(no subject)

[camwyn]

Dear Mr. William J. Bennett:

Get out of my genetic group. You're making us all look like assholes.

If you had followed up your statement that "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," with a statement that 'you could abort every white baby in the country and your crime rate would go down,' or something similar, I might have forgiven you. Granted, that would be going counter to your own belief that the legalization of abortion has nothing to do with the reduction in national crime rates over the past few decades, but it would have indicated that you grasped the situation. But all you went on to say was that "That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, you know, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Singling out the black population of the country as the only suggested way of reducing the American crime rate, however, indicates only that you grasp that black people are more likely to be criminal than white people, and to the best of my knowledge there is slightly more scientific backing for the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster than for that particular thesis.

M'sieu Bennett, if I hear that you didn't really mean 'abort', I'm going to put it in the same category as Pat Robertson not really meaning 'assassinate'. If I hear you protesting that you have lots of black friends or that you're good friends with Colin Powell and so you can't possibly be racist, I'm going to assume you're a moron, because what you say in that situation amounts to 'kill all of them before they're born and crime goes down, but there are one or two good ones, specifically the ones I know'.

I really hope for your own sake that you have a frelling good explanation for this, like brain injury or Oxycontin overdose or something, but right now, you're making anyone who shares your ethnic, racial, or genetic background look bad. Stop it.

And apologize like you mean it, not like you're sorry if you gave any offense. That's weasel words and you know it.

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

If you had followed up your statement that "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," with a statement that 'you could abort every white baby in the country and your crime rate would go down,' or something similar, I might have forgiven you.

Every male baby would have been an interesting variation.

He does come across like an idiot in this particular instance -- not too much different from other times he's been in the news come to think...

[camwyn]

Tell you the truth, I thought of that right after 'every White baby', but being that I'm RL female I had no intention of opening the floor up to 'OMG YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE MAN BASHERS!!!' stuff.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought of it second too, but really, he said something that sounds stupid, and you can keep extending it for a long, long time.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Know what kills me? DJs have been kicked off the air because of stupid sexually-oriented comments/pranks whatever, and yet this guys show isn't immediately cancelled. Way to keep our prioritys straight.

[camwyn]

Well, see, I don't know whether it's because he's part of the Establishment whereas DJs are considered vaguely counterculture, or whether he's rich and they're not, or whether it's that the American mindset considers sex a filthier topic than violence ("Stab a woman's breast in a movie and you get a PG-13 rating; fondle a woman's breast and it's an R"- Warren Beatty, so I hear). Or all three. But regardless, it's stupid and the man's makin' us look bad.

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

WHAT THE SMEGGING ALDHGALSDHGALSDHLASDF THELL THAKLHL WHAT THE???

This is one of those times I really wish I could turn into a dragon.

[camwyn]

Been there, honey. Honestly, the stupidity of public officials- any, every, all and former- is enough to make me think the world in general wants the next chapter of Hellblazer: Hogwarts. It just keeps giving me material to be as cynical about my species as John is.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Speaking as part of the world in general, I really do want the next chapter of Hellblazer:Hogwarts. Thanks. :)

[aberrantangels]

Seconded. Whether it's Fudge or Scrimgeour, I can scarce wait to see John clashing with a Minister for Magic.

Well..

[argonautilus.livejournal.com]

Well...to be fair to public officials the world over (and not in this case, he is a smeg head), if someone were to record everything I ever said I imagine I wouldn't always look the best either. I guess its a perspective thing.

[nakedtiny.livejournal.com]

What I love is how the right-wingers are seeking to defend the guy. Some of them, at least. Because, really, his statement isn't a partisan statement, it's a racist statement, and I am not going to accuse the entire Republican Party of racism. Some of them despise that sentiment as much as I do. I digress.

My point, here, is how they've defended him. 1) 'Oh, he said that aborting all black babies is morally reprehensible. He wasn't REALLY suggesting it.' 2) 'Well, it's true. A disproportionate amount of crime is committed by black people.' These are the two statements I've had tossed my way the most.

Firstly: That's missing the point entirely. The point isn't that he thinks aborting all black babies would reduce crime, it's that he therefore believes that blacks are inherently more likely to commit crime than whites. We get that he was making an absurdist argument about abortion at the time. It's that while he was making this absurdist argument about abortion, he was expressing racist views. That's why were angry.

Secondly: More blacks than whites commit crime? BZZT. More whites than blacks commit crime, actually. And it depends on the crimes, doesn't it. Violent crime, drug crime, so-called victimless crime? Which crime are we talking about? Now, of course, there are more whites in America than blacks, and the percentages of crime per capita reflect that a young black man is more likely than a young white man to commit a crime.

Those numbers narrow up considerably if you draw comparisons based not on race but on income. Poor people commit more crime than wealthy or middle-income people. A disproportionate number of blacks are in that low income bracket, and therefore more likely to commit crime.

Blacks are also more likely to be convicted of crime, more likely to be sent to trial, more likely to be sentenced to prison, more likely to be sentences to death, more likely to be executed.

The issue of crime in america isn't one of the skin-color of the criminal, it's one of the skin-color of those in power. Crime has its root in societal pressures, and societal pressures are enforced and created by the ruling class. The ruling class are rich white men. You compete on their terms, or they will make certain that you lose.

They have no bigger fear than an empowered black caucus. No bigger fear than an empowered female caucus. Because what they fear more than anything -- what terrifies them -- is not the idea of blacks or women or the poor or hispanics or whatever minority or underpriveliged group you can think of becoming equal; it's the idea that becoming equal means that what they have so long done to others may, on occasion, be done onto them.

They repress for fear of being repressed. And they will use every inch of ground they give to whatever rights movement is fighting to take another inch back somewhere else. 'Okay, you're equal now, I can get back to repressing you again.'

Bill Bennet probably doesn't even know he's a racist. He just thinks he's successful. And he'll stay on top by being the best at what everyone else is doing, and that's fucking everyone below him over.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the culture du jour here in America.

Sorry for getting all ranty.

[quintus.livejournal.com]

We get the same stupidity over here. It reminds me of the "Wood floats, witches float, therefore witches are made of wood" thing from Python.

I thought social eugenics went out of fashion after Nuremburg anyway...