O Tempora, O Mores! (September, 1995)

An Important Victory

The current assault on racial preferences is the first time in decades that whites have acted in their own racial interests. Ever since the 1950s, whites have lost every battle over race. Although it should never have been necessary to fight against systematic discrimination against the majority, whites are winning victories that no one would have predicted only two or three years ago.

On July 20th, the Board of Regents, which is the governing body of all California state universities, voted to forbid race and sex preferences in admissions, hiring, and contracting. California has the largest state university system in the country, and the decision is likely to be copied by other states. This important vote was taken under the leadership of California governor, Pete Wilson, who has made the elimination of racial preferences a central theme in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

The chancellors of all nine of the university’s campuses have said they want to stick with the old system of discrimination. Jesse Jackson, who is not a resident of California but who led protests anyway, called the vote “a blatant act of racism.” “I do not wish to be colorblind,” he said, adding that society should be “race-caring” rather than “race-neutral.” Leaders of non-white student groups have promised protests and campus disruption when they return to school in the fall. [Amy Wallace & Dae Lesher, UC Regents, in historic vote, wipe out affirmative action, LA Times, 7/21/95, p. 1.]

The White House chief of staff, Leon Panetta, promptly announced that federal funds might be withheld from California — he thinks eliminating discrimination against whites is a punishable offense — but the Department of Education admitted unhappily that this could not be done.

Presumably, this vote renders moot a creative consumer-fraud suit that a lawyer filed recently against the University of California. Allan Favish pointed out that U.C. law and medical school applications were lying to applicants when they claimed that the schools did not discriminate on the basis of sex or race. He did not propose that race and sex preferences be eliminated; only that the schools correct their false advertising by including in their applications tables of race, grades, and test scores of people previously admitted. [William Honan, Preference in admission is attacked in fraud suit, NYT, 6/7/95, p. B8.]

Back in Washington, DC, the very day before the vote by the University of California regents, President Bill Clinton gave a long-awaited speech on affirmative action, which he pronounced “good for America.” The speech was filled with the usual blather:

The purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a way to finally address the systemic exclusion of individuals of talent, on the basis of their gender or race, from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop a systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced longstanding and persistent discrimination. [Paul richter, Clinton declares affirmative action is ‘good for America,’ LA Times, 7/20/95, p. 1.]

Politics in Paradise

On August 4th, the self-styled head of state of the “Nation of Hawaii” was arrested on federal charges of harboring a felon. Dennis Kanahele, who claims that both the federal and state governments are illegal and have no jurisdiction over native Hawaiians, is the leader of a movement to take back Hawaii from United States jurisdiction. Mr. Kanahele was accused of sheltering, and preventing the arrest of a man who, as a member of something called the Royal Kingdom of Hawaii, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years on jail for filing false tax statements. The head of state and his followers ignore traffic summonses and often drive cars with home-made license plates that say “Hawaiian Sovereign.” [Mark Matsunaga, Nation leader Kanahele jailed, Honolulu Advertiser, 8/3/95, p. 1.] They also like to send notices to state and federal officials, accusing them of “crimes against humanity” and promising “final judgment.” [Mark Matusnaga, Kanahele bail denied while he awaits trial, Honolulu Advertiser, Aug. 5, 1995, p. 1.]

Meanwhile, a U.S. government evaluation team has found that corruption and white collar crime are rampant in American Samoa, and have recommended that the authority of federal courts be extended to the territory. At present Samoa is the only American territory over which federal courts do not have jurisdiction. The territory does, however, have a congressional delegate, Eni Faleomavaega. He strongly opposes federal jurisdiction which, he says, will interfere with local customs. Each year, Washington hands over about $100 million to the territory, and one local custom appears to be the diversion of millions of these dollars into private pockets. [Kirk Spitzer, U.S. probers charge corruption rampant in American Samoa, Honolulu advertiser, 8/3/95, p. 1.]

Flocking to Europe

British nationalists who oppose further non-white immigration to Europe have found a surprising new ally: sheep. Britons are sentimental about animals, and there is growing concern about the hundreds of thousands of British sheep that are exported to France to have their throats slit by Muslims. France’s 5,000,000 Muslims have been carrying out so much ritual slaughter in apartments, houses, and on street corners that French authorities have set aside public lands as killing fields, especially during Islamic festivals. On the holiest days, as many as 100 British sheep an hour may be bled to death. For many Britons, this gruesome practice has come to be seen as an unmistakable sign that Arab immigrants are hopelessly alien and should have no place in Europe. [Sylvia Noble, ritual slaughter: an alien practice that disgraces Europe, Spearhead (England), July, 1995, p. 16.]

Making the Grade

Since 1984, Florida has required college students to pass something called the College Level Academic Skills Test in order to get a junior college degree or to become a junior at a four-year college. Sixty-four percent of whites pass the test on the first try but only 40 percent of Hispanics and 28 percent of blacks do, so the test has the usual critics. The Florida state legislature has now devised a complicated set of grading and testing criteria that will let many students bypass the test. Officials at the Florida Department of Education say that the examination is designed to test 10th-grade abilities. [Kit Lively, Florida eases rule that students pass test to become juniors, The Chronicle of higher education, 6/2/95, p. A26.]

Obvious Solution

The state of Georgia has decided to deport criminal aliens rather than keep them on as guests of the state. By kicking out hundreds of foreign crooks, the state will either save $6 million a year or make the jail space available to American crooks. [Georgia to rid itself of alien convicts, SF Chron, 6/7/85, p. A10.]

Anticipating Amy Biehl

A new book called Thy Will Be Done blames Nelson Rockefeller for exploiting the third world and explains how Mr. Rockefeller’s son, Michael, was killed and eaten by third worlders when he went off to save them from his father. In 1961, while Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York, Michael was in New Guinea sheltering natives from the ravages of Western materialism. During an expedition to collect tribal art, he had a boating accident and was forced ashore. As he emerged from the water, one of the locals speared him in the chest. To quote from the book: “He was still alive when taken up the river, killed with an ax, and in the religious manner of cannibals seeking the strength of their victims, cooked with sago palm and eaten.” [Richard Johnson, Gory saga of a Rockefeller death, NY Post, May 27, 1995, p. 6.]

Battle is Drawn

The New York State Senate has passed a bill that would close state universities to illegal aliens. An estimated 4,400 illegals cost the state about $35 million a year. The bill must still pass the state’s lower house, where one assemblyman predicted that it had “no chance.” “Where was this taken from — Nazi Germany?” asks Assemblyman Edward Sullivan, who is chairman of the Higher Education Committee. [Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/2/95,p. A25.]

Cracking Down on Police Racism

In 1986, Congress passed laws setting long minimum sentences for crack cocaine users. Liberal judges and lawyers have noticed that 96 percent of the people convicted under these laws are either black or Hispanic and have concluded that this can only reflect police racism. In July, a federal appeals court actually overturned the crack-dealing conviction of a black gang member, arguing that federal prosecutors had not proven that racial patterns in convictions were not the result of racial bias. No one doubts that Nolan Reese, a member of the Crips street gang in San Diego, was a crack dealer but his 14-year prison sentence has now been struck down and he is a free man. Prosecutors have argued, vainly, that they arrest non-whites under the crack laws because non-whites break them. [Dan Weikel, Gang member’s crack conviction reversed, LA Times, 7/28/95, p. A3.]

A Thousand Points of Light

These days, good sense on forbidden subjects can crop up nearly anywhere. Donald Vroon is editor of American Record Guide, which is devoted to classical music. In the MayJune issue, in an excellent article on American cultural decline entitled “Cultural Suicide,” he writes:

We have been taught to label certain ideas as passé and old-fashioned, but on what logical basis have we rejected them? They have never been proved wrong; instead, our own messy time proves all the old fogies right. In the 1950s we were shocked when the old fogies said that the integration of a race that was culturally advanced with one that was backward could only hurt the overall cultural level of our society. It is very clear now that they were right . . .” [Donald Vroon, Cultural Suicide II, American Record Guide, May/June, 1995, p. 57.]

Meanwhile, the American correspondent for the Australian paper, the Sydney Morning Herald, has written a series of articles about taboos in the United States. One is a grimly factual piece called “The Race War of Black Against White,” in which he writes that “for the past 30 years a large segment of black America has waged a war of violent retribution against white America.” Correspondent Paul Sheehan points out that the average black is about 50 times more likely to commit violent crime against a white than vice versa, and that in the past 30 years blacks have killed over 40,000 whites — more than the number of soldiers who died in the Korean War. “Black Americans have committed at least 170 million crimes against white Americans in the past 30 years,” he concludes; “It is the great, defining disaster of American life and American ideals since World War II.” [Paul Sheehan, The race war of black against white, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 20, 1995.]

The Irish Times, like most other newspapers, noticed that many South African blacks cheered for the all-white South African rugby team as it went on to win the world championship. Unlike most other papers, it also noted that the country is so wracked with crime and racial divisions that it is tottering on the brink of collapse. Its conclusion: “By the time of the next world cup, South Africa will not be recognisable; this is the last hurrah for European South Africa with its rugby and its homes and gardens.” [Kevin Myers, European South Africa’s Last Hurrah, The Irish Times, June 3, 1995]

It Must Have Been the License Plates

On July 13th, two blacks were driving along Interstate 285 near Atlanta in a stolen jeep. Two accomplices were driving in another car. The accomplices pulled ahead of a motor home and slowed down, forcing the motor home to slow. The jeep pulled up alongside the motor home and a passenger blasted away at the white driver and his son, sending both to the hospital. The perpetrators were caught and the attack has been big news in Atlanta, but police have not determined a motive for the shootings. Nor has the driver, James Hess. “I don’t have any enemies,” he said, “unless they just don’t like people with Florida tags, I don’t know why [they did it].” [Don Plummer & Doug Payne, Motive in I-285 case may remain mystery, police say, Atlanta Constitution, July 20, 1995.]

Not Athens After All

The Carter Center, founded by former President, Jimmy Carter, has been forced to conclude that the June elections in Haiti were essentially a sham. Ordinarily Mr. Carter and his center are squarely behind President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and everything he does, but even they could not stomach the government’s behavior (see previous month’s “O Tempora”). Mr. Carter was no doubt grieved when some of Mr. Aristide’s supporters said that the center’s attempts to ensure fair elections were intolerable interference.

Robert Pastor of the Carter Center does not recommend rerunning the entire election; only most of it. He notes that many opposition parties were so disgusted by government high-handedness that they will boycott runoff elections to be held later this year, and warns President Clinton that if he endorses the runoffs as planned, the United States will have aligned itself squarely with a fraudulent government. [Steven Greenhouse, Election monitor criticizes Haitian vote for widespread fraud, NYT, July 21, 1995, p. A5.]

The Untouchable

America’s most famous drunk driver, Rodney King, has racked up his fifth arrest since that famous 1991 encounter with the Los Angeles Police Department. The first collar was just two months after the videotaped beating, when he was feeling chipper enough to solicit a transvestite prostitute and tried to run over two vice squad men who stopped the fun. Since then, he has been caught for drunk driving twice, once after crashing into a wall. He has also been arrested twice for assaulting his wife, most recently by driving off before she was completely out of the car. “She did a cartwheel,” explained a police spokesman.

The officers who subdued him in 1991 are still behind bars, but Mr. King has yet to serve a day in prison. Any other American would long ago have lost his license and been locked up. As the New York Post pointed out in a May 27 editorial, “Rodney King is going to get into a car and kill some innocent person one of these days,” and it will be entirely due to the cowardice of whites. [The Unstoppable Rodney King, New York Post, 5/27/95. The Rodney King Chronicles (Cont.), NYP, 7/17/95.]

Let the Employer Beware

There are five “historically black” universities in North Carolina, and all have problems getting students to graduate. They have decided that it is discouraging for them to have failing grades on their transcripts, so the schools have made it as easy as possible to avoid them; students can retake a course as often as they like, and if they pass it only the passing grade is recorded. [AP, Paper: black universities lenient on grading, Detroit Free Press, July 10, 1995, p. A1.]

The Self-Esteem Defense

Lemrick Nelson is the young black who is likely to have killed Yankel Rosenbaum in 1991 during anti-Jewish riots in Crown Heights, New York. He was acquitted on state murder charges, despite overwhelming evidence against him. The federal government, only after much prodding by Jews, agreed to try him again on civil rights charges. Mr. Nelson’s lawyers are preparing a tear-jerker defense, pointing out that he was an “unplanned child” who was “ignored by his mother during his infancy.” They go on to explain his crime: “[Mr. Nelson] never felt secure, but also never learned the sense of boundaries normally taught by caring, responsible parents. Not surprisingly, Lemrick suffered from low self-esteem and has acted out his frustrations in ways which, albeit certainly inappropriate, enabled him to finally gain attention from adults.” [‘Low self-esteem’ defense, NY Post, 7/22/95.]

The Shrunken Brain Defense

A Mr. Banda, ex-president of Malawi, has been charged with the 1983 murder of four political opponents. His defenders claim that he is unfit to stand trial because he has a shrunken brain and is so deaf he will not understand court proceedings. [Malawi’s ex-president is unfit, WSJ, 5/30/95, p. 1.]

Crime and Drugs are More Fun

A July 18th New York Times article about public schools in Japan notes that unlike schools in the United States, “they offer discipline, orderly classes, safe corridors, rigorous training in basics like reading and mathematics, and practical lessons in physics . . .” It goes on to note that they “provide a crime-free and drug-free environment,” and that discipline is strict. Straining to find something to criticize — after all, multiculturalism must have some advantages — the Times pounced on something to play up in the story’s headline: “Japan’s Schools: Safe, Clean, Not Much Fun.” [Nicholas Kristof, Japan’s schools: safe, clean, not much fun, NYT, July 18, 1995, p. 1.]

Feds Do Something Useful

In the August “O Tempora” section we reported on an INS campaign to arrest and deport illegal aliens in the southeastern United States. The one-month project is now over, and 2,078 illegals from 26 different countries have been deported from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. Before the INS sweep was even finished, more than 300 suddenly vacant jobs had been handed back to Americans. [AP INS says four-week roundup netted more than 2,000 illegal workers, Daily Mountain Eagle (Jasper, Ala), July 4, 1995.] Next INS stops: Texas and California?

It’s a Black Thing . . .

The O.J. Simpson murder trial grinds along, producing a steady stream of absurdities. One of the latest was an exchange between Christopher Darden of the prosecution and John Cochran of the defense, both black. Mr. Darden asked a witness whether a voice he had overheard sounded like that of a black man. Mr. Cochran objected to the suggestion that it is possible to tell a person’s race from the way he speaks.

“I resent that statement,” he said. “You can’t tell by somebody’s voice whether they [sic] sound black. That’s a racist statement.” [Attorneys in Simpson case, Cochran and Darden get in heated argument of ‘racist question,’ Jet, July 31, 1995.]

National Front Victories

Candidates from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s anti-immigrant party, the National Front, took control of three French cities in recent municipal elections. The most significant victory was in Toulon, which is France’s 13th largest city, with a population of 170,000 people. There would have been more victories for the front if other political parties had not joined forces in some cities to defeat the “racists.” The former socialist prime minister, Laurent Fabius called on French singers and other artists to refuse to perform in Toulon.

Jean-Marie Le Chevallier, the new mayor, says that his city will grant systematic preferences to French citizens. North Africans and blacks, of whom there are now about 20,000, will not be made to leave, but he hopes that if no more new subsidized housing is not built for them and if French citizens get priority for current benefits, immigrants will go elsewhere. One of the mayor’s first acts was to clear out the open-air market where Africans sell trinkets. The city will set up permanent stalls for French artisans. [Ray Moseley, Far rightists call shots in French city, Chicago Tribune, July 2, 1995, p. 13.]

Meanwhile, the national government has tried not to let the National Front steal clean away with one of the best issues in the country. It is calling attention to its tough, new deportation policies. In July, it ejected several plane-loads of illegals and promised many similar operations. Newspapers and “human rights” groups yelled, but polls indicate that a large majority of the French are happy to see illegals deported, especially those from the third world. [Marlise Simons, France moves on deporting illegal aliens, NYT, July 29, 95, p. 4.] [Ashe statue to be put on historic boulevard, Clarion-Ledger, July 19, 1995.]

London Faces the Facts

The London police commissioner has reported young blacks commit 80 percent of the city’s muggings. He noted that in just five years street robbery had increased from 13,000 a year to 23,000 a year, and is now much more common in fancy residential areas. The commissioner, Paul Condon, is known to be a liberal, and couched his report in terms of “young black people, who have been excluded from school and/or are unemployed,” but this did not stop the usual crowd from telling him he should have kept his mouth shut. [William Touhy, London cop blames blacks for muggings, Chicago Sun-Times, July 9, 1995, p. 32.]

Bankers Bamboozled

It is one of the truisms of modern times that the fact that blacks are rejected for home mortgages more often than whites is proof that bankers are racists. Of course, if bankers were holding blacks to unfairly high credit standards it would mean that the blacks who do manage to get loans should have lower default rates than whites. The Federal Reserve Bank has finally investigated 220,000 mortgages to see how black default rates compare to white. They found that blacks, whether they live in cities or in suburbs, default on their loans at twice the rate whites do. This suggests that there has been so much pressure on bankers to make loans to blacks that they are taking risks with depositors’ money and making unsafe loans. [Paul Craig Roberts, No signs of discrimination by lenders, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 16, 1995, p. 36A.]

The Chitlins Test

The head of campus security at Kentucky State University in Frankfort is a black man who wants his white employees to be “sensitive” to black culture. He therefore gave them an examination that has come to be known as the chitlins test. It asked test-takers to explain what blacks mean when they talk about “fronting,” “chitlins,” or a “crib.” A white security guard filed suit against the university, claiming that the test was a form of racial harassment. [Ken Hamblin, Chitlins — multiculturalism run amok, Denver Post, July 23, 1995.] For those of our readers who are white, chitlins — more properly, chitterlings — are hog intestines cooked for food.

Out on His Ear

A circuit judge in Cook County, Illinois, has been relieved of trial duties and will take counseling because of “inappropriate and troubling” remarks about Hispanics. James Smith was listening to lawyers claiming that a young Hispanic’s environment had contributed to his poor school record; his grandfather, for example, once fired shots at his father. Judge Smith then made the following impermissible remarks:

Of course, this is a common practice among Hispanics. I’m speaking as a criminal judge now. Every New Year’s I had to dismiss cases because it was common for them to step out and shoot at anything that was out there. You’re not telling me anything. I mean, I’m saying I understand what you’re saying. I guess what I’m saying is I’m not so sure that is not unusual. [Philip O’Connor, Remarks about hispanics lead to judge’s transfer, Chi Sun-times, July 15, 1995, p. 41.]

The New South Africa

In the last years of apartheid, blacks thought that refusing to pay utility bills was a noble act of political protest. Now that the country has a black president, the noble acts continue. The government claims to be astonished by this, and has mounted a campaign to convince people to pay. “Who can be proud of not paying for housing and services now that we have a democratic government?” asks a television ad, which argues that paying rent and electric bills helps build South Africa. The utilities have even mounted traveling road shows to take the lets-pay message to people with no television, but with little success.

Slowly, the government is turning back to the bad old ways of the white man: shutting off dead-beats. Oddly, this seems to work. Not even a New York Times reporter could find much talk of building South Africa among people lined up in Soweto to pay their bills. “If they are making my lights off, then I pay,” was a typical sentiment. [Suzanne Daley, In South Africa a culture of resistance dies hard, NYT, July sometime, 1995.]

Meanwhile, white businessmen are so desperate to get blacks on the payroll that they pay them 20 to 50 percent more than they would similarly educated whites. Many help-wanted ads are quite straightforward about seeking blacks. All this is in anticipation of affirmative action laws that have not yet been enacted, but which everyone expects to be passed soon. [Suzanne Daley, In South Africa; new jobs, little respect, NYT, Aug 3, 1995, p. A1.]

Ivy League Confederates

With one important excepted category, Harvard University has erected memorials to all alumni who died on the battlefield, including one who fought for Nazi Germany. The university does not, however, honor Confederates, even though one third of the Harvard men who died in the War Between the States fought for the South. Yale and Princeton, on the other hand, pay equal tribute to their Confederate and Union dead. [Confederate memorial splits Harvard, Commercial Appeal (Memphis), July 5, 1995.]

Integrating Memorial Avenue

Richmond, Virginia now has a black majority, which is reflected in the makeup of its city council. In July, the council voted to erect a statue of Arthur Ashe, the black tennis player, on Memorial Ave., a street heretofore reserved for statues of Confederate heroes. For some time the city government has been threatening to cock a snook at the Confederacy by integrating Memorial Ave., but this time it is likely to happen.