...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.
He's saying that you can come up with theories and statistics that would suggest many different far-reaching consequences of some actions, and that its easy to focus on just one consequence and forget to consider the others. The point he was making was a good and logical one.
Unfortunately, the ridiculous scenario he constructed to illustrate the caller's ridiculous chain of logic contained the phrase "you could abort every black baby in the country, and your crime rate would go down." That is a damn shocking statement taken in isolation, and that piece of the quote was widely reported without adequate context. No matter what point he was trying to make, no matter how thoroughly he immediately dismissed that idea as "reprehensible," and no matter how obviously mathematically accurate the assertion, that quote is a disaster.
Reading it just makes me wince, because 2 highly sensitive issues are so casually throw out there:
1.) killing lots of babies, (especially with the government being the implied killer)
2.) the relationship between race and crime
Like so many important issues, it seems this can't be intelligently debated without sensitive people overreacting. That is then inevitably followed by prominent politicians harshly waving their finger at the shockingly indelicate, in this case Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Illinois) threw phrases like "hurtful and ignorant rhetoric" and "outrageous racism of the most bigoted and ignorant kind." Who comes up with these quotes? I guess Bennett's racism is worse than racism of a moderately bigoted and semi-educated kind.
Maybe Bobby Rush has lots of genuinely insightful thoughts about abortion, and maybe he has important ideas about fighting crime. He probably has a lot to say about how poverty and discrimination are important factors in the alarmingly high rate of criminal behavior by young black men. But who wants to hear about that? Its more fun to hear congressmen calling people mean names.
There shouldn't be anything wrong with pointing out that crime rates are disproportionately high among black people in this country. It is one of many problems that all Americans are faced with, and it is logical to sometimes make connections between problems. Regardless of my own views on abortion and the race/crime issue, I understand what Bennet was trying to show, and it should be obvious that nothing he said is cause for offense.
I respect his willingness to make bold statements while debating a sensitive issue, and I think it is sad that he is going to have to deal with so much bullshit because of it. This CNN article might as well have the headline "BILL BENNET IS A RACIST! BILL BENNET WANTS TO KILL BLACK BABIES! BILL BENNET BELIEVES ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS!"
In addition to the Bobby Rush quotes, the article contains this:
Asked if he owed people an apology, Bennett replied, "I don't think I do. I think people who misrepresented my view owe me an apology."
I think he's right. But I also think he should have known this would happen, deserved or not.
I hate politics!
Anyway, Steve Levitt's thoughts on the matter, and the comments of his readers are fascinating to me.
Since many commenters pointed out the distinction between 'crime' and 'crime rate,' which were loosely used by Bennet in his original statement, and by Levitt in his thoughts, Levitt later posted: "anyone who reads my blog post on Bennett and thinks the most important question is 'crime' vs. 'crime rate' is missing the point."
3 comments:
Years ago I would have jokingly suggested that this awful statement was true. I might have been kidding or perhaps just saying it to be mean - but I can see myself agreeing with it on face value.
Now, as a quasi-educated professional, I can only say that it is a factually true statement. What harm can come from stating facts? Well, we see here in this example of the shitstorm which often ensues.
I think this is an example of poor judgement. I think this is MORESO an example of how politicians (Rush) will find any obvious way to sound right. I.e. When Mrs Clinton (YUCK, please don't vote for her) jumped on the bandwagon condemning Greand Theft Auto's sex scene. I highly doubt there were too many people with educated opinions stating that being able to have your character fellated on XBox is a sweet thing. It was just that Clinton was the first to hit her buzzer and chime in.
Sadly, as Rush and Clinton simply state obvious things here (as even a household pet could do), somewhere down the line they will be taking credit for these statements as if they were acheivements.
I hate politics.
Anyway, I won't waste valuable web space, as I think you already know most of my thoughts on the subject of race and crime.
Good stuff John McAdams.
WHY LOUIS?
X-Factor
Louis Walsh is the undisputed king of the Irish pop scene. He’s the man behind some of the most successful bands in pop history, but today he has brought all that to a shame.
Sharon Osbourne said "It's not what your passport says but Talent"
Louis has deeply discriminated a young talented Black Lady called MAria Lawson because he couldn't afford to see a black lady with so much talent over an Irish Group Singer and has totaly sended her out of the X-factor, by saying he has followed his heart.
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