News-Record.com

Bennett's remarks were certainly inappropriate, and he should have used better judgment, but to compare his clearly hypothetical ruminations to Nazi Germany is ludicrous. Bennett stated explicitly that such a notion was morally reprehensible and ludicrous. It was just a statement — albeit a poorly judged one — for argument's sake.

I've been pondering this thing for a while now. It certainly has echoes of Nazi Germany, and brings to mind Biblical stories of Moses and Jesus (not to mention Horus, Krishna, etc etc).

But I wonder at the ramifications for race relations. Just as the vast majority of the poor left behind in New Orleans were black, the majority of the nation's prison population is black. I don't think that the cause for these disparities is some failing of the genetics, as some racists would postulate, but it is something to question.

Bennett voiced what I would have hoped was unthinkable, but clearly the idea occurred to him, even if it was in a negative light. It just hurts my heart when I hear stuff like this. We dance around the problem and do everything but find some way to solve it. Heck, I really can't put my finger on what the problem entails, entirely.

As we know, I'm black... and as long as I can remember, I've always heard (whether it was me playing in the yard while grownups talked on the porch or while dining out with friends) that too much disparity (who has connections, who has money, etc.) unrelated to evidence goes into who goes to jail (and on death row for that matter) and who doesn't, to say that the dominant appearance of one group behind bars says much of anything about a whole race's propensity to commit crime. That said, maybe the Nazi Germany comparison was too much, only if he said it, there had to be germs of something there, and Nazi Germany is our best indicator of the worst of mankind -- and in my opinion that's in the same category as aborting babies of any race for a 'greater cause.'
Hmmm, where else in history have we heard people say it's "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but...."

Bennetts remarks taken out of context or not are off the wall and over the line in many ways.
I question however why when a black man accuses the whites of intentionally blowing up the dykes to kill black people ,and there is absolutely no truth to it he gets a pass. Or perhaps when a black Lt Governor uses the N word and expresses regret but gets a pass. I question when a black politician can compare a white president to the worst of segregationist, he gets a pass.
Does any one ever wonder why these things are just overlooked or shrugged off or given a pass?

Ms. McLaughlin, I certainly understand your grave misgivings about Mr. Bennett's remarks, and the allusion to Nazism is within your rights to voice.

However, have you read the book, "Freakonomics", by Stephen Leavitt, (pardon the spelling) which was part of Bennett's hypothesis? It proffers a wealth of pure data which does NOT argue whether specifically black male babies are prone to grow up to commit crimes. It rather states that there is a strong correlation between the drop in overall crime rates in the U.S. and the increased availabilty of safe and legal abortion services.

His surmise from these plain numbers is that the lower incidence of "unwanted" full-term pregnancies, and therefore lower probabilities for neglected or abused children, may well explain the significant drop in (particularly violent) crime.

That does not in any way excuse Mr. Bennett's rhetoric, which is sly shot at, simultaneously, welfare-type programs and eugenics, oddly enough. I believe he was resorting to an absurdist argument to purposely rile feathers. He learned this from his mentor, Dr. John Silber, former president of Boston University, where I had the occasion to question similar tactics.

I haven't read the book and I can understand academic arguments, and how researchers have to look at all sides of data. I guess I'm not ready for assigning 'unwanted' babies that through a thread leads to higher crime, as a problem only affecting black folks. I guess I didn't like the example and, to be honest, I can't see past it. Maybe he didn't mean it that way -- I mean, I heard more than once this weekend that if white male babies were aborted, that the number of serial killers would be down to nil. How would America feel about someone like Colin Powell using that as an academic argument?

And Mr. Produce I don't think anyone automatically deserves "a pass." I do think there are cultural issues to why some black people think they can use the N word and other people cannot; I do think there are "underdog" issues that some people think would allow them to hurl insults at other people and be offended when they're hurled back. The short answer is: That's the country we live in. The more insightful argument would take a Newsweek cover.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_093005/content/stop_the_tape.guest.html

On Rush Limbaugh's site, he exposes that Bennett is taken out of context. He lists the whole transcript and it really is about something entirely different.
Bennett does have a good record- it is only fair to read the other side...

I followed the link. Maybe the argument is too academic for me...I mean this:
" ... I don't think it is either because, first of all, I think there's just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true 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."

...doesn't change for me.

"And Mr. Produce I don't think anyone automatically deserves "a pass." But they get it just the same. If a black had made the same statement, there would have been little said about it, we both know it's true. I don't buy the culture thing with the N word and a Lt Gov giving a public speech certainly shouldn't say the word even if he is black. He might be culturely exempt if he said it in a private conversation but in public address at an institution of higher learning, no way, he got a pass.
I don't suppose I will ever get a straight answer to the one I posed on the N&R blogs. I get the culture thing from you and it's just the country we live in and Ed Cone finds the question irrelevant.

I guess some people -- in this case you are referring to some black people -- think they deserve a pass because, for example, in the Jim Crow South everybody but black people had a pass. That's just the way it was. I can't shed any new light on today.

Nancy-

The opacity of academic-speak is atrocious, I agree. I plead guilty, myself. Bennett is smart enough to know his rhetoric was inflammatory.

No, Leavitt's premise was not aimed squarely at black "unwanted" children (or, more precisely, at the poor judgments of the parents); his data could just as easily support the claim you repeated about serial killers.

Of course, I partly understand the incidence of sociopathy is no higher in any "racial" group. And, more frightening, it does not depend on being "wnated" or "unwanted" as a child. It just happens for its own quirky reasons: genetic(?) or other yet-unfathomed (not to allow in the supernatural idea of "evil", however; evil can be discussed as natural).

All that said, Bennett was out of line because he has a responsibilty as a public figure to speak more consideredly.

Not to be picky Nancy, but I don't believe I used the phrase "some people" refering to anyone, be they black or white.
I saw the things in the "Jim Crowe south" but in my family and community, for the most part, (we had a few racist both black and white in the community) , it was not tolerated. I was brought up to believe that all people were the same, no matter what color they were, how they talked, or how they worshipped. No one was ever given a pass if one made inappropriate remarks or even suggested such. The worst whipping I ever got was when I was about 5 and made fun of some black football players who passed by our house each day for practice. I never forgot and never again made fun of anyone. We worked together, we played together and ate together. I could never for the life of me figure why we didn't go to school together. A black teacher told me she preferred to keep the schools seperate because of the pride they took in their achievements in class and in sports. She said that when that was taken away then her people would lose their pride of community each other. The lady may have been correct in a lot of ways. She was my parents neighbor for many years and was loved dearly by everyone in the community.
I am sorry that other folks had to go through the crap of being thought of as lesser folk. Me, I never saw any sense in it.
Guess we were just raised different.