Lots to talk about. I've been reeling from a successive volley of GOP-scandal body blows to rival the beleagured Roy Jones, Jr.
I didn't post anything about the Bennett fiasco for a few reasons. As personally repellent as I found the comments (in their proper context thank you.), I was even more blown away specious Right wing attempts to explain them away.
To begin, Bennett's "thought exercise" is hardly a tour de force of logic. Since there are criminals in every racial population, killing the babies of one population will reduce the crime rate in the same way that removing all red cars will reduce the automobile emissions rate. So let's be clear, Bennett's real problem is that HE introduced race into the argument. Neither the caller, nor the author of Freakonomics (whose book was under discussion) mentioned race as a factor in the premise of relating abortion to crime rate. In fact, as others have discussed, the author used Scadinavian data as part of his analytical model. Not exactly a locus of Black population.
But his defenders are even worse. Driving through L.A., I listened to one conservative host, incredulously ask what was wrong with the statement on its face. Let's look at some numbers. According to DOJ statitics, there are approximately 3 million prisoners in the nation's prisons and jails. According to their most current data on prisoners and parolees, White prisoners outnumber black prisoners 1.5 to 1.
But let's look at the numbers another way. Given this data, more than 90% of Black people in America ARE NOT involved with the criminal justice system in any way. Removing parolees drops the figure to less than 5%. So Bennett's plan is to eliminate 95% of a population as a means of curbing the criminal potential of less than 5%. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. That SOUNDS pretty racist to me.
I didn't post anything about the Bennett fiasco for a few reasons. As personally repellent as I found the comments (in their proper context thank you.), I was even more blown away specious Right wing attempts to explain them away.
To begin, Bennett's "thought exercise" is hardly a tour de force of logic. Since there are criminals in every racial population, killing the babies of one population will reduce the crime rate in the same way that removing all red cars will reduce the automobile emissions rate. So let's be clear, Bennett's real problem is that HE introduced race into the argument. Neither the caller, nor the author of Freakonomics (whose book was under discussion) mentioned race as a factor in the premise of relating abortion to crime rate. In fact, as others have discussed, the author used Scadinavian data as part of his analytical model. Not exactly a locus of Black population.
But his defenders are even worse. Driving through L.A., I listened to one conservative host, incredulously ask what was wrong with the statement on its face. Let's look at some numbers. According to DOJ statitics, there are approximately 3 million prisoners in the nation's prisons and jails. According to their most current data on prisoners and parolees, White prisoners outnumber black prisoners 1.5 to 1.
But let's look at the numbers another way. Given this data, more than 90% of Black people in America ARE NOT involved with the criminal justice system in any way. Removing parolees drops the figure to less than 5%. So Bennett's plan is to eliminate 95% of a population as a means of curbing the criminal potential of less than 5%. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. That SOUNDS pretty racist to me.
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