Bill Bennett

[Nephythys]

aw come on Leo- they're never racist! Byrd can call black people N****rs and they don't blink.

And now, just because I love throwing fuel on the fires-
N'awlins will be more white from now on?

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Please explain to me why.

The noun racism has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races


Meaning #2: discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race
Synonyms: racialism, racial discrimination




The Comment:

"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..."

Implication: That black babies are somehow MORE responsible for crime than babies of other races. He seems to be implying that it is their "blackness" that is the problem.

If he had said:

"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce future crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down..."

He would be more correct and the statement would not be racist.

As far as this goes:

.......being outraged about something someone you don't like said

I have no feeling of like or dislike for Bill Bennet before this statement. But, his statement has certainly given me more to think about.

[Nephythys]

yet you totally reject the context in which it was stated- reject that he himself said that the notion was reprehensible- and simply denounce him as making a racist comment-

THAT should be something to think about!

[Not Afraid]

Yeah, I think about how anyone who speaks publically should choose their words carefully KNOWING what happens to words once you let them go. No public officer/personality should ever forget that.

[Morrigoon]

Hmm...

Was the statement technically, statistically correct? Probably

Was the statement a poor choice of words? Definitely

Was the statement ill-advised in a public forum? Without question

Was the statement necessarily racist? Hmm....

On its surface, it's a glaringly, maliciously, obvious racist remark. However, taken in the context of what came before it, and the entire statement. Not exactly. I can see where he was going with the statement, and, using statistics to back up the argument, you could technically say it was a correct statement. But it was still a poor choice to make it.

He could have made the same argument by saying "abort all the poor babies," and it would probably have been more correct, statistically, and far less racist. A bit classist, perhaps, but again, he has stats to back it up, and people are less likely to be this upset about a classist remark than a racist one. It probably would have been best to refrain from using this example at all, but given that he did, it would have been a better choice to use socioeconomic status rather than race.

I can see where he was going with it... trying to make a non-racist remark (hence the disclaimers afterward), but in typical born-pre-civil-rights-movement old white guy style, his attempts to be non-racist made him out as more racist, even than he is. Not intentionally racist, but the prejudice comes out in his very poor word choice.

[Gemini Cricket]

Don't misunderstand. I know the context the statement was made in. But his choice of an example was in bad taste. And someone (BB) who has been in the public spotlight before and knows how things can be taken out of context should know better.

[Not Afraid]

I guess I ttend to err on the side of judgement. If it can be construed as racist - even if you can technically argue that it was not, you've still got a racist remark. Remarks don't usually travel with disclaimers attached to them.

[Gemini Cricket]

I think the timing was so very wrong, too. I mean there was a huge hurricane recently. Does he remember that? And a lot of people who were there (and people around the country) felt that the government did not come to their aid because they were black. Kanye West's statement was a huge happening. Millions of people saw that. Did Bennett? He should know that the issue of racism is at the forefront right now. Everyone's thinking about it. Bush just said something about diveristy in his next choice of Supreme Court justice. The timing was inappropriate... not that any time would be a good time to say what was said.

[Morrigoon]

Suffice it to say, whether you believe the argument to actually be racist or not, I think it can almost universally be declared to be in poor judgement.

[Gemini Cricket]

^ Yes. Poor judgement.