William Bennett? What do you think?
Have you heard the William Bennett quote? I'm wondering what you think?
In case you haven't heard, the former Education Secretary and best-selling self-proclaimed "Values Czar" William Bennett showed some "value" cards on Wednesday.
According to an ABCNew.com story (see http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Politics/story?id=1171385&page=1 for more info), Bennett took a call from a listener who theorized that social security was in jeapordy because of the rate of abortion. She explained that abortion has caused a situation where there aren't enough tax-paying citizens to pay for social security.
Interesting theory. Not sure if it's credible, but it made me wanna go, "Hmmmm..."
Bennett responded saying, if it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,"
Bennett now says his remarks were valid and those who know him know he's not racist.
What do you think?
Here are some questions to get the discussion going:
- Does Bennett's statement reveal a need for him to check his heart concerning Black people in America?
- Is the media simply blowing this thing out of proportion?
- What does Bennett's statement reveal about his mental picture of Black people and their contributions to American society?
- Do you think Bennett's statement is a common unspoken thought in America?
Peace...
posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 9:38 AM
7 Comments:
I never respond to these things, but I just happened to have heard a discussion on the radio on this today. I heard a recording of his discussion with the caller. Mr. Bennett's comments were taken out of context--I would have to think the news report did that just to make him look bad. He was actually saying you couldn't make statements like this (and referred to the book Freekonomics) because such claims go too far and ignore so much variable data that you can't know.
So, it'd be nice if folks would check things more thoroughly before going off on them.
As former secretary of education, Mr. Bennett, of all people, should know that crime in the US could be dramatically lowered by elevating the level of education. A huge percentage of prisoners (white, brown, black, yellow, red, and green) cannot even read at the elementary school level. Lack of education means lack of power to order your life, meaning no job, or jobs which pay less than it takes to stay alive (minimum wage), which leads to desperation, which can lead to crime (I hear you can live well dealing drugs no matter what color you are--of course, you must deal only, and not partake--fat chance!). Desperation can also lead to a feeling of hopelessness about ones ability to "make it" now and in the future in America, which can lead to a sense of "nothing matters anyway, and the only way my family and I can survive at all is to accept government "help" which is emotionally demeaning, and almost no help at all, because you can't legally help yourself if you accept help from the government, and neither alone is adequate! It's a vicious circle, very hard to break out of no matter how hard the person wants to.Desperation can also lead those disenfranchised by the education system to drink or take drugs to numb the confusion, helpless, and pain of everyday life. However, if the disenfranchised person wishes to do this, they must come up with LOTS of money. Since they have no or inadequate jobs, the money must come from elsewhere, most likely from robbery (a crime). Desperation can also lead to violence (a crime), destructiveness(usually a crime, especially if one gets caught), and suicide. I do hope Mr. Bennett doesn't feel suicide might be a deterrent to crime! The bottom line is, a GOOD education, given by people who actually CARE about their students, is a means of empowerment for all colors of people to be able to take charge of their lives, acquire employment that's worthwhile, and worth $omething, giving them the ability to take care of themselves and provide for their families,which gives people a sense of pride in who they are as a human being, and a belief that what they do is valuable, not just to themselves and their families, but valuable to America.
Sure, some people are still going to make crappy choices, and wind up being convicted of crimes. HOWEVER, I daresay that NONE of the people making those crappy choices are unborn black babies!!!!!!!
Not that I necessarily agree with this right-wing nut, but if you read the whole text of the media matters article his statements can be viewed as much more sane. Bennett's quote was referencing a recently critically acclaimed book called "Freakanomics" which introduces many startling statistical realities that the author has discovered. I actually read part of this book recently while browsing in Barnes & Noble, so it caught my attention. One of the more interesting positions the book takes is that abortion is responsible for lowering crime rates, which have been steadily going down for sometime now. The thinking goes that unwanted babies are usually born to poorer families and more likely to grow up in such poverty have a greater inclination towards crime since they are denied other opportunities that the wealthier segments of society are afforded. A perfectly reasonable argument, no one is shouting down the author for his statements. Bennett simply extended this line of reasoning further. A disproportionate amount of black people live in poverty and also the prison population in america is disproportionately black. These are facts black leaders have been making for years, and no one is accusing them of being racist. However, I turn on my tv today to watch Al Sharpton waxing eloquent about how this guy is some big racist. Hasn't Al ever read "A Modest Proposal." When you use satire it is to show how ridiculous an idea is. Bennett is firmly against abortions of all kinds and he wanted to show how ridiculous situations can become if you are saying that the ends justify the means. Whether you agree with his views or not, and whether he is a racist or not, you can't say that he is based on these particular statements anymore than you can say that Jonathan Swift was advocating that children be eaten in Ireland in the 18 century. When we purposely misintrepet the other sides word's we are really doing ourselves a great disservice, and we just empower extremists on both sides of the fence to grab more than their fair share of the press by taking advantage of the drama that ensues.
What's worse than the comment itself is the belief by Bennett that there was an audience out there that wanted to hear such comments. That audience is out there unfortunately and they bear watching.
Matthew Yglesias, a center-left blogger, basically agrees with poster #1 on this thread:
Yglesias: In Defense of Bill Bennett
just think of how dramatically the crime rate would drop if we aborted every white baby
Great post, and reading this motivated me to address the comment on my blog. Bennett should know that now is not the time to be making statement like this, and post-Katrina racial tensions are already high enough without inflamatory statement about "aborting every black baby". Whether taken into context or out of context, the message is clear that Bennett equates blackness with criminality! When there is poverty and unemployment, there will be crime, and I agree with Anonymous #2 that the best way to deal with the problem is to open up the doors of education.
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