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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
October 9, 2005
Bennett's words
inflammatory,
but not wrong |
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"You should know better."
How many times have you either been told or said
that about someone?
Generally, when a person does something wrong, they do know
better. Nowadays it's become harder to distinguish between wrong
and just plain unpopular.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar, best-selling
author, and current radio talk show host William Bennett is hearing,
"You should have known better."
In case you haven't heard, he was quoted as saying on his
syndicated radio show, "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 one
statement set off a racial brush fire not seen since rapper Kanye
West said President Bush didn't care about blacks.
Realizing the political fallout from that comment, Bennett
should have known better. Liberal Democrats and "Black Only Rights"
leaders are calling for Bennett's radio show to be canceled. Others
are demanding an apology. They are appalled at his nerve to voice
such an outrageous idea.
Somehow these few feel they need to protect blacks in America
from the pain caused by Bennett's babbling. There is no such pain.
For starters, it took a liberal media watchdog group to take the
comments from Bennett's radio show, "Morning America," which doesn't
have a large black audience, and bring it to the masses.
Once it hit the multimedia, it spread like melted government
cheese. Many blacks can't believe a white man is allowed to utter
such nonsense in 2005. His comments just further fueled the silly
notion some hold that the black man still doesn't have a chance in
America.
Hogwash. The second part of his statement is not getting much
airplay. He immediately followed his controversial statement with,
"That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible
thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."
For all those who have publicly proclaimed what an evil man
Bennett is for making a harmless statement, I think they are very
hypocritical. It's easy to jump on the Down with Bennett
Bandwagon. What are the real underlying issues?
If those opposed to what he said really care about blacks, why
haven't they condemned the black mothers who legally aborted black
babies? What are they doing about the rampant crime against blacks
by blacks? More importantly, what are they doing to curb black drug
usage that is aborting generations of young blacks?
Why aren't these politicians and do-gooders attacking real
problems?
Instead of trying to stop one white man from offending a few
blacks by exercising his legal right to free speech, more effort
could be spent trying to stop black on black crime.
I suspect that 99.9 percent of blacks didn't even know who
William Bennett was until this issue, and they aren't concerned with
his opinion. The overblown comments will soon fade as soon as those
attempting to capitalize on this issue realize most blacks aren't
that insecure.
If he had said that getting rid of rap music would make this a
better place, he would have caused a civil war. Because that is
something really important to black America.
So what do I think about what Bennett said? Nothing. I find
more troubling issues when I read the blotter.
What he said was not wrong or illegal. It was inflammatory, at
best. Bennett is a white man who said something unpopular in a
country where it's OK only for a black person to harm or offend
another black person. Bennett should have known better. |
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