O Tempora, O Mores! (September, 1996)
American Renaissance, September 1996
The Atlanta Olympic Games demonstrated vividly, as all international competitions do, the physical reality of race. Swimming was dominated by whites, gymnastics by whites and Asians, and running, boxing, and basketball by blacks. The running events are now simply a matter of which nation has the quickest blacks. Thirty-five percent of the “British” team was black, and even France, Switzerland, and Norway fielded naturalized Africans.
NBC, which provided exclusive television coverage of the games, noted that Americans used to dominate the sprints, but that now the “Englishman,” Lynford Cristie, was a serious threat. Englishman? How do they know Mr. Cristie — obviously African — isn’t a Welshman or a Scot? In the 4 x 100 meters men’s relay, an event usually won by American blacks, the “Canadian” team won the gold medal. Their four blacks outran our four blacks.
The Olympics were a clear demonstration of differences in body build, with blacks by far the most muscular race. The unsung but quite astonishing second-place finisher in the men’s 400 meters was a genuine John Bull Englishman, whose body was nothing like the mountain of muscle that propelled Michael Johnson to victory in both the 400 and 200 meters. The basketball competition was just as vivid a demonstration of racial body build. The Australians, Croatians, and even the Chinese can put tall men on the court, but they are bean poles. Only blacks appear to be capable of both huge muscles and great stature.
In one respect, though, this year’s games were different from all others. They were held in a majority-black city. It was coincidence, of course, but sports reporters who had covered as many as eight different summer games pronounced these by far the worst-organized. Spectators and athletes alike had nightmare stories about transportation. One defending gold-medalist in judo was disqualified because the Olympic bus took him to the wrong place and he missed his weigh-in. At the closing ceremony, it is tradition for Olympic Committee big-wigs to pronounce the current games the best ever. This time, they complained about miserable organization.
There had been signs. Back in February, a man calling the Olympic ticket office from Santa Fe, New Mexico was told that since he was calling from outside the United States, he had to go through his national committee in order to get tickets. When he asked to speak to a supervisor and explained that New Mexico was part of the United States, she told him, “New Mexico, Old Mexico, it doesn’t matter . . . You still have to go through your nation’s Olympic committee.” (Mike Downey, Bum Steers in ‘Bumfuzzled’ Atlanta, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1996, p. 1. A.P., New Mexico Resident States His Case, but Olympic Ticket Office Skeptical, Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, Feb. 29, 1996.)
Church Arson Update
There have been developments in the once-huge but now fading story about black church arsons. The massive manhunt for perpetrators has, since last month’s report, snared three firebugs, all of them black. On July 24th, Al Hatcher was detained for burning a black church in Selma, Alabama. His sister explained that Mr. Hatcher’s Vietnam war experience had left him “basically homeless and troubled since he got back.” That would be for about the last 20 years.
On August 4th, a black teenager named Mark Young was charged with burning two black churches in Greenville, Texas back in June. This is where the New Black Panther Party had such a jolly time tramping around with rifles, vowing to kill any “cracker” who set a fire. The NAACP promptly insisted that Mr. Young’s confession was coerced.
The National Council of Churches (NCC), it will be recalled, has rustled up huge sums to help rebuild the burned churches and to “fight racism.” On July 8, the world’s largest forest products company, International Paper, promised to supply enough free lumber, paneling, and other wood products to rebuild all the churches. The company’s CEO, John Dillon, urged his employees to give money to the NCC’s Burned Churches Fund, and promised that the International Paper Foundation would match contributions, dollar for dollar.
On July 10, President Clinton signed the unanimously-passed Church Arson Prevention Act, which doubles jail time for church burners from 10 to 20 years and provides loan guarantees to help congregations rebuild. On the same day he addressed an NAACP convention, saying that the burnings were “an attack on the whole idea of America.” A fire-blackened crossbeam from a black church lay before President Clinton’s podium; he solemnly touched it after his remarks.
Meanwhile, a cable network called the Faith & Values Channel has scheduled two airings of a National Council of Churches production called “The Churches Are Burning.” The show highlights the NCC’s central role in calling attention to this vicious arson scourge, and to NCC’s sterling record in combating racism. The program is available on videotape for $19.95, postage and handling included, by calling (800) 251-4091.
Another massive campaign to humiliate white people seemed to have worked up an unstoppable head of steam — except that a few people began to ask what was really going on. On July 8, the Wall Street Journal published a story pointing out that there has been no sudden wave of arson, that blacks are burning many of their own churches, and that there is no plague of pyromaniac “racists.” The Journal traced the entire hullabaloo to a deliberate fraud perpetrated by the Atlanta anti-racist group, the Center for Democratic Renewal.
On July 29, the New York Post devoted its entire editorial page to exposing the fraud. It reported that the NCC’s Burned Churches Fund is administered by Don Rojas, who served in Maurice Bishop’s communist government in Grenada and later lived in Cuba. As the Aug. 9 Wall Street Journal points out, of the $9 million raised by the NCC, $3.5 million has been set aside to “fight racism.” Who is to get a good chunk of this swag? The Center for Democratic Renewal, which launched the fraud in the first place.
The story (and the money) have certainly come full circle, though the sordid details have not received anything like the attention the initial lies about “racism” did. Fire investigators agree that the media whooping prompted “copycat” church burnings that would not otherwise have occurred. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, this means the Center for Democratic Renewal and its friends appear to have brought about some of the very acts of terror for which they have cynically blamed white “racists.”
Real Welfare Reform?
The government has managed something thought impossible — an actual start at welfare reform. A new law will set a maximum life-time limit of five years on welfare, and will make non-citizens ineligible for most benefits. Any able-bodied person is required to work within two years of applying for the dole. Teen-age mothers will have to live with a parent or other adult and attend school in order to get a government check. (Elizabeth Shogren, Clinton Accepts Broad Welfare Changes as ‘Last Best Chance,’ Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1, 1996, p. 1.)
This is a good start, but where will it end? The real test will be whether the authorities have the nerve to put a mother-of-four on the street when she reaches the five-year, life-time limit.
Molefi Asante is chairman of the African American Studies department at Temple University. He is one of the high priests of Afro-centrism, with 38 books to his name and lecture fees of $8,000. He recently wrote a high-school textbook called African-American History: A Journal of Liberation. A black woman who used to work in his department, Ella Forbes, claims that she did a great deal of the work on the textbook but her name was left off as an author. Prof. Asante has since given her bad teaching reviews and made sure she does not get tenure. Miss Forbes has appealed to the university for justice and is waiting for the results of an official inquiry. In the meantime, Prof. Asante blames “white people” and “their agents within the department” for trying to smirch his academic reputation. (Howard Goodman, Professor Depicts Dispute as Racist Plot, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 21, 1996, p. B1.)
Pizza Politics
Like businesses in most big cities, San Francisco pizza makers do not deliver to dangerous parts of town. Blacks made such a stink about this that the city passed an ordinance forbidding delivery discrimination. There has since been a huge outcry against the stupid law. The California Restaurant Association even says the ordinance violates federal occupational safety laws that forbid knowingly putting employees into harm’s way. The city now seems likely to amend the law to permit non-delivery if there is a “reasonable good faith belief” that delivery would be dangerous. (Sewell Chan, Hot Issue Becomes Law in San Francisco, Wall Street Journal, July 10, 1996, p. 1.)
Foolish Hopes
One of the silliest ways to “fight poverty” — and one that has been repeatedly endorsed by Jack Kemp — is to give companies big tax breaks to set up in bad parts of town. The theory is that this brings jobs to the poor, but it often does not work that way.
The Red Hook area of Brooklyn has been a perfect test bed for this theory. It has a booming waterfront area with many jobs for people without much education. There is plenty of public housing nearby, staffed with the usual uplift experts who try to help low lifes get jobs. Red Hook itself is not an easy place to get to, so is an awkward commute for outsiders. People should be pouring out of the projects into the jobs but, of course, they are not.
The owner of a furniture business tried at first to hire locals. One took a swing at him with a board, another showed up drunk, and several lied about their experience. Now he hires outsiders. Another man, whose business is unloading cargo from ships, was asked whether he would hire locals as security guards. “What? The bums hanging around outside?” he asked. “You want me to hire the guys who are trying to rob me?” (Malcolm Caldwell, Hiring Practices Undercut Inner-City Poverty Efforts, Washington Post, March 10, 1996, p. A1.)
Neither Democrats nor Republicans can fathom the obvious — that people are poor because they are unemployable, not because they do not live across the street from a job.
Africa in America
Joyce Moore of Harlem has been arrested for cutting Yoruba tribal markings into the cheeks of her six-year-old grandson. She was collared as she and her husband were getting ready to use the box cutter on two more of her grandchildren. Mrs. Moore is an American black but decided she liked African tribal markings. She had them cut into her own face as well as those of her daughters.
It was her 27-year-old daughter who called the police, not because she was opposed to the scars — she has them herself — but because she thought her son should not get them until age thirteen. Grandma thought he should get them sooner, since he had recently been hit by a car and she thought scars would bring good luck. Mrs. Moore was charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of marijuana. (Phillip Messing, Granny Busted in Boy’s ‘Tribal’ Slashing, New York Post, July 8, 1996, p. 13.)
Real Africans may soon be bringing their customs with them. The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals decreed in June that women who fear female “circumcision” if they return to their home countries have the right to asylum in the United States. Two million African girls in 26 countries undergo genital mutilation every year, and anyone who might come under the knife now has a presumptive right to live in the United States. (Ancient Rite, New ‘Right,’ New York Post, July 8, 1996, p. 20.)
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has discovered the first case in America of someone with the rare, Group O-type of AIDS virus. This virus sometimes goes undetected by usual blood tests, so more complicated and sophisticated screening will have to be used to ensure the nation’s blood supply is uninfected. The carrier is a woman who immigrated from West Africa in 1994. (Russ Bynum, Calif. Woman Carries Rare Form of HIV, Chicago Sun-Times, July 6, 1996, p. 11.)
Goat Suckers
A wave of fear is sweeping Mexico. There are reports from all over the country of chupacabras, or goat suckers — three-foot long rat-like creatures with wings and huge teeth that suck the blood from livestock and humans. The first sightings appear to have been in Puerto Rico, where goat suckers were big news for months. Then in April, they began to appear in Mexico, killing sheep and goats and occasionally attacking people.
In rural areas, people are afraid to go out at night. Farmers have been building so many fires in caves in the hope of smoking out the little suckers that the government is concerned about the environmental effect. Some people think the chupacabra is from outer space, others think it is an envoy from hell to warn people of their sins, and yet others think scientists have produced it in a laboratory.
In the state of Sinaloa, the government sent a team of 15 specialists to an area where goat suckers were reported to have killed livestock. Sixty policemen were sent to protect the specialists, who were afraid they might become the suckers’ next meal. Two nights of vigilance later, they reported that wild dogs were preying on the livestock, but the Mexican media still abound with fearful stories of goat suckers. (Goatsucker Fears Cause Nationwide Panic, Arizona Daily Star, May 12, 1996, p. A-11. Jerry Kammer, ‘Chupacabramania’ Sweeps Mexico, Arizona Republic, May 17, 1996, p. A-1.)
Business as Usual
Corlis Moody is head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. She is black, as are her deputy and the three supervisors in her office. There used to be two white and one Hispanic supervisors, but they have been relieved. The Civil Rights Office, which is part of Mrs. Moody’s empire, used to have a white acting director, but he has since been replaced by a series of temporary directors, all of them black. Some department employees call her area “the black plantation.”
Perhaps this is why the American Society for Public Administration gave Mrs. Moody its 1996 National Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Exemplary Practices Award. The award, presented on June 30, recognizes people who “have made outstanding contributions to a more equal society.” (Black Plantation? Washington Times Weekly Edition, July 21, 1996, p. 6.)
More Business as Usual
On May 16, the San Diego Sector of the Immigration and Naturalization Service held its second annual multicultural celebration. The theme was “Celebrating the Unity in our Diversity and the Diversity in our Unity.” Awards were given for courageous acts of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the director of the INS EEO program was the guest speaker. According to an INS report, “her address reflected on the event’s theme, noting that the United States is truly a nation of immigrants, and that the INS work force is itself becoming increasingly diverse.” (Mike Emerson, San Diego Sector Holds Second Annual Multicultural Celebration, Communique (INS publication), July 1996, p. 19.)
By the 1996 presidential election there are likely to be more than two million Hispanic voters in California and about 1.5 million in Texas. Bloc votes of this size can easily swing the outcome of an election.
In Texas, Hispanic voters handed the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to an unknown high-school teacher, Victor Morales, who campaigns from a pickup truck. With 1.5 million votes he can virtually count on, Mr. Morales is likely to give incumbent Phil Gramm a good run. “I literally have people with tears in their eyes, hugging me,” says Mr. Morales about his appearances before Hispanic groups. “‘Victor,’ they say, ‘finally a Hispanic going up to the top.’” (Gerald Seib, Despite Rapid Growth, Hispanic Vote May Play Only a Limited Role in Fall Presidential Contest, Wall Street Journal, July 30, 1996, p. A16.)
Grim Harvest
A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau projects the impact of AIDS on 13 African countries. In the hardest-hit areas, it is expected to have cut life-expectancy by one half by the year 2010 — from 69.9 to 33.1 years in Zimbabwe, 56.8 to 29.5 years in Malawi, and 66.3 to 33.4 years in Botswana. Despite these huge decreases, the overall population is expected to decline only in Zimbabwe and Botswana — and only by a fraction of a percent. Elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, populations will continue to grow, but more slowly than before.
Part of the problem is that many Africans refuse to believe what whites tell them about AIDS. At the funeral for his son, who died of AIDS, the Vice President of Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, said that AIDS was invented by whites and spread to Africa to depopulate the continent. Others claim that the famine-relief food supplies shipped to Africa from Western countries contain the virus. It is also commonly believed that whites have infected condoms with AIDS and then try to persuade Africans to use them. One of the more lurid myths is that sex with a virgin will cure the disease. In some areas, this has resulted in frequent rapes of 10- and 12-year-old girls by infected men. (Remer Tyson, AIDS Epidemic Lays Waste to Sub-Saharan Africa, Detroit Free Press, May 20, 1996, p. 1A.)
Payoff for Blacks
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has granted preliminary approval to a $4.6 million class-action settlement for black ATF agents claiming racial discrimination. Any black agent who worked for ATF between Dec. 25, 1983 and Sept. 12, 1996 can collect a share of the swag if he submits a claim of discrimination. Discrimination can take the form of overhearing a white person use the word “nigger.”
The mostly-white National Association of Treasury Agents promises to fight the settlement. “There were individual instances of egregious behavior and we abhor that,” says a spokesman. “But for over the last 10 years, ATF has bent over backwards to give special preferences to minorities and females.” (Lisa Daniel, Black ATF Agents Get Millions for Bias, Federal Times, July 22, 1996, p. 5.)
Hispanic Cheating
More people than ever are becoming naturalized citizens. They see signs that welfare and other benefits will be cut off for non-citizens, and they detect an increasingly anti-immigrant mood in the country. There were 240,000 naturalizations in 1992 but there are likely to be 1,000,000 this year. The INS cannot handle all the applications, so it has farmed out citizenship testing, which includes a test of English proficiency, to a few private companies.
Citizens-to-be still have to take the oath of citizenship before an INS official, and some workers noticed that new recruits couldn’t even understand the phrase “Raise your right hand.” Video surveillance of citizenship testing at Spanish Business Services, of Dallas, Texas, showed that the company was helping people cheat on the test. (Frank Trejo, Immigration Firm Told to Halt Citizenship Testing, Dallas Morning News, June 28, 1996, p. 1A.)
The Price of Freedom
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Brown v. Board of Education, that public school systems had to be integrated, a large number of “segregation academies” sprang up all over the South. Some are still going strong. Indianola Academy, in Indianola, Mississippi, is 100 percent white while the public school system is 90 percent black. The whites who go to public school are almost all in the lower grades. Even working-class whites manage to find the $2,400 a year for the academy, once children reach the 7th or 8th grade.
In order to keep non-profit status, Indianola Academy must not discriminate on the basis of race. It even has a standing offer of free tuition to qualified blacks . Over the years, a few have accepted, though never more than one per year. This doesn’t seem to bother anyone. William Richardson is black and represents the area in the state legislature. “That’s just the way life is here,” he says. “It’s not an issue. We just all quietly go about our own way.” (Rene Sanchez, Academies Are Bastions of Separateness, Washington Post, July 17, 1996, p. A1.)
This is Diversity?
The people who prate about diversity are, of course, politically monolithic. The conservative Cornell Review recently found out the political affiliations of the faculty in humanities and social sciences at Cornell University. In all, there were 171 Democrats and seven Republicans, or four percent. In the history, sociology, and women’s studies departments, there were no Republicans at all. There were one each in psychology, government, and anthropology.
Cornell is not unique. A similar study found almost exactly the same situation at Stanford University, and the dean of the law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo once said, “As far as I know, there is not one conservative on the law school faculty.”
A recent Roper poll of reporters who cover Congress and of Washington bureau chiefs found that only four percent were registered Republicans. Eighty-nine percent had voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, and only seven percent for George Bush. (Francis Mancini, Where Are the Conservatives in Academia, the Media? The Herald (Miami), June 3, 1996.)
Floating Assets
Developing countries need power plants to generate electricity, but they frequently default on payments for the facilitates that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Until now, manufacturers could not take direct action against deadbeats, but American engineering companies have found a solution. They now build power plants on huge barges, tow them to a foreign coast, and operate them in harbors. If the country defaults, they can clip the power lines, repossess the plant, and tow it home. (William Bulkeley, Building Power Plants That Can Float, Wall Street Journal, May 22, 1996, p. B1.)
Invest Now
American Diversity Growth Trust is a stock mutual fund that concentrates on publicly-traded companies owned by blacks. There are 11 such companies, up from just one four years ago. Since the number is so small, the fund also buys the stock of companies that have a “strong urban consumer-market presence” or are “recognized for their commitment to diversity.” (Matt Roush, Investment Trust Targets Stocks of Black-owned Firms; 2 in Detroit, Crain’s Detroit Business, April 22, 1996, p. 28.)
Transparency International, a Berlin-based organization, has made a list of the most and least corrupt nations for doing business. The most corrupt: Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, and Bangladesh, in that order. The least corrupt: New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Canada, and Norway, in that order. (Surveys Rate Nigeria as Most Corrupt Nation for Business, New York Times, June 3, 1996.)
