O Tempora, O Mores! (September, 1998)
American Renaissance, September 1998
Amy Biehl was an American Fulbright scholar who went to South Africa in 1993 to help register blacks for the nation’s first all-race election in 1994. After she dropped off some black friends in a Cape Town township, she was spotted by other blacks who beat, kicked, and stabbed her to death because she was white. The 27-year-old died on the sidewalk, pleading for mercy.
Her four killers were initially sentenced to 18 years in prison but have now been freed by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission has determined that their crime was “political,” since they chanted “one settler, one bullet” as they killed her and claim they were fighting apartheid.
The parents of Miss Biehl have preached reconciliation from the start, and long ago “forgave” their daughter’s killers. They approved the men’s release with the following statement: “We hope they will receive the support necessary to live productive lives in a nonviolent atmosphere. In fact, we hope the spirits of Amy and those like her will be a force in their new lives.” They also said: “We must never forget people who lost their lives in the struggle. We must honor them in discovering new approaches — non-violent partnerships — to create the South Africa which Nelson Mandela, Amy and those who perished dreamed of — a new, multi-racial, democratic nation.” (AP, Amnesty Board Frees U.S. Student’s Killers, The Augusta Chronicle, July 29, 1998, p. 14A.)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has also granted a full pardon to three blacks who attacked a Cape Town church just one month before Miss Biehl’s murder. They stormed into the packed, evening service at St. James Church, tossed two nail-studded grenades into the congregation, and opened fire with automatic weapons. They killed 11 people and wounded 60. The slaughter took place in the summer of 1993, only months before the all-race elections and more than three years after the Pan African Congress was unbanned and Nelson Mandela was released from jail. The Commission nevertheless believes that the killings were justified in the struggle against white rule. (Chris Smit, St. James Massacre Killers (Black) Receive Amnesty, Freedom 2000 SA News, July 25, 1998.)
Last month, we reported on Mario Obledo, a “Hispanic activist” who threatened to burn down a billboard warning against the dangers of illegal immigration. Mr. Obledo, who has been nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton, was also secretary of California’s Health and Welfare Agency from 1975 to 1982.
According to the Sacramento Bee, while he was secretary, he passed over qualified whites to hire non-whites. Mr. Obledo’s response to these charges? “The Bee accused me of reverse discrimination, and I plead guilty. I brought hundreds and thousands of minority people into state government . . . I consider that my greatest accomplishment in life.” (Sacramento Bee, February 16, 1998, p. A1.) It is also reported that Mr. Obledo routinely wore a Mexican-flag lapel pin while he was a state of California department head.
On July 16, 1997, 38-year-old Helen Wyatt was taking an evening walk near her home in the Lincoln, Nebraska area. Hector Gonzales, a 32-year-old Hispanic whom she had never met, attacked her without provocation, stabbing her 17 times. Her wounds were so deep that the county coroner called the murder a case of “overkill.”
A man who became friends with Mr. Gonzales while the two were in jail says Miss Wyatt was killed because she was white. “He [Gonzales] was just mad at some white people,” he explained. “He said he was out to kill a white person.” Although county attorney Gary Lacey is pushing for a first-degree murder conviction, there are no reports of any “hate crime” charges. (Butch Mabin, Witness: Wyatt Slain Because She was White, Lincoln Journal Star, July 22, 1998.)
It is often claimed that “racist” owners are willing to hire black athletes but keep them out of management. In fact, as the following chart shows, blacks hold coaching and management positions well in excess of their percentage of the national population. (Michael Lynch and Rick Henderson, Team Colors, Reason, July 1998, p.21.)
| White | Black | Hispanic | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total U.S. Population | 73 | 12 | 11 | 4 | |
| NBA | Players | 20 | 79 | 0 | 0 |
| General managers | 72 | 28 | 0 | 0 | |
| Coaches | 67 | 33 | 0 | 0 | |
| Staff | 77 | 17 | 2 | 3 | |
| NFL | Players | 31 | 66 | 1 | 0 |
| General managers | 83 | 17 | 0 | 0 | |
| Coaches | 75 | 24 | 1 | 0 | |
| Staff | 80 | 15 | 3 | 2 | |
| MLB | Players | 58 | 17 | 24 | 0 |
| General managers | 97 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Coaches | 76 | 14 | 10 | 0 | |
| Staff | 72 | 18 | 9 | 0 | |
‘In Sacajawea we Trust’
It appears that Sacajawea, the Indian who guided Lewis and Clark, will join George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson as a face on an American coin. This year, the House approved a new one-dollar coin by a vote of 411 to 7, but it was to have the Statue of Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other. Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) objected to Lady Liberty: “I think this would be a terrible oversight and a slight to the women of the United States.” Apparently there had to be a “real” woman on the coin, so in June, an eight-member “Dollar Coin Advisory Committee” met to decide who it would be.
The short list came down to Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman in a combined image, Sacajawea, the Statue of Liberty, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to earn a pilot’s license (though she fell to her death in 1926 — her plane turned upside down and she wasn’t wearing a seat belt).
The committee chose Sacajawea, but no one knows what she looked like. No one even knows what tribe she was from, though she could have been a Shoshone. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin is expected to make the final selection this fall, and is likely to give Sacajawea the thumbs up. Question for the historians: Was Sacajawea a citizen of the United States? (John Miller, Money Changers, National Review, July 6, 1998, p.23.)
‘I Might Even Stay’
A Kenyan “refugee” in England is suing the government to give him a welfare allowance in cash rather than in food coupons. Mr. M, whose name cannot be revealed because he is party to litigation, wants to be able to spend his allowance on cigarettes and alcohol. “I should not have to waste my benefits on over-priced frozen vegetables. I deserve decent African food and, as someone with refugee status, that’s exactly what I should get,” he explains.
Mr. M, who was watching a pornographic video when reporters spoke to him at his well-equipped apartment, did not come to Britain planning to be a refugee but learned of the advantages of persecution after he arrived. “I told the authorities about my terrible life back home in Kenya and then Hackney Council [the local government] found me a flat and started paying my benefits,” he explains. He has since run up a £23,000 ($35,000) government-paid legal assistance bill trying to get his benefits in cash rather than food vouchers. He also gets free psychological counseling for alleged post traumatic stress syndrome.
“I’d always heard of Britain as a good place to go when I was in Kenya,” he said to reporters. “If things improve I might even consider staying here.” (Peter Allen and Barbara Davies, Why do I have to Shell out my Benefit on Tesco Frozen Peas? Daily Mail (London) July 6, 1998, p. 26.)
In the mean time, in Gloucestershire County, the local authorities are changing the language so as not to offend immigrants. Road signs reading “accident blackspot” used to indicate the most dangerous stretches of roadway, but will henceforth say “accident hot spot.” Staff have been ordered no longer to use the offensive word in documents. (End of the Road for Accident Blackspot, Daily Mail (London) July 25, 1998, p. 7.)
Safe Sex
Frank Turner, black news anchorman at a Detroit area television station (WXYZ-TV) has been fired after it was learned that he spent thousands of dollars on telephone sex. This came to light only after a former girlfriend publicly accused him of running up as much as $30,000 on her credit cards, mostly to support his habit. Mr. Turner is protesting his firing. “It [telephone sex] is not illegal,” he points out. “It’s the safest sex you can have. What’s the worst thing that can happen? An ear infection?” (Tim Kiska, Channel 7 Firing Came Over Phone Sex Issue, Ex-anchor Says, Detroit News, June 23, 1998, p. E1.)
There is an easy, free and effective way to use the Internet to fight immigration. Roy Beck has a web page, www.numbersusa.com, which is dedicated to lobbying Congress. You can use the page to send faxes free of charge to your Congressmen, Senators, various conference chairman, and even the whole Congress. All you need is a password and a user name, which you can get on-line.
You can pick the faxes you want to send. They focus on such things as overpopulation, American workers rights, citizenship, crime, and environmental damage. According to Mr. Beck his effort is having an effect. The faxes helped scuttle key aspects of the 245i amnesty and could help defeat Senator Spencer Abraham’s efforts to increase legal immigration. He says the faxes have also helped persuade Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey to back off on legislation favoring more immigrants.
Costa Rica Fights Invasion
Costa Rica is the whitest and most prosperous nation in Central America. It is also facing an invasion of non-whites, mostly from neighboring Nicaragua. After Bolivia, Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Americas, and has an unemployment rate of 50 percent. Laborers sneak into Costa Rica to find work on farms or construction sites. Some 500,000 to 700,000 Nicaraguan migrants now make up 15 percent of Costa Rica’s population and the country has had enough. “Costa Rica is not prepared to deal with this massive immigration;” says immigration director Eduardo Vilchez Hurtado. “It is interfering with our system of social services and job availability,” he says, adding, “we can’t carry Nicaragua’s problems on our backs.”(Juanita Darling, An Immigration Dispute Far South of the U.S. Border, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1998.)
