ABC News: William Bennett Defends Comment on Abortion and Crime

Yesterday a lot of people made a big hoo-haw over Bill Bennett's remarks about race and crime. Everyone seemed to get pissed. I got a little pissed about it as well. However, I think the real problem isn't in the "kill black babies to reduce crime bit." That was an extrapolation of another idea and he immediately dismissed the idea. My ire came from the introductory phrase "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime..." The statement that pissed everyone off is, in context, not a bad thing, because it shows that Bennett can take a big idea and see the flaws in it. Stating it as truth is a racist thing. Bennett was right, there was a lot of talk about race and crime in the Katrina aftermath. We know FOX News made up stories about blacks shooting at rescue helicopters, and CNN ran pictures of white people "finding" supplies next to pictures of black people "looting." Maybe our leaders need to examine why so many of them thing "Black=Poor." I think it's also a problem of correlation vs. causality. Yes, blacks are overrepresented in the Poor population. I know I pointed that out yesterday, but that doesn't mean that being Black causes one to be poor. Everyone seems to be demanding Bennett apologize, even if Bennett was trying to use the idea to mock a liberal book. Everyone needs to look at the real source of the problem.