posted October 11, 2005 07:50 PM              

Republican leader Bill Bennett said on his radio show that mass abortion of black fetuses would reduce crime—implying that Blacks are a criminal race. His show reaches more than 1 million listeners.
His comments have drawn rebuke from the White House, Congressional leaders and the Anti-Defamation League. But his program's distributor has been silent. Please join us in asking Salem Radio Network to pull his show off the air, until Bill Bennett apologizes for his racially offensive statements.

http://colorofchange.org/bennett/

It's sad when this is the type of person that Jwhop and other retards support.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 11, 2005 10:16 PM              

You are such a perfect example of the Green Day song called American Idiot.

"American Idiot"

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind **** America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 12, 2005 12:49 PM              

Hmm... blind, retarded, American Idiot eh?

posted October 12, 2005 02:22 PM              

Sorry but I think you are confusing me with yourself

The only blind retards here are the ones who actually vote for people like this and stay quiet when people like this make racist stupid comments.

it just shows who the real American Idiots are. and well you are one of them.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 12, 2005 06:50 PM              

And so, when former Reagan administration secretary of education and current self-appointed morals master of America Bill Bennett said on his recent radio broadcast that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could ... abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," many critics threw the terms "racist" and "racism" at him, having no better ammunition in their arsenal.

Bruce S. Gordon, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, issued a statement saying that "Bennett should apologize for racist comments made yesterday on his call-in radio show." And in a letter to the president of the Salem Radio Network of Irving, Texas which carries the Bennett radio program, Michigan Congressmember John Conyers wrote that "we simply cannot countenance statements and shows that are replete with racism, stereotyping, and profiling."

Mr. Gordon and Mr. Conyers made some of the more polite entries in the dialogue that followed Mr. Bennett's remarks. Underneath that, in blog exchanges and newspaper columns and radio commentaries, the two sides of the country's major right-left political split went at it, each side accusing the other of being the most "racist." Some conservatives, for example, accused the white liberal-left of "racism" for supporting abortion of African-American babies, a practice these critics suggested amounted to black genocide.

The confusion comes in part from the fact that both "racist" and "racism" are terribly flawed terms, so flawed, in fact, that we ought to simply throw them out and start all over again with new ones.

A first major problem is that for many people, the meaning of "racist" and "racism" were forever frozen on that summer Sunday morning at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in September of 1963 when members of a Ku Klux Klan splinter group placed a box of dynamite underneath the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, causing the horrific explosion that killed four black girls--Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins--and wounded 23 other African-American worshippers.

And so, in the mid-'60s, the term "racists" largely became used to describe white people who so hated black people that they would do murder even to innocent young children, just to get rid of us. This set the bar for who was a white "racist" so high that it now becomes almost impossible to fit anyone into it, including, for example, the president, who engineered the suppression of the African-American vote in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, but who clearly does not "hate" African-Americans, since he keeps so many around him.

By the time "racist" and "racism" began breaking out of that exclusive "hate black people" box, we discovered that it had been so broadened that it had now come to be applied by many people to anyone who sought to advocate for their own race to the exclusion of advocating for any other races. That led to the curious phenomenon--unintentionally? intentionally?--that under this new, expanded definition, many more African-Americans are now publicly called "racist" these days than are white people.

I do not know what is in Mr. Bennett's heart, but there does not appear to be evidence either through word or deed that he hates black people and wishes us dead. In addition, there does not appear to be anything in his record as either a public servant or a private morals advocate suggesting that he seeks to uplift the white race while seeking to hold down all the other races.

In addition, it is clear from even the most critical reading of his entire remarks that he never advocated that black children should be aborted (Mr. Bennett, as everyone knows, is adamantly against abortion in all forms, and among any people). He was actually having a conversation with an anti-abortion caller about the various social effects of abortion, and used the "black abortions would lower the crime rate" example to counter the caller's assertion that abortions over the past several years have removed many potential able-bodied persons from America's workforce, thus lowering the country's wealth. To show that he did not advocate the "abort every black person" position, Mr. Bennett went on to say that such mass black abortions "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do."

And so, applying the terms "racist" or "racism" to his stated example would seem to be out of place, at least in either of the two ways that most people in this country have come to understand the words.

"Stupid" seems a better term to apply to Mr. Bennett, in not realizing how his words might be interpreted, or misinterpreted. "Self-righteous" might be another, as applied to those people who think they are so morally superior that they are above being accused of baser motives.

One could also call him "wrong."

Many of Mr. Bennett's supporters have made the argument that while Bennett never argued for eliminating African-Americans, his assertion that less blacks would mean less crime was essentially correct. "Some identifiable groups, considered as a group, commit crime at a rate that is higher than the national rate," former federal prosecutor and present columnist Andrew McCarthy wrote in the National Review online. "Blacks are such a group. That is simply a fact. ... The rate being high, it is an unavoidable mathematical reality that if the number of blacks, or of any group whose rate outstripped the national rate, were reduced or eliminated from the national computation, the national rate would go down."

But the truth of that conclusion is dependent on Mr. McCarthy's original premise that "some groups commit crime" at a higher rate, and that "blacks are such a group." That is not a necessarily provable fact. What we do know is that some groups are caught and prosecuted for crime at a higher rate, and that African-Americans are certainly such a group.

But to believe that the actual commission of crime in America would go down with the elimination of African-Americans is to believe, for example, that the drug cartels, seeing the elimination of their black b-boy dealers on America's inner city street corners, would turn in their six-guns to the bartender and start hoeing spuds, as the cattleman Rufus Ryker once facetiously suggested to the gunfighter Shane. More likely, they would simply find other methods of dealership.

But Mr. Bennett's statement was wrong in another sense; wrong in the sense that it should not have been said, because it allows the subject of black genocide as a way to solve America's problems to be raised as a topic of discussion. That Mr. Bennett does not believe in such a practice, or that he said immediately afterwards that such a program of black genocide would be "impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible" is not nearly enough. Some things have no business being said by people considered to be "responsible."

For African-Americans, this is not an issue of being offended; this is an issue of physical survival. In my lifetime, men representing significant and responsible sections of some American communities felt it acceptable to plant bombs in African-American houses of worship, and worse. In another context, African-Americans used to sing a song called "Gone Are The Days." Gone, yes, but not long enough to feel comfortable about that they might not quickly come back.

Thursday's New York Times, for example, reports the social aftermath of a fire set last December by young Ku Klux Klan members that destroyed 10 houses and heavily damaged 16 others, most of which were owned by black families in a largely white Charles County, Maryland, D.C. suburban community.

To these like these young Klansmen, the term "racist" properly applies. But for people like Mr. Bennett? As I said, we need to come up with another term.

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor writes for the Berkeley Daily Planet.

posted October 12, 2005 10:21 PM              

It was a racist comment period.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 13, 2005 02:20 AM              

Have you considered, MG, that if every white baby in the country was aborted, the same would be true?

However ugly, it is a true statement. Like it or not.

Bennett does not lie. According to the US Department of Justice, from 1990-2004 "Blacks were two times more likely than Hispanics and five times more likely than whites to be in jail."

Sure... I totally believe that black people are profiled more so than white people. I never get hassled by the police. When I get pulled over, I rarely get a ticket. I look like a nice little white girl, so they let me go off on my way.

I know the same isn't true for my black friends. I've heard a lot of horror stories.

Even so, being that facts are the facts, they cannot be racists and must be taken into account. It doesn't matter why these facts are as they are for this argument. The facts are the facts. What Bill Bennett said was very ugly, but it was statistically true.

It is a very unfortunate thing. BUT, I see it changing as we live and breathe at this very moment. Black men and women are empowering themselves and coming up out of this.

Things are better now than they were 20 years ago... and in the next 20 years... and the next 20... I'm confident that black people would never allow themselves to go backward. They will not go back to what was... They have overcome too much

The majority of the people in this country know race isn't really of any importance in the grand scheme of things.

Racism is an old world view. If we keep giving old world views power, they will continue to thrive.

Even though I don't believe Bill Bennett proved himself a racist by his comment, I believe by making a huge deal of this YOU are feeding racism.

By giving it more attention, you are helping it to grow.

Perhaps, like most other organizations, racists enjoy seeing themselves in the news... spreading their word... advertising their brand of religion... Hate.

posted October 13, 2005 03:46 PM            

I think that in the more metropolitan or liberal areas people may by and large feel that way, but there's still a huge racist undercurrent in the hearts of many primarily middle-aged and older people. I've lived in the suburbs of San Francisco for 7 years now, and even though the area is dominantly liberal I've witnessed the racism in men I've worked for over and over again. Here it's a more selective racism. You know, it's like you can't be overtly racist to Mexicans who are employed by you, but those that aren't are fair game. Also, blacks and mexicans are (or may be) suspicious, but asians or middle eastern people are ok. It's a weird breed of racism, a racism that racist people have come to adapt in the midst of the otherwise liberal and politically correct environment. (And, yes, most of these racists I'm referring to are Republicans, who regurgitate what they think is acceptable having heard some Republican say it on the radio or tv)

I think that if racism is alive and well where I live, and was 10 to 20 times worse in Tennessee when I lived there, then it's still a major concern for the country.

Even if Bill Bennett's comment is statistically true based on the current environment, it's a comment that should have been kept internal. It served no real purpose in the discussion they were having, and therefore, even though he denounced it as he said it, it is a comment that promotes racism, because it says (and puts in the minds of the listeners) that the United States would be better off if every black baby were aborted. There's no doubt that people were already suspicious of black people, so that comment just serves to reinforce that belief that black people are untrustworthy. It tells people that it's ok, and acceptable to believe that statement even if it is morally reprehensible. Bill Bennett wouldn't lead you astray.

posted October 13, 2005 05:34 PM              

i wish we didn't have eyes to see, in that way, the issue of race would never have come up.

by the way - reprehensible is another word for guilty.

how long did it take to realize that enslavement was a morally reprehensible argument or were trimming and decorations and holidays placed on that argument so the argument itself would go away? Or were the trimmings, decorations and holidays suppose to fool everyone that the contract between the US and those who reside herein, regard all human beings as people?

i don't want to ride with a "it's unfortunate" response either, especially coming from an individual, like what the hell, that's nothing new - unfortunately honey, you are a part of a race that can get away with looking like a "nice little white girl" without even trying and observe those who are not, be persecuted, belittled, used, underappreciated, abused and you can just shrug your shoulders and think for a split second that at least it wasn't and will never be you.

“It doesn't matter why these facts are as they are for this argument. “

It does, someone made a totally insensitive suggestion that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could ... abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," that’s not okay – it is a basis of a argument that I would hope would make many of us African Americans realize that we really are not welcomed and should do something about it.

posted October 13, 2005 09:44 PM              

People like you feed racism by excusing it.

The End

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 13, 2005 10:19 PM              

AG, Exactly... the racists left over are all old white men (and their wives who never learned to think for themselves) that need to die off anyhow. Once they're gone, this world will be a much better place. I'm sure racism is much worse in Tennessee than it is here in Washington too... but the point is: When those old white men die off, it will be even better... even in Tennessee.

I agree that he shouldn't have made the stupid comment... but I don't believe it makes him a racist. The comment was taken out of context. It was a stupid thing to say... but he never EVER said he believes we should abort black babies to lower the crime rate. THAT IS NOT WHAT HE SAID. People are putting words in his mouth.

amisha121877, Who are you to say what I try to observe and what I don't? You don't know me. You don't know what I've seen in my life. You don't know what I know. You don't know if I grew up in an inner city or not... you know nothing of my experiences.

So, if you're interested in asking me questions about what I know or what I have seen, I will be happy to answer them. Until then, keep your assumptions to your self, honey... I don't need you making an ASS out of U and ME.

BILL BENNETT DID NOT SUGGEST ABORTING BLACK BABIES!!!!!!!!!

He was speaking about the book Freakanomics. Perhaps you should read the damn thing IN CONTEXT before spouting off.

He was making a point. The point is... it would be morally reprehensible to abort babies to reduce the crime rate .... just before the comment he was speaking about Freakanomics... a book that suggests the crime rate went WAY down once Roe v. Wade was passed. It suggests the crime rate went way down because of the number of babies that would have been born into the poverty level weren't born after all. Poverty breeds crime. (The book was written by a Liberal, not a Conservative, BTW)

He's saying... "Yeah... sure, it would work, BUT it would be morally reprehensible."

But... apparently in this goofy a$$ed country, saying that it is morally reprehensible to abort babies to reduce the crime rate makes you a friggin' racist.

Americans don't like to hear the truth... they like to twist it to fit their little life dramas.

amisha121877, I certainly hope you didn't take what I was saying wrong. I said that for the sake of THIS argument that how blacks found themselves in the position of holding the record for most inmates.

I fully know why it is that way. I know plenty of white people that should have found themselves behind bars but never really have. I've also known plenty of black people that have found themselves behind bars rightfully, and others yet that have been treated unfairly.

I know WHY there are more blacks in prison than any other race, and I think it is loathsome... BUT for the sake of THIS argument HOW this came to be is of no consequence. The simple fact of the matter is that the majority of people in prisons are black... thus making his idiotic statement correct. THAT was the point behind my comment that how this came to be doesn't matter for this argument.

posted October 14, 2005 11:48 AM              

quote:

---

MG, I find it is pretty ironic that you take offense to this man... considering the typical useless blather you spew.

---

Why wouldn't anyone take offense?

Just shows what a real man he is....he has to put down a race of babies.

And blather I spew? Are you talking about other posts that have nothing to do with this one? Because if you are then sorry sweets but this is a totally different topic.

posted October 14, 2005 02:38 PM              

As far as Mr. Bennet, I did not make him the primary source from whence ""if you wanted to reduce crime, you could ... abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," came from. I actually didn't even mention the guy's name - now is the first time though. I DID put the quote in my text and actually said, “it does (matter), SOMEONE made a totally insensitive SUGGESTION…….” Understand, it disgusted me and it didn’t make a difference who said it, it DID make a difference that it was said.

I said you are “PART OF A RACE” who “CAN” get away with looking like a nice little white girl without even trying and observe those who are not, be persecuted, belittled, used, underappreciated, abused and you “CAN” just shrug your shoulders and think for a split second that at least it wasn’t and will never be you. I didn’t say that this is what you do but I did hint that you have the option of thinking/acting this way and I certainly did not tell your life story. Taking the moment to comprehend what someone is saying is VERY crucial in not blindly lashing out in comments to the point where your words come from ego rather than your whole being.

YOU said “when I get pulled over, I rarely get a ticket. I look like a nice little white girl, so they let me go off on my way” – which to me, sounds like you assume that you didn’t get a ticket because you look like a nice little white girl. LibraSparkle – you said that, not me. You also said you believe that black people are profiled more so than white people – “you believe” can be considered a personal observation made by you. Observing is noting something and saving it in your mind’s view.

As long as human beings can see – there will always be some sort of power struggle and racism is an act of domination/subordination which can be considered an act where power is one of the goals, in some form or another. Also – poverty is NOT the only thing that breeds crime / it is crucial that you understand that. Getting away with it or not, along with perception is what filters out an act of crime from a person’s actions.

The surest way to tell if someone blinked is by never taking your eyes off of them. The surest way to say someone committed a crime, is to create an image of it in your mind. The surest way to believe that you are never wrong, is to say that you are always right. The surest way to say there was never a crime committed is by turning your head.

I can say something someone said was insensitive, I could say that I don’t agree or that I do agree with what someone says and/or does, and I can also respond, grow, listen and succeed while my ego is dormant but as far as saying that someone is wrong – that hasn’t been a part of me for a very, very, very long time. In that, I’m at peace and can act and respond accordingly, even considering the times and places I felt/was aware and was blantly notified that I was unwelcomed because of the color of my skin. I do stand by my statement that "I would hope many of us African Americans realize that we really are not welcomed and should do something about it."

Also – I would appreciate it if you could tell me what it is you fully know as to why blacks found themselves in the position of holding the record for most inmates/why there are more blacks in prison than any other race.

posted October 17, 2005 05:47 PM              

To many stereo typical people out there.

Thank god I don't have to be surrounded by that.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 17, 2005 06:15 PM              

I left the sad face because, although I wasn't exactly certain what you meant, I assumed the worst. The worst being that you feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.

I'd like to ask more but I feel like I'm treading on dangerous ground so I'm hesitating. Not because of anything you've said, just the topic in general.

posted October 18, 2005 10:03 AM              

tink - okay. no need to tread / treading gets tiresome then you can either sink or just roll over and float on your back, no worries - there is always freestyle - backstrokes and butterflies strongly encouraged.

okay - let's try this one. what do you consider being a "crime". personally, right off the bat - do you consider crime?

I'll start - right off the cuff, i'll say:
murder
rape/sodomy

posted October 18, 2005 05:41 PM              

I think it depends on where you are from. How you view certain things.

You people are racists in disguise.

P.S - Amisha you should come here. New York is the capital of the world.

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Gemini sun, Cancer rising, mercury in Gemini, moon in Taurus *29, venus in Taurus, mars in Libra

posted October 28, 2005 04:17 PM              

Of course I do ! Ssssooooooo- before I start, my only disclaimer in this already touchy and eggshell topic is gona be that I expect anything, and potentialy everythign I say to be taken out of context.

Lets say this guy ment his comment, sincerly ment it. Say he is the most racist person in the world. Lets even call him the most activly racist person in the world.

In a country, that especialy in media and entertainment that paints the scene as the only peaple in USA capable of being racist are the caucasions-

Personaly I cant care who is racist.

So what if he is? What do you want to do to him for having his personal views [even if those views are bassackwards, and prehistoric conceptions of how things should be] ???

Should we publickly black ball his name ? Sick the gentleman Rev. Al Sharpton on him ?

HEY- LETS BURN EM AT THE STEAK> OR MAYBE HANG HIM !!! YEAH, that will stop this potential bigot !!!!