’s let the chips fall where they may. Media Matters for America has the whole transcript and the video.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006

By: Ken

Ken — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 15:27:00 +0000

If you look at the context of his remarks, what happened was that a guy said that if we hadn’t aborted anyone over the past 30 years, we probably wouldn’t have any problems with a social security deficit. Bill Bennett then said that that was like saying if you aborted all black babies the crime rate would go down - true, but a patently absurd scenario. Yes, it is true - as Matt Yglesias noted, if we aborted all non-white, all male, all non-affluent, and all Southern babies, the crime rate would also go down - but nobody is advocating that.

I can’t stand Bill Bennett for a multitude of reasons - but this is much ado about nothing.