Ellen Judithe Carter
Published: December 7, 2005
Writing this on the 42-year anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I wonder how far along this country has come. With the likes of Kennedy, King and others who fought for the equality of all people, I believe that we have made some progress, but still have a long way to go.
This year has been wrought with tragedies and devastations that many have not seen in a long time, and many others still, have never seen. From the start of the year with the shootings in Atlanta, to the recent announcements of General Motors laying off thousands of people and closing several plants over the next few years, it has been quite a year.
One thing has stuck out like a sore thumb, though: the comment that former Education Secretary William Bennett made in September. Bennett, who held key posts in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, told a caller on his syndicated radio talk show one Wednesday in September: “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.”
Coming hot off the heels of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and all the racial animosity that they brought, his comment was way out of line. But was I surprised? No. Was I shocked that someone with Mr. Bennett’s education and standing could say such a thing? No. Was I hurt that we have not made any progress in our efforts to understand and abandon racism in such open forums as radio? Yes.
Bennett has stated that he was putting forth a hypothetical statement to be examined and that his words were taken out of context. As far as I am concerned, there is no context for those words. To say them means that he believes that this may be one solution to a problem that has considerably more to do with more than whether or not black children are born.
What it has quite a bit to do with is whether blacks and other ethnic minorities are accepted in this society. The differences are apparent, but no one answers the difficult questions, such as why crime is so prevalent in poorer communities and why poorer communities are laden with blacks and other minorities. We have only to look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to know that the majority of the people who could not get out of New Orleans, even if they had wanted to, were black.
It is also important to note that Black Americans have made little progress compared to whites in terms of income. Unemployment among blacks is more than double that for whites, 10.8 percent versus 5.2 percent in 2003- a wider gap than in 1972.
This economic disparity becomes evident when tragedies such as Katrina occur. The blacks that were shown taking items from stores were said to have been stealing. Many were, but many others were just trying to survive.
Bennett’s comments were made out of an utter lack of understanding of and sympathy for the situation. As unfortunate as it may sound, I wonder if we have really made any progress in the race relations department. Bennett’s comments reminded me that in many ways, we haven’t.