Shading the Truth

I saw yet another letter to the editor in The Birmingham News today accusing Bill Bennett of being a racist for his comments regarding blacks, abortion and crime. (In case you've been fortunate enough to forget, he said that if all black babies were aborted, the crime rate would go down.)

Bennett and his apologists claim he isn't racist for saying these things because he pointed out how morally reprehensible such an idea is and that it would be wrong to implement it.

The thing is he's right. Blacks commit some percentage of crime, regardless of whether or not they do so disproportionately. And if no more blacks grew up, then those who perpetuate crimes would be gone and the crime rate would go down.

Of course, the same logic applies to whites, or hispanics, or Asians. All groups commit crimes. Do away with any one particular group and crime will go down by what percentage they account for of total crimes. Plain and simple.

What really makes Bennett sound bigoted or even racist is that for his example he automatically - as if by second nature - chose blacks to be the subject of the analogy he was drawing. He could have chosen any group. Or he could have followed the lead of the caller who didn't identify a group when he said that if abortion was illegal, those aborted babies could have grown up to be productive taxpayers.