“You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down”, said William Bennett. The same man that had prominent posts in the administrations of Reagan and Bush Sr., who is currently a syndicated radio talk show host/author of a really preachy book. Audio here. Other story here.
The book Freakonomics, which Bennett mentioned, talks about the aborting of unwanted children decreased the crime rate 20 years later.
But instead of UNWANTED – Bennett said BLACK.
look at my new slip – I was going to go
with a more neutral color – but instead I went with BLACK.”
First off: I was shocked by this comment. Shocked! Shocked! Shocked! Mainly because I haven’t heard any member of the GOP actually be honest about how they feel about black people since Strom Thurmond died.
Shocked because being OVERTLY racist is TOTALLY out of fashion. We’re talking SERIOUS retro faux pas. Ever since the major party conventions started to look like a United Colours of Benneton Ad – racism is out! Gay bashing, poverty dismissing and immigrant blaming – IN!
Hate doesn’t bother us. It’s hating the RIGHT kind of people, that is important.
It angers us because Bennett was implying that ALL black people are criminals. Let’s face it. That’s not true of any group, except the Italians.
Bennett now says that what he said was taken out of context and it was hypothetical. Not possible. He said it.
HOWEVER, there’s still a bit of free speech left. As long as you don’t say it in the context of anything sexual. Or anything in Arabic. Or anything with ‘foul language’. Or anything non-Christian. Or anything MODERATE and INFORMED, for that matter.
I defend his right to say really STUPID, things – AND I defend my RIGHT to make fun of him for it – until you pry it from my cold dead hands.
