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Thread ID: 20458 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-09-30
2005-09-30 12:35 | User Profile
Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime
Friday, September 30, 2005; Posted: 3:58 a.m. EDT (07:58 GMT)
Bennett is being harshly criticized, but he says he is standing by his comments.
Manage Alerts | What Is This? WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional Democrats blasted former Education Secretary William Bennett on Thursday for saying that aborting "every black baby in this country" would reduce the crime rate, and demanded their Republican counterparts do the same.
"This is precisely the kind of insensitive, hurtful and ignorant rhetoric that Americans have grown tired of," said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois.
Bennett, who held prominent posts in the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told a caller to his syndicated radio talk show Wednesday: "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 said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, called on President Bush to condemn the comments by Bennett, who was anti-drug chief in Bush's father's administration.
"What could possibly have possessed Secretary Bennett to say those words, especially at this time?" Pelosi asked. "What could he possibly have been thinking? This is what is so alarming about his words."
Bennett stood by his comments Thursday night.
"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," he told CNN.
"I'm not racist, and I'll put my record up against theirs," referring to Pelosi and other 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," Bennett said.
"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."
Asked if he owed people an apology, Bennett replied, "I don't think I do. I think people who misrepresented my view owe me an apology."
Bennett 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.
Rush called on "my friends, the responsible Republicans" to rebuke the former Cabinet official by backing a House resolution condemning his remarks as "outrageous racism of the most bigoted and ignorant kind."
"Where is the indignation from the GOP, as one of their prominent members talk about aborting an entire race of Americans as a way of ridding this country of crime?" asked Rush, a former Black Panther. "How ridiculous! How asinine! How insane can one be?"
He called instead for "aborting" Republican policies "which have hurt the disadvantaged, the poor, average Americans for the benefit of large corporations."
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he was "appalled" by Bennett's remarks.
"The Republican Party has recently taken great pains to reach out to the African-American community, and I hope that they will be swift in condemning Mr. Bennett's comments as nothing short of callous and ignorant," said Reid, D-Nevada.
And Bruce Gordon, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, demanded an apology from Bennett and the Salem Radio Network, which airs his radio program.
"In 2005, there is no place for the kind of racist statement made by Bennett," Gordon said in a written statement. "While the entire nation is trying to help survivors, black and white, to recover from the damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it is unconscionable for Bennett to make such ignorant and insensitive comments."
A man who answered the phone at the network said no one would be available to comment until Friday.
Bennett's 1993 repackaging of traditional morality tales, "The Book of Virtues," became a bestseller, and Bennett became a popular lecturer on moral issues. But in 2003, stung by news reports that he had lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas and Atlantic City over the last decade, he publicly renounced gambling and vowed to stay away from the slots from then on.
He is a Fox News contributor and chairman of "Americans for Victory over Terrorism," which his Web site calls "a project dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public opinion as the war on terrorism moves forward."
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/30/bennett.comments/[/url]
2005-09-30 15:12 | User Profile
Gee imagine having the audacity to postulate a hypothesis with which any statistician who has studied crime would agree. Bennett should be horse whipped for his insensitivity and failure to bow before the altar of diversity. The proper way to address the subject is to point out that crime would not exist at all if not for the opression of the white man.
2005-10-01 15:25 | User Profile
To hell with this hachet man for the Neocons. His comment was taken out of context, though not in the way claimed by Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. If anyone deserve this ration of crap it is this pseudo-intellectual for all the times he has done the same thing to people like Pat Buchanan.
It really was a stupid remark on Bennett's part. The fool should have realized he'd be jumped on for the way he formulatted his reply, but he just had to try to impress the snake handlers who make up most of his audience with his "brilliance".
2005-10-01 20:37 | User Profile
I hear a lot of furor over Bennets remarks, but no one has yet pointed out anything he said that wasn't true! Where was the lie in what he said?
2005-10-01 21:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=OPERA96]I hear a lot of furor over Bennets remarks, but no one has yet pointed out anything he said that wasn't true! Where was the lie in what he said?[/QUOTE]
If it were a lie, no one would have cared.
2005-10-01 22:36 | User Profile
This is just odd! Bennett is one of the most Afro-loving PC GOP Neocons I do not know why he would say something like. He is always one of the first to yell "racist." It makes him look not too bright. You know his dissertation had a 129 pages and 13 items in the bibliography, see "The Bennett Brouhaha' for more about that.
Other threads:
William Bennett tells the Truth! (my thread on this subject) [url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20484[/url]
The Bennett Brouhaha [url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6571[/url]
2005-10-01 22:49 | User Profile
Faust,
The only racial group that I think Bennett dislikes are Whites.
2005-10-01 22:54 | User Profile
Sertorius,
I think you are very right about that. I think this just proves what a dimwit Bennett is. [QUOTE=Sertorius]Faust,
The only racial group that I think Bennett dislikes are Whites.[/QUOTE]
2005-10-02 03:31 | User Profile
ADL Letter to William J. Bennett
In the following letter to former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, ADL expresses outrage at his remarks on his national radio program linking the abortion of Black babies to crime reduction.
Anti-Defamation League
Mr. William J. Bennett Mornings in America September 30, 2005
Dear Mr. Bennett:
We are concerned about your comments linking the reduction of crime to the abortion of black babies.
Though you immediately acknowledged that this argument was "morally reprehensible," we are troubled by the casual manner in which you aired such divisive, offensive and potentially hatred-inducing racial stereotypes on the radio.
Now is the time for thoughtful dialogue and soul-searching on the part of white and black leaders, not the reckless airing of bigoted stereotypes.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Anti-Defamation League [url]http://www.adl.org/media_watch/radio/20050930-Mornings+in+America.htm[/url]
2005-10-02 16:41 | User Profile
Bennett will probably come through this tempest in a teapot relatively unscathed. Why he chose to pick at the twin scabs of abortion and race is beyond me, but in his defense his critics are so motivated by antipathy towards him, personally, that their criticisms are tainted by emotion and over reaction.
The best reply to his observation would be, I think: "Mr Bennet, if you are so smart, why do you go out of your way to say things that you know will be taken out of context and thrown back at you? Are you really that smart, or are you just another blowhard?" I find your estimate of the situation pretty common sensical, Sert, which is why so many of the cackling hens can't see their way clear to firing a better zinger at him.
[QUOTE]
If anyone deserve this ration of crap it is this pseudo-intellectual for all the times he has done the same thing to people like Pat Buchanan.
[/QUOTE]
He does read his own news clipping, I'll warrant . . .
It really was a stupid remark on Bennett's part. The fool should have realized he'd be jumped on for the way he formulatted his reply, but he just had to try to impress the snake handlers who make up most of his audience with his "brilliance".[/QUOTE] Hubris. :smoke:
AE
2005-10-03 19:07 | User Profile
Bennett gets no sympathy from me for the ADL-lead mass media feeding frenzy following his comments. Like most neos, he has never missed an opportunity to join forces with the ADL and use charges of "racism" and "anti-Semitism" to smear and silence rightwing critics of the neoconservative agenda, so it's good to see him get a taste of his own medicine.
But no worries, Billy, you can always just book another trip to Vegas and gamble your troubles away (and, as Sert has noted, Bennett is a neocon insider, so he can get away with saying things that get other people permanently blacklisted).
2005-10-03 21:58 | User Profile
AntiYuppie is very Right! [QUOTE=AntiYuppie]Bennett gets no sympathy from me for the ADL-lead mass media feeding frenzy following his comments. Like most neos, he has never missed an opportunity to join forces with the ADL and use charges of "racism" and "anti-Semitism" to smear and silence rightwing critics of the neoconservative agenda, so it's good to see him get a taste of his own medicine. But no worries, Billy, you can always just book another trip to Vegas and gamble your troubles away (and, as Sert has noted, Bennett is a neocon insider, so he can get away with saying things that get other people permanently blacklisted).[/QUOTE]
And everyone should reread this great Sam Francis article.
The Bennett Brouhaha By Sam Francis
[url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6571[/url]