Reality or Racism?

I'm late to the game on this one but I've totally amazed at the noise those in the "progressive community" have made over comments that Bill Bennett made recently on his radio show.

His caller said: "Abortion is bad because it has worsened the financing of Social Security." Bennett says: "Stay focused. We're anti-abortion not because we think that abortion is a means that leads to bad ends like a higher Social Security deficit; we're anti-abortion because abortion is bad; make arguments like 'abortion is bad because it increases the Social Security deficit' and other people will make arguments like 'abortion is good because it lowers the crime rate' and we'll lose sight of the main point....."

"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, you know, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

To say that these comments are "racist" is truly stupid. I've yet to see a proper explanation of why these comments are racist. They are just labeled racist and no kind of reasoning is provided. Are they racist because he recognizes that some Black babies will grow up and commit crimes? Is that statement not true? Bennett might have been able to be more careful with his comments by also mentioning that if you "aborted every white male baby the crime rate would also eventually go down" but calling these comments racist is obvious race-baiting.

For example, take a look at Howard Dean's remarks. This is playground name-calling at its worst. How are Bennett's statements "hateful" or "ignorant?"

Where was Howard Dean and the rest of Bennett's detractors when Stephen Leavitt made similar claims about abortion and crime?

LaShawn Barber breaks it down well when she says,

Bennett's hypothetical is based on fact. Blacks are 12.3 percent of the population, and about half are black men, which means black men are approximately 6 percent of the U.S. population. Yet, they commit over half of all violent crimes (see Bureau of Justice statistics). Why aren't you outraged over those shameful statistics?

Hypothetical speaking, if fewer black boys were born, there'd be fewer around to commit crimes. Bennett didn't (and couldn't if he wanted to!) say that all blacks commit crimes. In the aggregate, however, blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes relative to their numbers in the general population. It follows, statistically speaking, that the fewer blacks there are, the fewer crimes will be committed. This is not a racist statement, people. It is a statistical reality. Blame black criminal thugs for preying on their own people, not Bill Bennett for pointing it out.

Is it racist to say that if you killed every Black male between the ages of 18-35 the crime rate would go down? Or is it a reality?

Is it racist to say that if you killed every Hispanic male between the ages of 18-35 the crime rate would go down? Or is it a reality?

Is it racist to say that if you killed every white male between the ages of 18-35, the crime rate would go down? Or is it a reality?

Besides grasping at any opportunity to call a white conservative a "racist," I think many pro-choice liberals want to make sure that nobody is talking about abortion in the African-American community. They've got to shift the topic because talking about how abortion has decimated the African-American community is not a winning topic for them.

What would happen in politics if a large majority of African-Americans knew that while Black people are around 12% of America's population, they get around 36% of America's abortions. What would happen in politics if a large majority of African-Americans knew that they were no longer the largest minority group in the United States because of abortion?