O Tempora, O Mores! (July, 1998)
American Renaissance, July 1998
Chinese Flee Indonesia
In the heady aftermath of President Suharto’s resignation in Indonesia, the country has begun to discuss a subject that has long been taboo: the role of the Chinese. Although they are only three percent of the population, Chinese control approximately one half of the economy — this, despite anti-Chinese laws that forbid the publication of Chinese-language periodicals and even the celebration of Chinese New Year. In most Indonesian towns, it is easy to tell who lives where: Native Indonesians live in dumps and the Chinese live in mansions.
With the change in government, Indonesians finally feel free to say what they think. “Actually, we hate the Chinese,” says a 38-year-old businessman, “but we couldn’t do anything about them before, because they were protected by Suharto. But I don’t think they will be protected any more.” There has been a tight lid on public discussion of the Chinese minority, but hatred has been boiling beneath the surface for years. In the recent rioting that rocked the islands, mobs singled out Chinese businesses and homes to loot and put to the torch. Now there is increasing talk among ordinary people about whether all Chinese should simply be expelled — though the ruling elites are unlikely to take such harsh measures. In the meantime many Chinese have decided not to wait and see. Thousands have already fled to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. (Nicholas Kristof, In Indonesia, Democracy’s Dark Side, Int. Hrld. Tribune, May 6, 1998, p. 1.)
Insurrectionary Acts
The death of former Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver in May received much press attention. Many commentators noted that the former radical had turned Republican and supposedly embraced Christianity. Somehow, no one mentioned the following passage from his influential book, Soul on Ice:
I became a rapist. To refine my technique and modus operandi, I started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto . . . and when I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey . . . ‘Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling on the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his woman — and this point, I believe, was the most satisfying to me . . .’
Many black men must feel the same way. In 1994, according to the Department of Justice, there were over 20,000 rapes of white women by black men — and fewer than 100 rapes of black women by white men.
Temptation Too Strong
James Hood, who in 1963 was the first black man admitted to the University of Alabama, has long fascinated audiences with a story about seeing his uncle hanged and burned by Ku Kluxers in the 1950s. The latest public airing was at an April 26th racial unity rally in Madison, Wisconsin, where he said: “I crawled over to the window and pulled aside the drapes, and I saw a man hanging, burning. And the next morning, I learned that the man was my uncle.” His listeners reportedly “groaned and murmured in shock.”
A local newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal began looking into the story and contacted the Times of Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. Hood was informed that there was no record of such a lynching. At first he stuck to his guns: “These things happened every day, particularly in that area. I can verify it as a human being. Yes, it happened. I saw it. And I know there won’t be any written record of it. If I had to stand on a stack of Bibles, I would do it. But ask me to show documentation, I can’t do it.”
Later he admitted he made up the story.
Mr. Hood is now chairman of police, firefighting, and paramedic training education at Madison Area Technical College. He appears to be in no danger of losing his job. (Activist Admits Lynching is a Lie, Washington Times, May 8, 1998.)
April brought its usual quota of only locally-reported black-on-white violence. Carl Best, an 18-year-old student at Knox College in Illinois, has been charged with the bludgeoning death of fellow student Andrea Racibozynski. The two met by chance after two groups of students joined up after leaving separate parties. An “altercation” ensued just a few minutes after they met, and Mr. Best beat his victim to death with a brick. This is believed to be the first murder in the 162-year history of Knox College. (Dan Rozek, Judge Doubles Bond in Knox Slaying, Chicago Sun-Times, April 11, 1998, p. 9.)
In Queens, New York, two white teenagers were attacked by a gang of blacks. Bryan Lazerus and Albert Sindoni, both 17, were waiting for a bus when four or five blacks approached them. At 270 pounds, Mr. Lazerus was able to fight off some of his attackers but they were quickly joined by up to 40 others who were just getting out of school. “They came out of nowhere,” said Mr. Lazerus. “They were yelling guinea, cracker, white bread! This is our neighborhood now. Why don’t you get out?” He said there were some 70 pedestrians who stood by and did nothing. Blacks hit Mr. Lazerus with a garbage pail, and it took 70 stitches to close his wounds. (Rocco Parascandola, Black Gang Slashes White Teen in Qns.: Cops, New York Post, April 26, 1998.)
In Chicago, a 35-year-old white waitress was waiting for a bus at 11:00 in the morning when a car carrying a black man and woman pulled up beside her. The woman got out, called the victim a “white ****” and shouted, “Get out of my neighborhood, and if you come back, I have a bat.” She then beat the woman with her fists, got back in the car, and drove away. (Gary Wisby, Attack on Woman Called a Hate Crime, Chicago Sun-Times, April 22, 1998, p.18.)
Terror Train
In May, white passengers on a Dallas commuter train were subjected to 20 minutes of verbal and physical abuse from a pack of eight or nine black teenagers. One woman described the scene. “The language was horrible . . . They were yelling racially charged challenges and insults — ‘[expletive] all white people. White people are going to pay.’”
A 48-year-old white explained: “Everybody on the train was terrified. They spit a big wad of phlegm in my face.” He added that one of the attackers pulled a girl’s hair and screamed “white bitch” in an apparent attempt to start a fight with her male companion. “There was a lot of taunting and challenging, like ‘If you don’t like it, step up here.’ They’d get in someone’s face and say, ‘I’m not going to take any crap from you.’”
The attackers even pressed the emergency intercom and taunted the driver of the train. This should have prompted a call to the police from the driver but the calls were either ignored or not heard. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the agency that runs the trains, says it was not aware of the incident until a reporter called about it three weeks later. (Curtis Howell, DART Vows to Boost Safety After Incident, Dallas Morning News, May 21, 1998, p.27 A.)
If you would like to know the exact racial makeup of the population of the county in which you live, the U.S. Census Bureau makes that information available on its web page. The page is not very easy to use, but the county information by state is on the web.
On the same page as your state’s demographics by county you will also find the racial breakdown for the state’s major cities. Unlike many census documents, the page makes a clear distinction between whites and Hispanics. Although most Hispanics claim to be white, the information here establishes non-Hispanic whites as a separate category.
The web page includes the latest, 1997 estimates as well as annual historical data back to 1990. If you are willing to wrestle with the Census Bureau’s obscure ways of presenting data, you can even find racial breakdowns by city and county for every age group.
For the first time, a television station that does not broadcast in English has become the top station in a major city. According to Nielson ratings, Miami’s Spanish-language WLTV, which is owned by the Los Angeles-based Univision network, has more viewers than any other station in the city. In Los Angeles, Univision affiliate KMEX has top ratings among viewers aged 18 to 49 during key prime-time and local news slots, but only in Miami is a Spanish-language station number one from sign-on to sign-off. Univision used to import most of its material but has moved strongly into local production. It has created its own “American” stars, like talk-show host Cristina Saralegui, and according to the Washington Post, its variety show extravaganza, Sabado Gigante (Giant Saturday) “must be seen to be believed.”
Former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros is now president of Univision. Nationwide, it is still well behind the three major networks. An estimated 1.4 million households watch it during prime time, while ratings leader NBC is on the screen in an estimated nine million homes. (Zita Arocha, Spanish TV Nets a Win, Washington Post, April 24, 1998, p. A1.)
Preston Donell Allen is a 33-year old man who has fathered 16 children by 11 different women. In May, he was sentenced to a three-year prison term for failing to pay child support. Mr. Allen blames the women. “When somebody tells you that they’re using something and they’re not and here comes a child.”
“Ever hear of a condom?” asked Judge David Hansher.
“A condom makes me break out, sir,” replied Mr. Allen.
Judge Hansher said that a jail term will prevent more pregnancies, but only for a while. He said he wished the law allowed for mandatory vasectomies, and offered to reduce Mr. Allen’s parole time if he agrees to be sterilized after he gets out of prison. Mr. Allen said he would think about it. (David Doege, Jailed Deadbeat Dad Might Call it Quits at 16 Kids, Washington Times, May 7, 1998, p. A6.)
Better to be Black
In 1985 Pepsi Cola left South Africa to protest apartheid. In 1994 the company returned with great fanfare. The investors in the Pepsi’s new South African bottling company, New Age Beverages, included black celebrities like Johnnie Cochran, Whitney Houston, and Danny Glover.
In 1997, suffering heavy losses in a market dominated by Coca Cola, New Age folded. When this happens investors normally take losses — but not if you are famous and black. At a meeting with PespiCo president Roger Enrico, the blacks threatened a lawsuit or a “public airing of their complaints” unless they were made whole. In April, Pepsi announced it would give the 26 black investors company stock worth $9 million. White investors will get nothing. “This cements our relationship [with the black celebrities] with an eye to the future,” said Pepsi spokesman Brad Shaw. The company claims the blacks will provide the company with unspecified “personal services” in exchange for the stock. (Nikhil Deogun, Pepsi To Pay Stock To Black Americans Who Invested In South African Bottler, Wall Street Journal, April 27, 1998, p. B17.)
The Miami-Dade County school board is about to adopt a Hispanic history curriculum for public schools. Later this year the Florida legislature is expected to establish a similar requirement for the whole state. This follows 1994 legislation that required lessons in black history and Holocaust studies.
“I want it [Hispanic studies] to take the same space that African-American history and the Holocaust take — no more, no less,” said Miami board member Demetrio Perez. The curriculum, called Legado or legacy, will include biographies of famous Hispanics, maps of Latin America and lessons about everything from something called “Three Kings Day” to the raw fish dish ceviche. One lesson plan challenges students to “develop an action plan to assist new immigrants.”
Many of the “famous Hispanics” are white Europeans like the painter Francisco de Goya, Queen Isabella, and explorer Tristan del Luna Arellano. European explorers apparently can be slipped into the curriculum as something other than rapacious white villains only if they are part of a celebration of “Hispanic heritage.” (Jodi Mailander Farrell, Expanding Horizons, The Miami Herald, April 11, 1998, p. 1B.)
Love Thy Enemy
The African National Congress has appointed a 30-year-old historian to rewrite the recent history of South Africa. Nhlanhla Ndebele will receive a three year, $50,000 scholarship to research the ANC’s massive archives. “This will change the way history is taught in our schools,” says Mr. Ndebele. British Aerospace is paying for the scholarship. (South African Scholar Will Rewrite the Past, Washington Times, May 7, 1998, p. A17.)
No Preaching
The following is from the television section of the British magazine Hello!, announcing a program called “A Respectable Trade.”
Set in Bristol in the 1780s, this new series explores part of Britain’s hidden history — the wealth and cruelty of the slave trade.
The story offers tough but compelling viewing for the next four weeks, with Warren Clarke playing an ill-bred ship owner, Anna Massey his spinster sister, Emma Fielding his posh but penniless wife and Ariyone Bakare one of the black cargo for whom she falls — he being learned, powerful and dignified (in fact, everything her husband is not).
Adapted by Philippa Gregory from her novel, it offers a British parallel to Roots and Amistad, which depicted America’s role in the slave trade. But, says script executive James Saynor: ‘We’re not trying to be too preachy. We didn’t do it because we wanted to say something about race relations. It was a good story and that’s what drama’s about.’
(Pick Of The Week, Hello!, April 18, 1998, p.78.)
Not Going Quietly
The INS is deporting records numbers of illegal aliens. Last year it expelled 113,325 and this year it is likely to top that figure. Three-quarters of illegals go home by bus to Mexico, but 20 to 30 thousand fly on commercial airlines, their one-way tickets paid for by the INS. The flyers have found a loophole in the deportation process. If the captain of a commercial airliner decides that a passenger might be unruly or a danger to other passengers he has the right to leave him on the ground. It is now a common last-ditch tactic for the Nigeria- or Congo-bound to scream and kick and assault guards on the way to the boarding gate. They go back to detention and some of them face battery charges, but at least they manage to stay in the country a little longer. In the worst cases, the INS must pay for a guard or two to fly with the bolshie alien. (Laurie Cohen, Many Deportees Make Fracas at Airport Their Last Appeal, Wall Street Journal, May 6, 1998, p. 1.)
Best Minds are Baffled
Researchers at Vanderbilt University report that even when black and white households have the same incomes, whites are twice as likely to have computers in the home and to use the Internet. When comparable families of blacks and whites do not own computers, whites are five times as likely to find computers some place else — in libraries, for example — and connect to the Internet. The researchers pronounce themselves baffled by these findings and are worried about blacks being “excluded” from the information on the world wide web. (Color-blind Web Not Supported by Research, Sacramento Bee, April 28, 1998.)
Cleaning Up the Airwaves
Until this April, broadcasters had to hire non-whites in proportion to their numbers in the surrounding population. They also had to make a special effort to hunt for non-white employees and to give them special training. Those that did not could have their broadcasting licenses revoked by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has claimed since 1968 that racially mixed broadcasting staff were “in the public interest.” The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has asked the FCC to explain how racial preferences serve the public interest. The FCC failed to satisfy the court, which has now ruled its regulations unconstitutional.
The case was brought by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which holds licenses for two noncommercial religious radio stations in Clayton, Mo. The church was appealing an FCC ruling that it was insufficiently zealous in recruiting non-whites. The stations broadcast religious programs and classical music, and had been unable to hire many black Lutheran classical-music-lovers. (Jeannine Aversa, AP, Court KOs FCC Hiring Requirements, April, 14, 1998.)
