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Republican Desires: Yes We Klan!

Posted on: September 2, 2008 12:05 PM, by Greg Laden

"It is true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country..."

Republican Secretary of Education William Bennet, 1985 to 1988

Hat tip: Javier,who tells me that this video is "from the same guy who did the Expelled/astrology parody."

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Comments

Same Bennett who repeated on CNN several times last night that "study after study" show that abstinence-only education works without anyone telling him he's a liar?

Posted by: Coturnix | September 2, 2008 12:21 PM

I wonder if he's figured out yet that if we were to abort or prevent ALL pregnancies, juvenile crime would entirely disappear within 18 years.

Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | September 2, 2008 2:31 PM

Just so people get the reference - the fact that legalized abortion lowered the crime rate in the '90's (often among cities with high poor populations) was a proposal put forth in the book Freakonomics. That is the context. More abortions - less babies raised in bad environments - less crime.

Posted by: Markk | September 2, 2008 3:12 PM

In case this video should leave you with the impression that Bennett was for aborting black babies, here's the context of the quote.

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 --
CALLER: 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.

Posted by: Ted Smith | September 2, 2008 11:18 PM

To be clear (and honestly, I would have thought everyone would know about this by now) Bennett's statements were deeply racist because he divided US citizens into two categories: The black ones and the non-black ones, and claimed that the black ones would grow up to be the criminals and the non-black ones not.

Bennett is a full card carrying member of the Bell Curve Club, and a leader in that area of immoral judgementalism. Make no mistake.

Posted by: Greg Laden | September 3, 2008 7:18 AM

> he divided US citizens into two categories: The black ones and the non-black ones, and claimed that the black ones would grow up to be the criminals and the non-black ones not.

No, sorry, he didn't say that. It's a statistical fact that blacks commit more crime than whites, just as men commit more crime than women. It's a simple mathematical tautology that, assuming all else stays the same, if you get rid of those with the highest offending rate, the overall crime rate will go down. That's obvious to anyone who has computed, say, a team batting average.

Why that should be even in the least bit controversial is not clear.

Posted by: Ken Hirsch | September 3, 2008 11:33 AM

Ken, you assume that all else could stay the same. What if, while crunching your simplistic numbers, you discover that whomever you put in as catcher has a crappy batting average while playing there, even if they don't when they play any other position? Maybe it's something about having to crouch all the time.

Getting rid of any one catcher isn't going to change the batting average. Do you get rid of anyone who looks like they could catch? You can't fix the problem without changing the game.

Posted by: Stephanie Z | September 3, 2008 12:14 PM

And then there are the umps....

Posted by: Stephanie Z | September 3, 2008 12:19 PM

Ken, in my neighborhood you killed all the black babies at birth and kept all the white babies, the crime rate would not change at all.

Now, on the other hand, if you burned down all the trailers with the people in them, crime would stop that very moment.

Posted by: Greg Laden | September 3, 2008 1:57 PM

Not all crime, Greg. Just the kinds people actually get prison time for.

Posted by: Stephanie Z | September 3, 2008 2:16 PM