Bill Bennett's final solution: aborting all black babies could reduce crime

This isn't quite true. When you discuss crime rate, you're always talking about crime per 100,000 people or some other such ratio. So if you abort all white babies, for example, crime rates would *not* go down - they would go up because the % of your poor population would increase and thus the rates of crime per X people would most likely rise.

The only way the statement works is with "black" or "poor" or some other segment that has a higher-than-average crime rate.

 

So was Bennett statistically-motivated or racially-motivated?

 

I don't think either. I don't see anything wrong with what he said, personally. I do think he was stupid for not realizing it would stir up controversy and anger a lot of people.

I also think he was stupid for suggesting something and then eliminating it as unacceptable - why suggest it then? That would be like Bush saying "well, we could win the war on terror by just nuking all Muslim people, but that would not be right". What good comes out of statements like that?

 

Actually - I misspoke. I guess he didn't really "suggest" it - more just bring it up as a possibility.

 

Bill Bennett is not 100% racist. He's x% racist, where x% = 100% - percentage of crimes involving blacks.

 

From those "facts" you agree that aborting all black babies would reduce crime, right?

Remember Hitler's Nazi and their claim of superiority of the Aryan races and the Holocaust?

You also know for a fact that there is a higher percentage of Asians that excel in schools and colleges, right? How about aborting all non-Asian babies so we can have a smarter human race?

 

Once again, I would like to see the data normalized by factors such as economic condition, family condition (from single parents or not, time spent at home), education level of the perpetrator and the generation before him. I have a feeling that if those things are factored in and normalized, we would see a much better trend.

 

Relax... this was just a verbal exercise not a position statement...

 

the difference lies in the, uhmmm, execution. hitler tried to exterminate the jews to achieve his racial goals. bennet rejects any such idea as morally repugnant. one would think this didn't require pointing out.

 

You can also talk about kicking your neighbor's azz too and it's just talk .... until you can actually carry it out and noone steps in to stop you ...

I am glad you mention repugnant, that's the word to describe Bennett and his defenders.

 

blacks are a much much poorer than whites. What is so hard to understand about this?


Bill's problem is that he equals the crime rate with the blackness when he should of related the crime with the poorness - or do you think that blacks are just natrually predisposed to commit crime? b/c that is what it is sounding like

 

You are apparently incapable of reading the English language.

 

If blacks are more likely to be poor, and poor people are more likely to commit crime, then it follows that blacks are more likely to engage in criminal behavior than whites. We know that the last statement in that series is an undeniable truth. The more interesting question is whether "poor" whites are more likely than "poor" blacks to commit crimes. I do not know the answer to that question.

 

I have no problem with Bennett saying what he did. Racist statements are protected in America, and it is his right to believe what he does. The statement is undoubtedly racist. When he says abort every BLACK baby, he threw in the word "Black" for a reason.

However, it may be accurate that Blacks commit more crimes than Whites. I do not know the figures. Even if one grants the argument that Blacks are only CONVICTED of more crimes than Whites, conviction is the threshold that we must uphold because we assume that the justice system is fair. On that basis, if that statement is factual, then you really can't bicker about a man stating facts. It's just like me stating that aborting every white baby in America will bring honesty back to big business. Enron, Adelphia, Worldcom, and Tyco were all corporate scandals consisting exclusively of Whites. And let's not forget Martha Stewart. Am I a racist for saying that? Absolutely not!! If the Mexicans would abort their own, illegal immigration would be a non-issue. If Asians would abort their own, maybe our kids would be able to keep in math and sciences because we would no longer have superior competition. If the Muslims would abort their own, maybe we could relax the PATRIOT Act. But then again, with my suggestions, no one would be left

Another aspect to keep in mind is that Bennett is a member of the general public now. His opinion is worth no more than your's or mine. He is no different than Al Franken or Sean Hannity. Even during the Reagan years, he was the Fredo Corleone of the Administration. His opinion is nothing to get worked up over.

 

If the statement is true, how can it be racist unless you are arguing that the truth itself is racist? The bottom line on all this is that we are seeing who can handle the truth and who can't.

 

Again the fact that he mentioned aborting black babies isn't racist. The fact that he associated crime with blacks is racist. First of all every baby that would be aborted has committed zero crimes. His statement assumes that black babies would commit a high rate of crimes, based on nothing but their race.

Again the fact is that blacks are convicted of more crime, that doesn't mean that blacks commit more crime. It is also been proven that they don't commit those crimes because they are black(look at Africa where crime rates are lower). So if they don't commit the crimes because they are black, why mention aborting black babies unless in his mind he associates crime with blacks?

If he does associate crimes with blacks then he is guilty of assigning a characteristic to a whole race of people, based on the actions of only a small portion of those people. That is racism. It is especially racism when blacks aren't more prone to commit crimes than other races.

 

You are once again misunderstanding the nature of racism. It isn't so broad as yelling the n word and lynching people. He isn't guilty of those types of acts of racism.

But as I mentioned in the post above... Well just read the post above. Bennet assigned a negative characteristic to an entire race of people based on the actions of only a small portion of those people. That is racism.

It is in fact more damning that he made the comment off the cuff on live radio instead of in a speech, because it shows his thought process. It shows that when discussing crime the negative stereotype of crime is what pops into his mind. That is where the racism comes in.

 

I have not read the article nor do I plan to, however, is it possible that he was trying to make a modern day version of "A Modest Proposal"? Arguing for something so ridiculous that it sheds light on some aspect of society?

 

Did you read the part of my post where I said that if Blacks do commit more crimes than Whites, then one cannot bicker about Bennett stating facts?

I'll close by using your own quote to respond to you.

 

I wish. Bennet isn't so subtle to come up with that kind of satire. But he also wasn't proposing it. In fact he said it would be a horrible immoral thing to do.