Bill Bennett still remains
unapologetic
George E. Curry
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of Education William Bennett,
widely denounced by liberals and conservatives for his “hypothetical”
argument that the crime rate would fall if all black babies were
aborted, has refused to apologize for the remark and has instead
attacked the Congressional Black Caucus, Senator Edward Kennedy
and others who took him to task for a comment even the White House
called “not appropriate.”
Bennett, who served as secretary of education under Ronald Reagan
and drug czar under President George H. W. Bush, created a firestorm
Sept. 28 on his syndicated ratio program, “Bill Bennett’s
Morning in America.”
Caller: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot
about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to
fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I’ve read articles
in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since
Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted
in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we
know it today. And the media just doesn’t — never touches
this at all.
Bennett: Assuming they’re all productive citizens?
Caller: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were,
it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
Bennett: Maybe, maybe, but we don’t know what the costs would
be, too. I think as — abortion disproportionately occur among
single women? No.
Caller: I don’t know the exact statistics, but quite a bit
are, yeah.
Bennett: All right, well, I mean, I just don’t know. I would
not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don’t
know. I mean, it cuts both — you know, one of the arguments
in this book “Freakonomics” that they make is that the
declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis,
that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well
—
Calller: Well, I don’t think that statistic is accurate.
Bennett: Well, I don’t think it is either, I don’t think
it is either, because first of all, there is 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.
That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible
thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out,
these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.
The reaction to Bennett’s remarks was swift and searing.
“William Bennett’s comments smack of such blatant racism
and ill regard for all African Americans that it is incomprehensible
in this day and age,” said Marc H. Morial, president and CEO
of the National Urban League.
Bruce S. Gordon, president and CEO of the NAACP, said: “In
2005, there is no place for the kind of racist statement made by
Bennett. 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. I am personally offended and angry that
Bennett felt he could make such a public statement with impunity.
The owners of the Salem Radio Network, which airs Bennett’s
program, should also apologize.”
Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition,
was even more critical.
“Bill Bennett’s statement was a morally degenerate statement
that had genocide as its logical conclusion,” Jackson observed.
“His statement comes from a philosophy that blacks are a problem.
It is an ideology of white supremacy. This is classic supremacy,
white Neanderthal supremacy.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi of California were highly critical of Bennett.
Kennedy issued a three-sentence statement: “Bill Bennett,
the author of the ‘Book of Virtues’ should try reading
his own book. Racist comments have no place on the public airways
or in civil discourse in this country. He owes an immediate apology
to his listeners and the American people.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said, “Bill
Bennett’s hateful, inflammatory remarks regarding African
Americans are simply inexcusable. Are these the values of the Republican
Party and its conservative allies?”
Dean’s Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman characterized Bennett’s
comments as “regrettable and inappropriate,” but added:
“What’s much worse is the hypocrisy we’ve seen
from the left.”
Interestingly, it is Bennett, the self-appointed virtues czar, who
is being criticized for being a hypocrite. He is the author of “The
Book of Virtues.” In 2003, Newsweek magazine and the Washington
Monthly Online revealed that Bennett was a habitual gambler, losing
as much as $8 million over one period.
After the stories broke, Bennett said, “I adhere to the law.
I don’t play the ‘milk money.’ I don’t put
my family at risk, and I don’t owe anyone anything.”
He pledged to quit gambling.
According to the Washington Monthly, Bennett was gambling heavily
while criticizing President Clinton for his extramarital affair
with Monica Lewinsky. He wrote a book titled “The Death of
Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals.”
The combative Bennett appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity
& Colmes” program last Thursday. Without Senator Kennedy’s
name being raised, Bennett issued a broadside: “I’ll
not take instructions from Teddy Kennedy.
“A young woman likely drowned because of his negligence. I’ll
take no moral instruction from him. That’s much worse than
legal gambling what Teddy Kennedy did. He should make no judgments
at all about people. He shouldn’t be in the Senate. As far
as racist and all this other stuff, I’ll put my record up
with Howard Dean, with Harry Reid.”
Also unprompted, he attacked the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Let me tell you, when it comes to abortion, my wife’s
program, Best Friends, has kept more young women from having abortions
because they don’t get pregnant because they take her good
counsel…She has done more for inner-city black girls than
the entire Black Caucus. So I will not bow my head to any of these
people. I will not give up the ground of compassion or sympathy.
But I’ll tell you, we have real issues and we have got to
talk about them candidly.”
The day after his controversial remarks, Bennett accused his critics
of trying to discredit him.
On his radio program, he said: “Well, there’s a campaign
making hay of my remarks and taking them out of context and totally
reversing my obvious meaning. The author of “Freakonomics,”
Steve Levitt, engages the theory that abortion reduces crime. And
he does that in an extended debate on Slate.com. I was referring
to this debate and pointing out how tricky it is to argue for a
pro-life position because of economic benefits…”
In fact, over a three-day discussion on Slate.com, Levitt argued
the opposite.
“As an aside, it has been both fascinating and disturbing
to me how the media have insisted on reporting this as a study about
race, when race really is not an integral part of the story,”
he said. “The link between abortion and unwantedness (sic),
and also between unwantedness (sic) and later criminality, have
been shown most clearly in Scandinavian data. Abortion rates among
African Americans are higher, but overall, far more abortions are
done by whites. None of our analysis is race-based because the crime
data by race is generally not deemed reliable.”
After Bennett misrepresented his book, Levitt stated, “There
is one thing I would take Bennett to task for: first saying that
he doesn’t believe our abortion-crime hypothesis but then
revealing that he does believe in it with his comments about black
babies. You can’t have it both ways.”
Largely missing from the extensive reporting on Bennett’s
remarks are discussions about Bennett’s underlying supposition
that crime is somehow genetically linked to race. In Bennett’s
blanket “analysis,” he made no allowances for education
or economic status.
More importantly, little thought was expressed on disparities in
the criminal justice system that show that even in categories in
which whites and blacks were said to be committing crime at the
same rate, whites less likely to be punished than African Americans.
In one study, for example, the National Criminal Justice Commission
reported that although African Americans are 12 percent of the population
and 13 percent of all monthly drug users, they represent 74 percent
of all those sentenced to prison for drug possession.
Social scientists say those figures underscore a problem of selective
prosecution, not a genetic link between crime and race.
Albert E. Dotson, Jr., chairman of 100 Black Men of America, an
organization whose members mentor thousands of youth, demanded that
Salem Radio Network immediately remove Bennett’s radio program.
Dotson urged people to e-mail Tom Tradup, director of programming,
at ttradup@srnradio.com, telephone him at 972-831-1920 x 185 or
fax him at 972-831-8626. Bennett’s office can be reached at
the same telephone number, extension 141.
“Comments that the reduction of the crime rate in this country
would be achieved by aborting every black baby are inflammatory,
racist, divisive and inhumane,” said Dotson, head of 100 Black
Men. “The number of white youth vs. black youth in the U.S.
population creates a statistical impossibility that the majority
of crimes are the result of black youth. Does the fact that youth
crimes in this country are also committed by white children mean
we should call for the abortion of all children? Abortion is not
the answer to our nation’s crime rate.”
Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, said: “If
there’s anyone who doubts that racial insensitivity still
plays a role in our society and political culture, they should listen
to these appalling remarks by Bill Bennett. This speaks for itself.”
George Curry is the editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association.
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