Weekly Mail: 10 years after OJ
Hello!
Some of you didn't get Weekly Mail last week because the one I sent out contained some factual errors, so I killed the other editions. I was writing about former education secretary Bill Bennett, who said on his radio show that "if we aborted all the black babies, the crime rate would go down." My point was that if we aborted all black babies we would have missed out on many great people, like George Washington carver, who I thought discovered penicillin. Turns out I was wrong about the penicillin, but still was right about Carver being an important figure in science, someone wose early death would have made the world a poorer place.
Bennett was responding to a caller on his radio show. As I was reading through different accounts of what he said, some yo-yo's were actually defending him. Even he admitted he was wrong (though he used the world famous "taken out of context" defense). And of course on the other side, there were some who were suggesting that this was just another Bush administration conspiracy against African Americans.
But this is bigger than politics, this is about basic human decency. The knuckleheads that defended this schmuck say that statistically he was right. Well DUH! If you knock out half the population then yes statistically crime would go down. And guess what, if there was a nuclear war and the whole world got wiped out, guess what the crime rate would be then?
Zero percent. Even better than Guiliani's record.
Statistics don't defend the stupidity of the statement.
The ironic thing about the timing of Bennett's statement is that it came almost 10 years to the day that I feel was the most racially divisive day of my lifetime. October 3, 1995.
That was the day that OJ Simpson was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife Nichole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Everyone knows that since September 11th, I've beaten the drum of American Pride loud and long, but it was tough that day in 1995. I wasn't even that upset that he got off either. The jury sat through nearly 9 months of a trial, listening to testimony about DNA evidence that you needed a Masters in Biology to fully grasp. Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden had boxed themselves into a timeline that left no room for flexibility or for the possibility that OJ had someone with him when he did it. I'm sorry, you couldn't blame these people for having reasonable doubt.
But it was the celebrations and proclamations that followed that ripped the country apart in the days following. There were actually people dancing in the streets. On a talk show later that week, a white woman in the audience had suggested that LA would have burned to the ground had OJ been convicted. The predominantly black audience went bananas. How could she say that, they screamed. Three years after Rodney King, another horrible day for race relations in this country, how could she not?
We've come a long way since that October day in 1995. I have to give partial credit to of all things September 11th. That day, even if it was all too brief, we stood together as Americans, black or white. Guiliani himself said "On our worst day, we saw the best of our city." It really was. It was also in many ways, the best and worst day for our country. On that day, it really didn't matter where you stood, or what color your skin was did it?
Now 4 years after 9/11, they say we are divided again. At least this time, it Democrat vs. Republican, Conservative vs. Liberal. many will suggest that the Conservative vs. Liberal debate is more a white vs. black debate. I don't see it that way. There's a long way to go before we can say that all is equal, but after hearing what Bill Bennett had to say, and the backlash from all corners that followed, you have to give credit to the progress that's been made.
Especially since that October day 10 years ago.
Some of you didn't get Weekly Mail last week because the one I sent out contained some factual errors, so I killed the other editions. I was writing about former education secretary Bill Bennett, who said on his radio show that "if we aborted all the black babies, the crime rate would go down." My point was that if we aborted all black babies we would have missed out on many great people, like George Washington carver, who I thought discovered penicillin. Turns out I was wrong about the penicillin, but still was right about Carver being an important figure in science, someone wose early death would have made the world a poorer place.
Bennett was responding to a caller on his radio show. As I was reading through different accounts of what he said, some yo-yo's were actually defending him. Even he admitted he was wrong (though he used the world famous "taken out of context" defense). And of course on the other side, there were some who were suggesting that this was just another Bush administration conspiracy against African Americans.
But this is bigger than politics, this is about basic human decency. The knuckleheads that defended this schmuck say that statistically he was right. Well DUH! If you knock out half the population then yes statistically crime would go down. And guess what, if there was a nuclear war and the whole world got wiped out, guess what the crime rate would be then?
Zero percent. Even better than Guiliani's record.
Statistics don't defend the stupidity of the statement.
The ironic thing about the timing of Bennett's statement is that it came almost 10 years to the day that I feel was the most racially divisive day of my lifetime. October 3, 1995.
That was the day that OJ Simpson was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife Nichole Brown, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Everyone knows that since September 11th, I've beaten the drum of American Pride loud and long, but it was tough that day in 1995. I wasn't even that upset that he got off either. The jury sat through nearly 9 months of a trial, listening to testimony about DNA evidence that you needed a Masters in Biology to fully grasp. Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden had boxed themselves into a timeline that left no room for flexibility or for the possibility that OJ had someone with him when he did it. I'm sorry, you couldn't blame these people for having reasonable doubt.
But it was the celebrations and proclamations that followed that ripped the country apart in the days following. There were actually people dancing in the streets. On a talk show later that week, a white woman in the audience had suggested that LA would have burned to the ground had OJ been convicted. The predominantly black audience went bananas. How could she say that, they screamed. Three years after Rodney King, another horrible day for race relations in this country, how could she not?
We've come a long way since that October day in 1995. I have to give partial credit to of all things September 11th. That day, even if it was all too brief, we stood together as Americans, black or white. Guiliani himself said "On our worst day, we saw the best of our city." It really was. It was also in many ways, the best and worst day for our country. On that day, it really didn't matter where you stood, or what color your skin was did it?
Now 4 years after 9/11, they say we are divided again. At least this time, it Democrat vs. Republican, Conservative vs. Liberal. many will suggest that the Conservative vs. Liberal debate is more a white vs. black debate. I don't see it that way. There's a long way to go before we can say that all is equal, but after hearing what Bill Bennett had to say, and the backlash from all corners that followed, you have to give credit to the progress that's been made.
Especially since that October day 10 years ago.
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