O Tempora, O Mores! (July, 1995)
American Renaissance, July 1995
The May 23rd issue of the Wall Street Journal published a cover story about the recent trend towards eliminating courses for gifted students. The latest theory is that separating children by ability is elitist, if not racist, and that, anyway, smart children are improved by studying with dullards. To their credit, many white parents will not sit still for this nonsense, and have raised a sizable stink. They have forced a number of schools that had tried “mixed classes” to switch back to “tracking.” However, as the Journal explains, the return to grouping by ability usually works only in all-white schools. Integrated schools invariably have too many whites and Asians in the advanced classes and too many blacks and Hispanics in the slow classes, and such demonstrations of racial differences are unacceptable. [Sarah Lubman, Parents flunk schools that put gifted pupils with lower achievers, WSJ, 5/23/95, p. 1.]
In the meantime, a recent study of a group of 1,500 children identified as gifted in 1922 shows that brains are a bonus even in old age. These people are healthier than average, and more likely than other old people still to be at work in their professions. Those who have retired are involved to an unusual degree in hobbies and volunteer work. During their careers, this group was far more successful than average, and many became nationally known. Ninety-five percent of the men chose professional careers or were business executives, but only 40 percent of the women did so.
Another recent study has shown that 93 percent of the Ph.D candidates at the nation’s five highest-ranking math and science graduate schools had test scores in the seventh grade that put them in the top one half percent of all students. [Betsy White, Gifted kids live up to potential, study says, Atlanta Journal/Constitution, 4/23/95, p. A4.]
Hot Momma
Madeline Vasquez is the president of the parents’ association of her child’s school in East Harlem, New York — or at least she was this spring, when she collected $800 from children for class photographs. The money proved to be too great a temptation, and she spent it, but this meant she had to account for it. She decided to engineer an emergency that would require evacuation of the school building and then claim that the money, which she would say she had left in the principal’s office, had been stolen while the building was empty.
Her first try, phoning in a bomb threat, failed because the school was not evacuated. She then hit upon the idea of setting fire to the school, which she did at 9:15 a.m. on April 4th. The blaze sent some 650 children screaming into the streets, and two teachers had to be treated for smoke inhalation. In May, her story began to unravel, and she confessed to setting the fire. [Dan Janison, Jeff Simmons & Eric Stirgus, Parents’ prez sets school afire to hide theft: cops, NY Post, 5/9/95, p. 14.]
Whites See Red
The White Officers Association has brought suit against the Houston Police Department because it is the only employee group forbidden to recruit members at the Houston police academy. Four other racial and ethnic groups do this routinely. So far, this would be an ordinary if mildly encouraging story — except that the white officers are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. Perhaps the organization may some day take its name seriously again. [White police group sees red, — — Law Journal, 5/15/95, White officer’s association of the Houston Police Department v. Houston Police Department, 95-1274 (S.D. Texas).]
Unbearable
In May, the carcass of a 150 pound female bear was found dumped in a public park. Several of its internal organs had been cut out and replaced with a crucifix, which suggests that this was the work of Santeria devotees. The bear was found, of all places, in Forest Park, in the New York borough of Queens. “This is the first time this has happened in a New York City park,” says the Parks Commissioner, who has offered a $2,500 reward for information on the killer. [Philip Messing, $2,500 reward for bear killer, NY Post, 5/24/95.]
They must know they are in trouble. A group of black businessmen have established a new Political Action Committee that will give money only to candidates who support racial preferences for blacks. One of the founders and a spokesman for the PAC is Earl Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise magazine. [Stephanie Mehta, New PAC of top black entrepreneurs could aid affirmative-action defenses, WSJ, 5/10/95.]
There were two sadly similar stories in the May 9 issue of the New York Post. In April, 1993, five Brooklyn “youths” found a white woman jogging alone on the Coney Island boardwalk. They dragged her under the boardwalk, where they took turns raping, sodomizing, punching, and kicking her. The crime, committed against a recent immigrant to the United States, caused a stir at the time. This May, the “youths” were given plea-bargained sentences that ranged from four-to-ten years to seven-to-21 years. They showed utterly no remorse, and laughed and joked as their lawyers spoke with the judge.
One convict’s mother then claimed her son got a harsh sentence because he was black. “When did you ever hear of anyone getting 20 years for rape?” she wanted to know. A father ranted about blacks being persecuted by a white criminal justice system. [Andrea Peyser, Why Coney Island Thugs will laugh all the way to prison, NY Post, 5/9/95, p. 8.]
On the same day, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, another black was sentenced to life in prison plus 100 years. In 1992, 25-year-old Scott Johnson abducted a 35-year-old white woman and her three-year-old daughter at a shopping mall. He left the child in a rural area, where she wandered along for eight hours. He raped the woman and then killed her, stabbing her 40 times.
The victim’s husband was disappointed that the killer was not sentenced to death. “Justice is not being served until that animal is dead,” he told the court. Mr. Johnson shot back with “You better stop calling me an animal, motherf*****.” The husband beckoned to Johnson and shouted “Come on,” but bailiffs prevented a fight. At one point, the victim’s sister screamed “Why, why did you have to kill her?” Mr. Johnson smirked. As he was led from the courtroom, members of the victim’s family shouted “Animal, animal, animal.” [Jennifer Havilah, Mockery of Justice, NY Post, May 9, 1995, p. 9.]
Whites who have experiences like this — and there will be more of them — are not likely to be receptive to today’s propaganda about equality and integration.
Carrillo Castro, former Mexican consul to Chicago and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, is urging his country to loosen restrictions on Mexican dual nationality. He wants American “citizens” to be able to vote in the United States without feeling they have abandoned their ties to Mexico. As he explains, this would give Mexicans more influence in the United States and would help prevent passage of restrictive immigration laws. If the Mexican government makes dual nationality legal, we can expect a huge wave of naturalizations — strictly in the interests of Mexico. [Teresa Puente, Mexicans back dual nationality, Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1995, Sec. 2, p. 3.]
Meanwhile, an Africa-America “roots summit” ended in Dakar, Senegal, with a call for American blacks to “take a stake in their ancestral home” by applying for dual citizenship in African countries. Leon Sullivan, a long-time black activist, led the call, claiming that he is already a citizen of Gabon, Gambia, and Ivory Coast. The “summit” also called for reduction and forgiveness of African debt, which is estimated at about $300 billion. [Reuters, Africa-America summit urges dual citizenship for U.S. blacks, News and Observer (Charlotte), 5/6/95.]
Looking Into the Abyss
How sad it must be to be honest, clear-sighted, and black. Keith Richburg, a black American who spent several years as a reporter in Africa for the Washington Post, recently summed up his experiences in the paper’s April 10-16 issue of its weekly edition.
“I’ve seen monumental greed and corruption, brutality, tyranny, and evil,” he writes, in order to explain a feeling that has been building up within him. “I’m no longer even going to pretend to block that feeling from my mind. I empathize with Africa’s pain . . . But most of all I feel secretly glad that my ancestor made it out — because now, I am not one of them.” “There, but for the grace of God go I,” he adds, with rare candor. Mr. Richburg knows very well that his ancestor was shipped to America in chains, but he writes, “I thank God my ancestor made that voyage.”
In a long article that covers many countries and many horrors, Mr. Richburg writes about the hypocrisy of the second Africa-America “summit,” held in Gabon in May, 1993: “[It was] a nauseating outpouring of praise from black Americans for a coterie of Africa’s most ruthless strongmen and dictators. There were such famous champions of civil rights as Jesse Jackson heaping accolades on the likes of Nigeria’s number one military thug at the time, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida . . .”
Near the end of his Africa assignment he wrote from Somalia: “I write this surrounded by my own high fence, protected by two large dogs, a security guard, a silent alarm system and a large metal door that I bolt shut at night to keep ‘Africa’ from coming across the yard and bashing in my brains with a panga knife for the $200 in my desk drawer. I am tired and . . . ready to go.”
What part of Africa will he miss? “Cape Town is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, and one can feel perfectly at peace on the veranda of the Bay Hotel. But all I remember thinking was: Imagine all the horror that lies between here and Cairo, in that vast stretch of earth we call black Africa.”
Mr. Richburg has taken a new assignment in Southeast Asia. [Keith Richburg, A Black American in Africa, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, April 10-16, 1995, pp. 6ff.]
African-America
We belatedly report a story from the recent aldermanic elections in Chicago. Candidate Hal Baskin decided to make a campaign issue of the fact that his opponent, the four-year incumbent, Shirley Coleman, was once married to a man now scheduled for execution for rape and murder. “She may not have been giving the man what he needed at home,” Mr. Baskin explained to reporters, “and that is maybe the reason he went out there on one of those rape sprees.”
Mr. Baskin was, himself, scarcely a model candidate. He acknowledged a long arrest record for everything from disorderly conduct to murder, but pointed out proudly that he was acquitted of the murder charge. Mr. Baskin was defeated. [Mary Johnson & Maudlyne Ihejirika, Foe blames alderman for ex-husband’s crimes, Chi Sun-Times, 3/18/95, p. 1.]
Every Governor Has It
Marion Barry, mayor of Washington, DC and former jail bird, would like to have the power to pardon criminals. He claims that the district is essentially a state, and since the governors of states can pardon criminals, he should have the same power. When asked if he had anyone in mind for a pardon, he replied “No. C’mon, it’s general.” [Beg Your Pardon, Washington Times (Metropolitan Times), April 19, 1995, p. C2.]
Berry Wise
Mary Frances Berry is a black woman who has had a full government career as a promoter of the black race. In 1984, during one of her stints at the public trough, she wrote that civil rights laws were not passed to protect the rights of white men and do not apply to them.
She is co-author of a book, also published in 1984, called Long Memory: The Black Experience in America. She says this about the Johnson years: “Although most historians have dismissed the claims of Afro-Americans that the United States had inaugurated a campaign of genocide against black people . . . as unfounded [and] hysterical, the threat of genocide was real.”
She also explains why so few blacks recognized the extraordinary promise of Soviet communism: “[They were] subjected to a massive barrage of propaganda from American news media . . . [so that] few of them knew about Russia’s constitutional safeguards for minorities, the extent of equal opportunity or the equal provision of social services to its citizens.” [Eric Briendel, Review panel with affirmative accents, 3/29/95, p. A23.] Mrs. Berry is currently chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
All in the Mind
A recent study finds that while 90 percent of white junior-high and high-school girls are unsatisfied with their body weights, 70 percent of black girls are perfectly happy with theirs. Even quite fat ones say they are content with their bodies. Although black girls agreed that “very overweight” women should diet, they define this as someone who “takes up two seats on a bus.” Black boys apparently see things the same way. “You got to be real fat for me to notice,” explains one Harlem 15-year-old. [Michele Ingrassia, The body of the beholder, Newsweek, 4/24/95, pp. 66ff.]
Brave to the End
We have reported twice (March and April, 1995) on the killing of Michael Westerman, the young Kentucky father of twins, who was shot by blacks because he was flying a Confederate battle flag from the back of his pickup truck. Confederate Veteran, the official publication of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, has also decided to denounce the crime. They courageously report that Mr. Westerman was killed by “youths,” race unspecified.
In the meantime, the Clinton justice department is keeping its record spotless. So far, it has not prosecuted a single non-white for committing a hate crime against a white, and has declined to so classify the murder of Michael Westerman. [Michael Hedges, Killing blamed on rebel flag unfurls racial tension in Kentucky, Wash Times, 3/29/95, p. 1.]
Report from the Sun People
Leonard Jeffries is the chairman of the African-American studies department of the City College of New York. He is the well-known black supremacist who got into a scrape a few years ago for denouncing Jews, but he is now safely back at his academic post. He consented to be interviewed in the May 1995 issue of Rutherford magazine:
Q: Do you think America can ever move beyond its history of slavery?
A: No, never. Four hundred years of the devastation of 100 million black people can never be dealt with, not in a thousand years . . .
Q: What does America need to do, then?
A: Reparations. That’s what it’s all about.
Q: What kind of reparations are you talking about?
A: Everything you can think of . . .
Q: So this concept of black and white living peacefully together is just a fantasy?
A: We can’t live peacefully together, slave and master. How can a slave live peacefully with his master?
Q: But the black man is no longer a slave.
A: The slave should be waking up, thinking of ways to slit the slavemaster’s throat . . .
Q: What kind of world do you want to leave to your children?
A: A world in which there aren’t any white people . . .
Q: Would you just wipe them off the earth if you could?
A: It’s not necessary. They’re doing that job themselves. [T.L. Stanclu & Nisha Mohammed, Leonard Jeffries Jr., Rutherford, May 1995, p. 13.]
To Privilege Born
The career of black Congressman Mel Reynolds of Chicago is a sorry example of where affirmative action can lead. The former Rhodes scholar and Ivy Leaguer is now charged with statutory rape, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering.
Probably no white man has ever had the opportunity to drop out of Yale University, Yale Law School, and Harvard Law School, but Mr. Reynolds failed to get degrees at all three. He finally graduated from the University of Illinois. A Yale classmate remembers that Mr. Reynolds always sought special treatment: “He didn’t attend a lot of his finals. He always did them at home. He always had a ‘personal problem.’ He had a ‘family problem’ and he’d have to do it [the exam] by himself . . .”
A University of Illinois professor who recommended him for a Rhodes scholarship freely admits that he pushed him ahead of better qualified whites because “we were thinking that a black person, a person of stature and strength, could make a difference in the black community that a white man couldn’t.” At Oxford, the warden of Rhodes House says, “I either remember he failed all his exams or had to take them twice and showed the deepest reluctance to face his examiners . . . I think he expected special terms.”
He once showed up for an Oxford exam with his arm in a sling, claiming he had been hurt in a basketball game, though none of the other basketball players remembered the injury. When he learned that some people thought he was faking, he said “[White] people always talk about African-Americans because they are racist pigs.”
One fellow Rhodes scholar who is also in Congress rented Mr. Reynolds a house in Washington. After Mr. Reynolds racked up $6,000 in unpaid bills, his fellow congressman threw him out. In all, creditors are pursuing Mr. Reynolds and his wife, Marisol, for an estimated $145,000 in bad debts.
During his campaign for Congress, Mr. Reynolds was the media darling, and got sympathetic coverage when a bullet smashed the windshield of his campaign car. Reporters obediently assumed the shot was fired by a political opponent, but many now suspect Mr. Reynolds staged the event himself.
Last August, a campaign worker accused the congressman of having sex with her when she was sixteen. Although the woman is black, Mr. Reynolds blames the accusation on racism. He has since been charged with paying her to keep her quiet, falsifying evidence, and obstructing justice.
His early supporters express great disappointment in him, but they made Mel Reynolds what he is today. They helped him get away with so much, there was little reason for him to believe he would ever have to play by the rules. [Ellen Warren, Amid hopes, always doubts, Chi Tribune, 5/7/95, p. 1.]
No Pearls Found
Fred Reed is a newspaper columnist who often writes about law enforcement. In a recent column, he described the job of a patrolman:
A funny thing about police work is the sense of isolation a cop feels on some beats, an almost Lewis-and-Clark feeling of being on his own in Indian country . . . As white guys in a black-and-Latin region, we were ethno-culturally in the wrong solar system . . .
It felt like scuba diving. The fish on the reef were not necessarily hostile but, when you got down to it, they were still fish. The reef is their home, not yours. [Fred Reed, In rotting cities, a cop is largely on his own, Washington Times, 3/27/95, p. C2.]
White Man’s Burden
Arnold O’Donnell is a very unusual man. He is co-owner, with his brother John, of a small construction company that specializes in repairing streets and sidewalks. His customers are almost always local governments. He works in the District of Columbia — and he is white.
He points out that the work his company does is the very kind that is usually set aside for minorities. He says that over the years he has been prevented from bidding on “several hundred projects” because he is white. Last November, for example, all the road-building work for the expansion of Washington National Airport was restricted to “disadvantaged” businesses. Mr. O’Donnell points out that if anyone is disadvantaged in bidding for Washington, DC contracts, it is a white owner of a small construction company.
The U.S. Department of Transportation, which decides who is “disadvantaged,” has designated the following protected classes: blacks, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians, and people from Burma, Singapore, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Sri Lanka or Bhutan. [Karen Riley, Bearing the white man’s burden?, Wash Times, 4/5/95, p. A1.] We have never heard of racial discrimination against Bhutanese, but it is nice to know that the Department of Transportation is looking out for them.
Unemployer of Last Resort
Blacks are more than three times as likely as whites to be dismissed from federal employment. Hispanics and Asians are dismissed at essentially the same rate as whites. This news has been widely reported and has prompted the expected calls for investigation into government “racism.” It has been rarely pointed out that the divergence in firing rates is strictly in the “misconduct” category, which includes embezzlement, insubordination, and violence. When federal workers are fired merely for poor job performance — apparently this sometimes happens — blacks are no more likely to be dismissed than whites. [Karen de Witt, Blacks Prone to dismissal by the U.S., NYT, 4/20/95.]
All-American Boy
Tyson Beckford is 24 years old and shaves his head. He is also the first black model to sign an exclusive contract with Ralph Lauren to model the company’s clothing and accessories. “Tyson has an all-American look with a dramatic edge,” explains Mr. Lauren. [NYT, 3/18/95.]
