O Tempora, O Mores! (June, 2002)
American Renaissance, June 2002
Brotherly Love
John Street, who is black, is the mayor of Philadelphia. On April 13 he bragged to an NAACP audience of 700 about how many blacks he has appointed to his administration. Warming to his task, he boomed out: “Let me tell you: The brothers and sisters are running the city. Oh yes. The brothers and sisters are running this city. Running it! Don’t let nobody fool you; we are in charge of the City of Brotherly Love. We are in charge! We are in charge!”
The audience loved it but whites did not. Letters to editors made the obvious point: “What if a white politician shouted the same words to a white organization? Would the title of the article mirror yours: ‘Street touts his record on rights,’ or would it be on the front page, ‘Racist white politician claims white people are in charge’?” Another writer addressed his letter to the mayor. “Mayor Street, thank you for helping my wife and I [sic] decide where to live after we retire. After your revelation at the NAACP meeting, the future don’t [sic] look so bright for us in your city.” Angry whites flooded the phone lines of City Hall and radio talk shows. “There was this unbelievable undercurrent of anger and shock,” says Angelo Cataldi, host of a morning program on station WIP-AM.
The Monday after his speech the mayor said he couldn’t understand what “all the fuss” was about, but by the next day, his spokesman Frank Keel was trying to control the damage: “He meant no offense to anyone and if any offense was taken, he said, ‘I’m sorry. I apologize.’” Mr. Keel also said the public needs to consider the mayor’s audience. “Bear in mind that he was talking to a largely African American constituency — the NAACP conference attendees. People need to understand that this man is extremely passionate. He takes on an evangelical fervor at times, especially when talking to his base.”
Four days after his NAACP speech Mayor Street made another appointment, and Philadelphia now has a black police chief to help the brothers and sisters run the city. [Cynthia Burton, Street Talk Hits a Nerve on Race, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 17, 2002, p. A1. Barbara Boyer, Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. and Robert Moran, Interim Chief Will Keep Top Police Job, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 17, 2002, p. A1. Philly’s Racial Divide, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16, 2002, p. A18. Letters to the Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 19, 2002, p. A18; April 17, p. A14.]
Watch on the Rhine
On April 15, Cincinnati police stopped a fight between two women in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, scene of last year’s riots. They broke up the crowd of 250 blacks who were watching, and declared the area stabilized. It didn’t take long for it to destabilize, as whites who were passing through soon discovered. The mob started shouting “Get whitey” and throwing rocks at cars.
“I was giving a buddy a ride downtown,” says Steve Wahoff. “Vine is the quickest route. I knew it was sort of dangerous, but it was still light out, so I thought there would be no problem. I saw this large crowd in the street and thought, ‘I’d better get out of here.’ And right then, this huge rock hit the windshield.” Mr. Wahoff says black drivers were not being attacked. “That’s the last time I go down Vine Street,” he adds.
“We were really scared,” says Kiril Merjanski, a Bulgarian. “Things are not good in Bulgaria, but this type of thing would never happen there.” Gary Landers, a photographer for the Cincinnati Inquirer, says, “I was told, ‘Get your white ass out of here,’ and I heard someone say, ‘We oughta just kill all you white (expletive deleted) and we wouldn’t have no more problems.’” [Peter Bronson, Vine Street: What Was the Excuse This Time, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 19, 2002. Peter Bronson, No Excuses: Racism Comes in All Colors, Cincinnati Inquirer, April 24, 2002, p. B3.]
White Will
When Dr. Jesse Coggins died in 1963 at the age of 88, he left his money in trust to the Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore, provided they used the money for a physical rehabilitation center for white patients. If Keswick failed to honor the “white patients” clause, the bequest was to go to the University of Maryland Medical System. The money was in a family trust until the death of Dr. Coggins’s widow in 1998, and at that time Keswick went to court to see if it could use the money even if it ignored the “white patients” provision. A Maryland Circuit Court ruled against Keswick in 1999, saying the money must go to the University of Maryland Medical System. However, on May 6 of this year, the Court of Appeals found the condition attached to the will “clearly illegal” and in violation of “strong public policy,” and said Keswick could spend the money — now $30 million — on integrated facilities. Ironically, in the expectation it would get the money, Keswick built its rehabilitation building back in 1970 — and named it after Dr. Coggins. It has no immediate plans for the $30 million. [Brian Witte, Court Rules Against Doctor’s Will, AP, May 7, 2002.]
On May 6, Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot announced a television campaign to sell Hispanics on the GOP. The Republicans will run 30-minute infomercials — entirely in Spanish — on the two major American Spanish-language networks, Univision and Telmundo. “Abriendo Caminos,” or “Forging New Paths” was to begin airing in May in Miami, Orlando, Denver, Albuquerque, Las Vegas and Fresno, California. The GOP will promote the shows with billboards, radio ads and TV announcements — all in Spanish. [Ralph Z. Hallow, GOP to Seek Votes in Spanish, Washington Times, May 7, 2002, p. A8.]
No Habla Español
Zita Wilensky was the only white working for the Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Unit, where her co-workers made fun of her and called her the “gringa” and the “Americana.” Miss Wilensky says her boss told her she had 60 days to learn Spanish. After 30 days, she called Miss Wilensky, disguised her voice, and pretended not to understand English. When Miss Wilensky couldn’t communicate with her, her boss fired her. The boss now claims she only requested that Miss Wilensky learn Spanish, but she has a letter saying she must learn the language. Miss Wilensky is considering suing the county for discrimination and for creating a hostile work environment. [Fired and Furious, WSVN.com, May 1, 2002. Government Worker in US Fired for Speaking English, NewsMax.com, May 7, 2002.]
Death in the Desert
On May 19, 2001, smugglers led a group of Mexican illegals over the border into the Arizona desert, through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. They charged $1,400 per person for the trip, but on the second day, they got lost and ran out of water. Fourteen people eventually died.
Families of 11 of the dead have filed a claim against the Department of the Interior and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for $41 million — $3.75 million for each dead Mexican. Lawyers say the agencies contributed to the deaths by refusing to put water stations in the desert after a Border Patrol crackdown along more populated areas made crossings more difficult. The complaint adds that the agencies rejected a request from a Tucson group Humane Borders shortly before the deaths to put water stations in the refuge, as it has done in other parts of the desert. “What these agencies knew — or should have known — is that by doing this, and with a history of deaths in the desert, these people would cross in these dangerous areas,” says lawyer James Clark.
A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service points out that if the agency had done as Humane Borders asked, the nearest water would have been “twelve miles and two mountain ranges away” from the illegals and would have done them no good. The INS estimates that more than 1,000 illegal aliens have died trying to cross the southwestern desert in the last three years. [Steve Miller, Families of 11 Dead Illegals to Sue U.S., Washington Times, May 11, 2002.]
Forced Feeding
For the past 15 years, the Ugandan army has been fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet who wants to establish a nation based on the Ten Commandments. On April 26, on its way to bases in neighboring Sudan, Mr. Kony’s rebels surrounded a group of mourners in a funeral procession. They forced the mourners to cook the corpse in sorghum and eat it. The mourners thought that if they did what they were told their lives would be spared, but Mr. Kony’s men shot all 60 of them anyway. “You cannot begin to make sense of what Kony does,” says Ugandan army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza. “You will just go mad.” [Paul Busharizi, Uganda Rebels Kill 60, Force Victims to Eat Corpse, Reuters, April 29, 2002.]
Nice Neighbors
On April 20, an 11-year-old black girl went to the home of a 36-year-old white woman in Janesville, Wisconsin, complaining that the woman’s 10-year-old daughter was bothering her. The woman said she’d take care of it, but the girl said, “My black ass ain’t leaving your porch, white bitch, until you take care of it.” According to police reports, the girl then grabbed the white woman by the hair, calling her “white trash” and “white bitch.” The woman freed herself by hitting the girl in the shoulder and knocking her down. The girl’s mother, 44-year-old Johnnie Johnson, appears to have encouraged her children to attack white children and had, herself, argued with a white woman, calling her “dirty white trash.” Janesville police arrested both Miss Johnson and her daughter on hate crime charges. [Woman, Daughter Arrested in Hate Crime, Gazette (Janesville), April 23, 2002.]
Race relations are bad at George Washington High School in North Philadelphia. Last year, there were several race-related fights at the school, and in November, a gang of blacks attacked a white student, Matthew Gremo, leaving him with serious brain injuries. On April 22, after a food fight in the cafeteria, two 14-year-old white students, a boy and a girl, left to get chewing gum out of their hair. Blacks jumped them in the hallway, and began beating them. They pounded the white boy’s head against lockers, and repeatedly punched and kicked him. They hit the girl and pulled her hair, and both students needed medical care. Police arrested two black students for aggravated assault. As usual, school authorities claim the attack was not racial. [Mensah M. Dean and Chris Brennan, 2 Students Hurt in Fight at GW High, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 23, 2002.]
Aiding and Abedding
Sweden has some of the most generous refugee laws in the world. It granted Fawzi Ali Batum political asylum from Somalia in 1993, although he tested positive for the HIV virus. Last February, a Swedish court sentenced Mr. Batum to five years in prison and ordered him to pay $160 million in damages to two Swedish women he infected with the disease. He admitted having unprotected sex with them but said he did not understand the severity of the disease because of language problems. [Man Sentenced for Passing HIV, Herald (Miami), Feb. 21, 2002.]
Free Money for Blacks
Every year, thousands of blacks claim an imaginary slavery tax credit on their federal income taxes. Thirteen thousand made the claim in 2000, and the figure rose to 77,000 in 2001, for a total claim that year of $2.7 billion in reparations. What accounts for the six-fold increase? Some of the people who filed for the slavery credit in 2000 actually got paid, and the word is getting around.
In 2000 and during the first four months of 2001, the IRS paid out more than $30 million in “reparations” refunds. This was not, apparently, pure incompetence. One IRS employee — race unspecified — is being investigated for helping ladle out the refunds. At least a dozen other IRS employees appear to have gotten money.
Most of the claims were for $43,000, which is a figure Essence magazine proposed in 1993 as the current value of 40 acres and a mule. The IRS has announced it will start levying fines on people who are notified that the claim is bogus but who refuse to withdraw it. There is no indication the agency is trying to get back the money it already paid out. [AP, IRS Erroneously Paid $30 million in Credits for Slavery, April 13, 2002.]
Scotland the Brave
According to a recent poll, Scots have been less thoroughly brainwashed than their English cousins. Fifty-four percent do not think immigrants make a positive contribution to the country and almost half would back policies to encourage immigrants to go back where they came from. Rowena Arshad, the director of Scotland’s Centre for Racial Equality, said she was “shocked” by the results. She said this is proof “racism” must be thwarted at an early age by means of forceful instruction in schools. [Jason Allardyce, Shock Poll Lifts Lid on Racist Scots, Scotland on Sunday, May 3, 2002.]
Sensible Solution
In the Nov. 2001 issue we reported that Ronald Schill, a former criminal judge known for his firm stance against immigration, had joined the government of the city-state of Hamburg, Germany. He has now proposed a plan to offer money to African countries if they accept rejected asylum-seekers. Africans are a particular problem because many show up knowing they will not get asylum, but throw away their passports and refuse to say where they are from. This makes it impossible to deport them, and Hamburg now has 2,600 rejected asylum-seekers it must maintain. If an African country accepted the payment, the illegal immigrant would be sent there against his will even if it were not his country of origin. Mr. Schill’s government is reported to be in discussions with several African countries that might be willing to accept people for a fee. [John Hooper and Andrew Osborne, Germans Offer Cash to Return Refugees, Guardian (London), April 30, 2002.]
Kill the Messenger
New York City continues to struggle blindly with the consequences of racial differences in IQ. Recently the city decided to give all public school teachers a competency test, which appears to have been something more than a formality, since more than 2,000 teachers failed. The school system did not immediately fire them. It turned them into substitute teachers, froze their pensions, cut their pay, and revoked their seniority. Naturally, there has been much whooping about racial discrimination, since blacks and Hispanics failed in large numbers while whites did not. There is now a federal class action suit, claiming the test had a “disparate impact” on non-whites and is therefore illegal. Brooklyn federal Judge Constance Motley will hear the case this summer. [Carl Campanile, Pol Seeks Probe of ‘Biased’ Teacher-License Tests, New York Post, April 7, 2002.]
Ethnic Nepotism?
Many Michigan universities have special graduation celebrations just for blacks. University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Wayne State, and Oakland University all put on a special do for blacks, so Michigan State’s black students have asked for one, too. It will be held on the same day as the regular graduation ceremony, and 115 of the 200 blacks who will graduate have signed up to attend.
Some whites have criticized the “Black Celebratory,” as it is called, as separatist, but boosters insist it is not. Some have even pointed out the black graduation rate is so low that any blacks who make it through deserve special recognition. Forty-six percent of blacks who entered as freshmen in 1996 had graduated six years later. The rates for other races were: Hispanics 58 percent, Asians 67 percent, whites 70 percent. [Erik Lords, At MSU, Plans for Pomp Create Friction, Free Press (Detroit), April 5, 2002.]
We’ve Been Warned
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Hispanic Caucus Institute are trying to build a black-brown coalition against whites. At a meeting on April 5, representatives of both races said they would make common cause against a legal system that incarcerates them disproportionately, and against a “broken” political system that reflects “the dominant culture.” Blacks and Hispanics also agreed they have a common interest in maintaining racial preferences. “Together, we are 25 percent of the population, and that is not easy to ignore,” says Ingrid Duran, executive director of the Hispanic Caucus Institute. “But it will not happen if we don’t partner.” [Steve Miller, Hispanic, Black Groups Pledge United Front, Washington Times, April 6, 2002.]
