Ya Gotta Know When to Fold 'em
Well, Bill Bennett seems to be taking a page out of the shoe-leather cookbook penned by Pat Robertson.
On Wednesday, on a call-in talk radio show, he said:
He's right that it would be ridiculous and morally reprehensible. I imagine that the handlers and spin controllers will point out that he could have just as easily said that aborting every white or Latino baby -- or every baby -- would have the same effect, which would have been true, too. But the fact is, he didn't say that.
By saying what he did say, as sort of a sick, impermissible hypothetical, he revealed the extent of his racism: that he in fact believes that Blacks are the major source of crime. By suggesting this, he is saying to his audience with a wink and a nod "we know what/who the real problem is in America. Here's one way we could deal with it -- of course we wouldn't do that because we don't believe in abortion (perhaps because of our moral superiority -- we are, after all, white; we're not the ones who are responsible for the crime rate). But if we didn't have that scruple holding us back, things would be better."
I honestly don't see how he can claim this is anything other than unvarnished racism. Perhaps he ought to take the advice of another Gambler (from the Kenny Rogers song), and "know when to fold 'em."
On Wednesday, on a call-in talk radio show, he said:
"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 impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he said on his call-in program "Morning in America."
(From http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050930/pl_nm/abortion_bennett_dc)
He's right that it would be ridiculous and morally reprehensible. I imagine that the handlers and spin controllers will point out that he could have just as easily said that aborting every white or Latino baby -- or every baby -- would have the same effect, which would have been true, too. But the fact is, he didn't say that.
By saying what he did say, as sort of a sick, impermissible hypothetical, he revealed the extent of his racism: that he in fact believes that Blacks are the major source of crime. By suggesting this, he is saying to his audience with a wink and a nod "we know what/who the real problem is in America. Here's one way we could deal with it -- of course we wouldn't do that because we don't believe in abortion (perhaps because of our moral superiority -- we are, after all, white; we're not the ones who are responsible for the crime rate). But if we didn't have that scruple holding us back, things would be better."
I honestly don't see how he can claim this is anything other than unvarnished racism. Perhaps he ought to take the advice of another Gambler (from the Kenny Rogers song), and "know when to fold 'em."
posted by Jason at 1:18 PM
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