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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us October 6, 2005 Commentary Bennett was taken out of context Rob Asghar Yes, Bill Bennett is an arrogant, insensitive and sometimes hypocritical social commentator. But he is not a cruel racist, nor should he be drummed out of the public arena for daring to think out loud last week about what he himself termed “a noxious hypothetical analogy” about how crime would go down if black fetuses were aborted. Taken out of context, Bennett’s inflammatory words were these: “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.” Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel led a chorus of horrified voices. “At the very time our country yearns for national unity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” Emanuel protested, “these comments reflect a spirit of hate and division.” Other congressmen demanded Bennett be suspended from the radio program on which he made his comments. Even the White House denounced him. Problems arise: Bennett never called for a reduction in the African-American population. He was simply cautioning people from making snap practical judgments based on the contention in the best-selling book “Freakonomics” that easy access to abortion had led to a drop in potential criminals. His point was that if a seemingly salutary effect might result from an evil action, that action remains evil. Regardless of how you feel about a woman’s right to choose, it’s a valid point. But he unfortunately chose to dress that point in a hot-button racial skirt. Yet even if he had spoken more generally about the American underclass, opponents would have pummeled him for insensitivity to the underprivileged. What they would not have done is entered into a rational debate about the meta-message behind Bennett’s words. What are we to do with the facts, once we are done with hysteria, oversensitivity and political posturing? The federal government reported that, at the end of 2003, more than 9 percent of black men ages 25 to 29 were in prison, higher than any other group (this compares to just over 1 percent of whites and 2.6 percent of Hispanic males in that age demographic). Sociologist Charles Murray recently pointed out that the illegitimacy rate — which is highest among low-income groups and which serves as a predictor of antisocial behavior — has reached 68 percent among American blacks. That is double the overall rate and triple the rate for blacks four decades ago, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously warned us of the implications of the breakdown of the black family. Given this, the scenario postulated by Bennett is plausible — and, yes, it is reprehensible, which he himself emphasized. Yet now that he has made the valid connection of race and crime, how shall we debate it? “Bennett certainly should have been more circumspect in how he discussed the matter,” said Bill Maier, a vice president and psychologist-in-residence at Focus on the Family. “But he was bringing up some important points about the link between family problems and crime.” Maier, who has extensively studied the relationships between family structure and the propensity for anti-social behavior, told me that the Bennett hubbub reflects “a defensiveness and a tendency to go to the easy emotional argument. What critics are doing by condemning him is distracting people from the real issues at hand. “The cheap route to take is to kill the messenger with an emotional trump card. It’s easier to decry someone as racist or cruel than to deal with the facts.” Bennett was citing the facts — and it is the facts that are cruel, not Bennett. More than worrying about hurt feelings, more than cramming the facts into a closet, we as a society need to face these harsh and disturbing facts in the light of day — so that real solutions can triumph over sentimental politeness. Only then can we begin to make a better life for babies of any color, a life governed by something greater than feeble rationalizations of self-destructive behavior. 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