O Tempora, O Mores! (March, 2005)
American Renaissance, March 2005
Huddled Masses
Six in ten babies born in New York City since 2000 have at least one foreign-born parent. In 2000, the foreign-born population of the city stood at 2.87 million, 36 percent of the total. If their children are included, foreigners account for no less than 55 percent of the city’s population. The largest groups of foreigners are Dominicans, numbering 369,200; Chinese at 262,600; Jamaicans at 178,900; and Guyanans at 130,600. More than a third of the city’s black population is now foreign-born. The number of Mexicans, consisting almost entirely of illegal immigrants, quadrupled between 1990 and 2000, from 32,689 to 122,550. Other fast-growing groups include Bangladeshis, whose population quintupled, and Pakistanis, whose numbers rose by more than 250 percent. Natives are leaving; there were 5.2 million in 1990, but only 5.1 million in 2000. The white population dropped from 62 percent in 1970 to 35 percent in 2000. Thirty-four percent of the total population under the age of 18 are Hispanic, 29 percent are black, 24 percent white, and 10 percent are Asian.
Sixty-six percent of the foreign-born who immigrated legally were let in because they were relatives of US citizens, 14 percent were refugees, 10 percent came on work visas, and eight percent won the diversity lottery. Forty-eight percent of the foreign-born cannot speak English proficiently. This includes 76 percent of Mexicans, 75 percent of Chinese, and 70 percent of Dominicans. Foreigners are three times more likely than natives to live in overcrowded housing: 25 percent versus 7.5 percent. Sixty-six percent of Mexicans, 61 percent of Bangladeshis, and 38 percent of Dominicans live in crowded conditions. [Nina Bernstein, Record Immigration Is Changing the Face of New York’s Neighborhoods, New York Times, Jan. 24, 2005. New York City Department of Planning, Population Division, The Newest New Yorkers: Immigrant New York in the New Millenium, October 2004.]
Last December, the Houston, Texas, public school system — the nation’s seventh largest — appointed its first Hispanic superintendent, Dr. Abelardo Saavedra. He will administer a district that has 300 schools, 30,000 employees, 210,000 students, and an annual budget of $1.3 billion. Dr. Saavedra is a good match for the district. Sixty percent of Houston’s students are Hispanic, 32 percent are black, and only eight percent are white. [Steve Barnes, Texas: Hispanic to Lead Houston Schools, New York Times, Dec. 10, 2004.]
The federal government requires all local governments that receive federal funding to offer language services for non-English speakers. If 3,000 people or 10 percent of the population in an area speak a foreign language, the locals must translate documents into that language. Non-English speakers are also entitled to interpreters. Alexandria, Virginia, subscribes to a national telephone interpreting service called Language Line, which offers more than 100 languages. Common foreign languages cost $1.60 per minute, but exotic languages like Bengali cost $3.69. The monthly interpreter bill for the Alexandria police department alone often reaches $3,000. There is a poster in Alexandria’s Department of Human Services advertising free interpreting. It is in 12 languages, including Amharic and Swahili. [Brigid Schulte, Communities Struggle to Break Down Language Barriers, Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2005.]
Alameda County, California, which includes Oakland, wants to make sure immigrants use all government services. Many people who qualify for food stamps do not get them, so the US Department of Agriculture has given the county $125,000 to boost enrollment among Asians who do not speak English. The county tried the same thing with Spanish speakers. They found that many illegal immigrants thought the government would deport them if they applied for welfare. Hispanic non-citizens also did not realize their children qualified for food stamps even though the parents didn’t. The county sent outreach workers to tax-preparation and nonprofit agencies, and increased Hispanic food stamp use by 15 percent. [Meredith May, A Boost for Food Stamps, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 25, 2005.]
Turf Battles
Stories about fights between black and Hispanic students at high schools appear in newspapers all over the country. Some fights involve so many people that they could be called race riots. On November 20, a black-Hispanic brawl broke out at Jordan High School in South Los Angeles. Police estimate as many as 1,000 people took part when a fight between two girls spread through the campus. Local gang-members joined in, and it took about 60 policemen in riot gear to break up the fray. The school was locked down for several hours, as were two other schools in the area, for fear the violence might spread. [Fight at Local School Turns Into Chaos, ABC 7 (Los Angeles), Nov. 20, 2004.]
More violence quickly followed. Three days later, there was a fight between 100 blacks and Hispanics at Manual Arts High School. Dozens of officers, some in helicopters, restored order. A week later, black students broke the jaw of a Hispanic student in front of Crenshaw High School. Police arrested one student for the attack, which the high school’s principal called a “hate crime.” Police believe the three incidents were connected: Students who fight at one school call their friends at other schools and encourage them to fight. Since then, there have been a number of small skirmishes. The schools already had police officers on campus, but increased their numbers from two, to six or seven.
Students think interracial dating caused the riots. A Hispanic girl said, “When I was dating a black guy, I had a lot of racial comments. Their most common thing is, ‘Stick to your own kind.’” [Hector Becerra, Schools Beef up Patrols After Fights, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3, 2004.]
There are similar problems at Hug High School in Reno, Nevada. It has traditionally had a large black minority, and blacks resent a recent surge in Mexicans. Hispanics are now 54 percent of the school, blacks are 10 percent, Asian/Pacific Islanders (some from Tonga) 9 percent, and whites 33 percent. The school is very violent: In a two-month period to mid-October, there were 112 suspensions, including 34 for fighting. Hispanics and blacks accounted for 79 percent of the suspensions.
One student says there are three or four fights a week between blacks and Hispanics. Tongans also fight, but whites do not. Many fights start because students flash gang colors, and the school has set up a task force, which includes one Tongan, to stop interracial violence. [Geralda Miller, Hug High School Works to Resolve Racial Tensions, Reno Gazette-Journal, Oct. 15, 2004.]
In Chicago, police made seven arrests after a brawl in January between black and Hispanic gang members at Washington High School. Two thugs attacked teachers who were trying to break up the fight, and police had to use a Taser to control one student. The teachers’ union says many teachers feel unsafe; it has been pressing the district to increase security. [William Lee, Gang Brawl Breaks out at Southeast Side High School, Daily Southtown (Chicago), Jan. 12, 2005.]
On April 5, 2004, three eighth-grade black girls at Maxine O. Bush Elementary School in Phoenix knocked down a Hispanic girl named Gloria Galeno and repeatedly kicked her. The three black girls have been convicted of assault and disorderly conduct. The parents of the Hispanic, who think the attack was racially motivated, threatened to sue the school district for $25 million, and asked the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) for help. LULAC demanded that the principal be fired for failing to protect Hispanics, and later threatened a boycott if he were not removed. “We are going to talk to Hispanic parents, and we will ask them to pull their kids from Bush school, and we will shut down the school,” said a LULAC official. [Betty Reid, 3 Girls Found Guilty in Beating of Hispanic Student at Bush, Arizona Republic (Phoenix), Jan. 21, 2005. Latino Group Warns it will Pull Schoolkids, Arizona Republic, Jan. 7, 2005.]
Muslims in Hillsborough County, Florida, want schools closed on Eid al Fatr, the Islamic holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, noting that there are school holidays for Christmas and Easter. Schools will stay open, but the school board reaffirmed its policy of excusing students who miss class for religious reasons, and asked teachers not to schedule important events on Muslim holy days. It also said it would consider observing Muslim holidays if the number of Muslim students keeps growing. [No Holidays Added for Muslim Students, Herald (Miami), Jan. 20, 2005.]
The Chicago Police Department requires each of its 14,000 officers to watch video tapes on how to deal with non-Christians. Videos on Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus note, for example, that many Sikhs wear a small sword under their clothes, that Orthodox Jews may refuse to move illegally parked cars on Saturdays, and that non-believers may not take pictures in Hindu temples. The videos also tell officers not to eat non-Kosher food in a synagogue or ask a Sikh to take off his turban in public.
Muslims approve. “This is not just a superficial thing,” says Kareem Irfan of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. “It [the training] has changed our community’s relationship with the police to the extent that people are beginning to see the Chicago Police Department as an ally rather than an opposing force.”
The Chicago PD has sent copies of the videos to the police chiefs of the nation’s 50 largest cities. “Police need to know about diverse communities, and people out there need to learn our tactics,” says Superintendent Philip Cline. [Videos Teach US Police about Non-Christians, Palm Beach Post, Jan. 23, 2005.]
Race in Cuba
The following is from the “Lonely Planet” travel guide for Cuba:
“Although Cuba prides itself on freedom from racial discrimination, visitors of non-European origin are more likely to attract the attention of the police and other officials than a white might. Tourists of African, Asian and Arab origin have a better chance of being asked to show additional documentation at the airport or of receiving that borderline traffic ticket. Latin visitors with a somewhat Cuban appearance may have to show their passports to enter hotels and other places from which ordinary Cubans are barred. Cubans of African origin are far more likely to be hassled by the police at beaches, discos, and even streets frequented by tourists than are other Cubans, though there doesn’t seem to be any resentment over this. Mixed-race couples, especially black-white mixes, face constant problems if they’re traveling independently, as the black partner will be taken for a prostitute.”
A British tourist traveling with his black British girlfriend reports that Cubans assume she is a jinetera (prostitute) hanging around a wealthy foreigner and that many restaurants and hotels have refused to admit them. “It has gotten to the point where she cannot walk anywhere without her passport ready,” he says.
“I had trouble all over the place,” says a black tourist. “Whites being nicely treated and blacks asked what the hell they’re looking for in whatever establishments . . . I honestly would not recommend Cuba to non-white tourists, at least not for the next decade or so.” [David Stanley, Cuba, Lonely Planet Publications (Melbourne, Australia), 2000, p. 104.]
Many medical researchers ignore race because they think it is not an accurate genetic indicator, but a recent study proves them wrong. A team lead by Neil Risch, genetics professor at Stanford, examined the genes of 3,636 people who identified themselves as either white, black, Hispanic, or East Asian. Without knowing how the subjects classified themselves, the team searched their genetic profiles for racial patterns. Four clear clusters showed up, corresponding to each of the racial groups. It is especially significant that Hispanics formed a distinct group, since most Hispanics are a mixture of Indian, white, and black. Upon further examination, the researchers found that Asians could be broken down into Chinese and Japanese subgroups. The DNA matched the subjects’ own reported race in all but five cases, for an error rate of just 0.14 percent. This was by far the largest study of this kind, and Dr. Risch says it proves racial classifications are a sound and cost-effective way to determine genetic differences. [Hua Tang et al., Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies, American Journal of Human Genetics, Feb. 2005, pp. 268-275.]
Doctors are learning they need to consider race when they treat disease. Heart specialists at the University of California were puzzled by Chinese patients who were diagnosed with a dangerous heart disease called Long QT Syndrome, but showed no symptoms. Because the diagnostic technique was developed for whites, they ran a new study that included Asians, and found that the diagnosis that works for whites does not work for Asians. Asians who tested positive for Long QT had a benign form of the condition, and had been treated unnecessarily for years. Other Asians, who had tested negative, actually had the disease. One doctor commented: “I cannot stress how important it is to have accurate matches when you are dealing with genetic issues. You need to make sure you are comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.” [April Lynch, Case Reflects Influence Ethnic Differences Have on Genetic Medicine, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Dec. 27, 2004.]
PC Astronomy
The planetarium of the Virginia Living History Museum in Newport News, Virginia, will celebrate Black History Month with a special program on weekend afternoons called “Follow the Drinking Gourd: A Quest for Freedom.” Based on a children’s book of the same name, it tells the story of a slave family’s journey northward on the Underground Railroad using the constellations — particularly the Big Dipper or “Drinking Gourd” — as their guide. The program highlights art by the book’s author, Jeanette Winter, as well as “traditional” African music, Negro spirituals, and, of course, the Lovey Williams song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” [Allison Brunner Medeiros, Freedom Stars, AAA World, January/February 2005, p. 18.]
Grade School Sex
In January, we reported that an 11-year-old sixth grader at a Philadelphia middle school raped one of his male classmates. That same week, police charged a 12-year-old boy with forcing an 8-year-old girl to give him oral sex behind an elementary school in West Philadelphia, and in December, two Philadelphia kindergarten boys — one of whom was just five-years-old — were caught simulating oral sex on each other in a restroom. As was the case with the sixth-grade rape, the parent of one of the kindergarten boys is blaming the school. “You are trusting the teacher, you are trusting the school to protect your child, and look what happens,” says Viviana Sweeney.
During the 2003/2004 school year, Philadelphia public school students committed 310 indecent assaults, 56 indecent exposures, 10 rapes or attempted rapes, and 86 other acts of sexual misconduct. This figure is down 20 percent from the 2002/2003 school year, but 145 of the incidents — nearly a third — were in elementary schools. Schools are installing surveillance cameras and posting patrols in hallways. They will also begin psychologically screening for students who misbehave sexually, and will train staff to be on the lookout for them.
Teachers blame parents for the way students behave. Paul Vallas, the Philadelphia school district’s chief executive officer, says, “When you have children as young as first grade engaging in sexualized behavior, that wasn’t learned in the school.” School principals say they have overheard students talking about what they saw in pornographic videos and on pay-cable channels. School officials once found a salacious note written by a fifth grader that was so sophisticated, they thought an adult had written it. The boy was just describing pornography he watched at a friend’s house.
Other experts say society is to blame, because there is more and more sex on television, in movies, on the radio, online, and at home. “The stuff is available at their fingertips,” says Jill Levenson, a professor of human services at Lynn University in Florida. “That is really going to change the development of a whole generation of youth.”
“The more children are exposed to adult-like sexual behavior, the more likely they are to try some of that on,” says Thomas Haworth, a Philadelphia expert on sexual violence. [Susan Snyder, Shocking Sex Acts in Schools, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 19, 2004, p. B1.]
Underground Economy
America has two economies, according Robert Justich, a senior director at Bear Stearns Asset Management: the legitimate economy, in which workers report income and pay income taxes, and the underground, off-the-books economy. The underground economy has an output of $970 billion a year, and it is growing at 5.6 percent, faster than the legitimate economy.
It is growing because more people hire illegal aliens, about half of whom work off the books. The unreported wages of illegals cost the government $50 billion a year in taxes, and the underground economy is growing at the expense of the legitimate one. Low-wage, off-the-books illegals are so attractive to employers that four to six million jobs have moved from the legitimate to the underground economy. In California, active retail permits have been stable over the last several years despite rapid population growth; new retailers are simply joining the underground economy rather than start legitimate businesses.
The Bear Stearns report finds evidence that there are far more illegals than the official estimate of 8.5 million. The government says that between 1995 and 2000, the number of Mexicans in the US rose 56 percent. However, during the same period, remittances to Mexico jumped 300 percent, suggesting a much larger increase. The census says the population of the New Jersey cities of Newark, New Brunswick, and Elizabeth — all popular immigrant destinations — increased by 5.6 percent between 1990 and 2003, but the number of housing permits given out each year increased six fold. Eighty percent of the new permits were for apartment buildings and duplexes. This suggests much higher population growth than the census found. Mr. Justich of Bear Sterns estimates that there are 18 to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States, and that they hold 12 to 15 million jobs.
Lax immigration enforcement policy has encouraged the underground economy. In 2002, there were fewer than 1,000 arrests for hiring illegal aliens, down from 18,000 in 1997. This may change: The IRS hired 2,200 enforcement personnel last year, so arrests should go up. [Jim McTague, Going Underground, Barron’s, Jan. 1, 2005.]
The Jornalero Problem
In 1977, Florida passed a law prohibiting anyone from knowingly hiring illegal aliens, but rarely enforced it, especially after 1986, when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which made hiring illegals a federal crime. The feds hardly ever enforce IRCA, however, and when they do, it is against large employers like Tyson Foods or Wal-Mart, rather than small contractors who hire jornaleros, or day laborers.
The jornalero problem in Lake Worth, Florida, has gotten so bad police are dusting off the old state law, and have told would-be employers they face a $500 fine for the first offense and misdemeanor criminal charges if they keep hiring illegals. They say contractors looking for workers, and immigrants who surround their trucks are a traffic hazard and threaten public safety. Spanish-speaking men once mobbed a woman who stopped to shop for picture frames. Some of them jumped in her car, thinking she was looking for workers. On Janurary 26, police began handing out warning notices to roofers, landscapers and others who were cruising for jornaleros.
Immigrant-lovers are predictably outraged. “It’s another troubling sign that the welcome mat has been pulled from under these communities,” complains Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. “What the police are doing is fining the employer, but hurting the people who want to work,” says Lucio Perez Reynoso of the Guatemalan-Mayan Center in Lake Worth. “It sounds like pure harassment.”
A local immigration lawyer says the police should not try to act “as the Border Patrol,” and should just give out traffic tickets to anyone who blocks streets. Even Mayor Rodney Romano, who supports the policy, says it probably won’t work, and that the city should consider building a day labor center and dormitories to house the city’s 15,000 to 20,000 jornaleros. He also supports Pres. Bush’s guest-worker/amnesty scheme.
The city may have trouble enforcing the state law because IRCA preempts state and local laws. “We are going to send them a letter saying this state law has no force or effect,” says lawyer Jim Green, who handles cases for the ACLU. Greg Schell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project adds, “There will be plenty of lawyers out there licking their chops to sue Lake Worth on behalf of anyone arrested under this law.”
Residents of another Florida town are also fed up with jornaleros. On January 29, 50 members of the Jupiter Neighbors Against Illegal Labor took to the streets to protest a proposal to build a “resource center” for illegals. “This country is not indestructible,” says organizer Bill Burton. “My motivation is to protect what my ancestors built.”
Not everyone is so sensible. There are about 130 jornalero hiring centers in the country. [Bill Douthat, Hiring of Day Laborers Off Street Targeted, Palm Beach Post, Jan. 27, 2005, p. 1B. Bill Douthat, Lake Worth Labor Crackdown Challenged, Palm Beach Post, Jan. 28, 2005, p. 3B. Pamela Perez, Foes of Day Laborer Center in Jupiter Protest, Palm Beach Post, Jan. 30, 2005.]
If current trends continue, the population of Germany will fall from 82 million to 24 million by the end of the century. Even with its current rate of immigration — 230,000 a year — the population will shrink by 700,000 during just the next 15 years. By 2050, the number of children is expected to fall by 12 percent, and a third of Germans will be over age 65, double the current proportion. “There will be 10 million fewer young people in my lifetime,” says Frank Schirrmacher, who has written a best-selling book about German demography called The Methuselah Conspiracy. “Our whole infrastructure is designed for a bigger population,” he says, noting that Germany already has too many schools, hospitals and even roads.
The decline in birthrates began after birth control pills became widely available in 1967. Within five years, the lifetime fertility rate dropped from 2.5 to 1.5, and has drifted down to the Italian and Spanish level of about 1.3. Mr. Schirrmacher says such low rates will bring about “the first societies in human history with more older people than children.”
Why don’t Germans have more children? “The biggest reason is financial,” says Slobodanka Jovanovic, mother of two, who says she will not have a third child. “We don’t get enough support from the state.” She also thinks Germans don’t appreciate children, noting that her neighbors complained when her first child cried at night. “They want their houses, they want their cars, they want their peace.” Thorsten Schoenhoff, whose wife is expecting twins, agrees. “They want a Mercedes, and it costs so much that they can’t afford a child.”
Saskia Schenck, 35, may be a sign of change. She has just given birth to her second child, but is already thinking about a third. “In our generation of Europeans, there are far too many families with one child,” she says. [Mark Landler, Empty Maternity Wards Imperil a Dwindling Germany, New York Times, Nov. 18, 2004.]
Sensible Singaporeans
When Singapore gained independence from Britain in the 1960s, large families were the norm, with women having on average of six children. Worried that the population of the island city-state was growing too fast, the government adopted a “Stop at Two” policy, with taxes and other incentives to reduce family size. This policy was particularly effective with educated women. The government was alarmed by the dysgenic effect, and tried to encourage educated women to have more children, but with no success. As Singapore’s economy boomed in the 1970s and 80s, more women became educated and entered the workforce, and the birthrate continued to fall. Singapore now has one of the lowest birthrates in the world: 1.25 children per woman.
The government views low fertility as a national crisis. It has reversed course and now offers working mothers three-month paid maternity leaves, several thousand dollars in “baby bonuses,” and tax breaks for child-care. [Ellen Nakashima, Trying to Boost Birthrate, Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2004.]
Typhoid Mario
Tuberculosis is endemic in many parts of the Third World, but had largely disappeared in the West until immigrants brought it back. Although highly infectious — and sometimes fatal — it is easily cured with antibiotics, if the patient submits to a full course of treatment. Patients who stop taking medicine before the bacteria are eradicated risk developing antibiotics-resistant strains of TB and pose a greater public health threat.
Feliciano Morelos, a 19-year-old Mexican farmworker and TB carrier living in California, infected 56 people, prompting public health officials to order him quarantined. He refused the order, so police arrested him for endangering public safety. Mr. Morelos, the first person jailed in Santa Barbara County for refusing to obey an isolation order, was being held in a special jail cell with air filters to keep him from infecting other inmates. [TB Carrier Jailed, AP, April 4, 2004.]
Misplaced Mercy
In October 1996, during a St. Petersburg, Florida race riot after a white policeman shot a black criminal, 17-year-old Emory Carter, tried to burn down the Trinity United Methodist Church. He botched the job, only doing $750 in damage, and setting his pants on fire. Police arrested him for arson after he flagged down paramedics to treat his burns. Mr. Carter, who is black, then wrote a letter to Trinity’s congregation, saying, “if I could I would rebuild the church . . . I am truly sorry.” The pastor, a white man named Joseph Teague, asked the court to be merciful, describing Mr. Carter as a teenage boy “caught up in the moment.” Instead of sending him to prison for two years, the judge sent him to a camp for wayward boys. Mr. Carter did not do well. He got into several fights and once sent another boy to the hospital. After he wracked up 30 violations in just one week, the judge who had agreed to be merciful sent him to prison.
Six months after his release in July 1999, Mr. Carter robbed and murdered Mike Kelley, a white man with AIDS. Mr. Carter stabbed him with a fork and a pocketknife and beat him with a motorcycle helmet before strangling him. Mr. Carter was convicted of first-degree murder last September.
At his sentencing on Dec. 17, Mr. Carter showed no contrition, lashing out at the judge and the family of the man he killed. He demanded that Judge Brandt Downey give him the death penalty, yelling, “F — you! Give me my sentence so I can get the f — out of your ugly face.” At one point, he spat toward the judge, calling him a “filthy dog.”
When the victim’s sister, Tina Kelley, began to read a statement, he screamed, “Shut your mouth, bitch!” and told her the family was to blame because her brother had AIDS and a drug problem. When Judge Downey sentenced him to life in prison instead of death, Mr. Carter erupted and had to be forcibly removed by bailiffs.
After the sentencing, Miss Kelley said of the man who killed her brother, “There’s a special place in hell for him. And I hope he finds it.” [Chris Tisch, A Second Chance Dissolves into Life in Prison, St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 18, 2004.]
The Birmingham Repertory Theatre in Birmingham, England, prides itself on controversial productions. On Dec. 9, it put on Behzti (which means dishonor in Punjabi), written by a Sikh woman, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. The action, including a rape and murder, takes place in a Sikh temple, and Sikhs are outraged. They say the play is sacrilegious, and demanded a rewrite or cancellation. The theatre refused.
On Dec. 18, 1,000 Sikhs from all over Britain protested, pelting the theatre with eggs and smashing windows. A group managed to get inside, storm the stage, and stop the show. The theatre had to be evacuated, and rioters injured three policemen.
Sikh leaders refused to apologize for the violence, insisting that the theatre incited the riot. They were joined by the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, who said, “In recent weeks the Sikh community has acted in a reasonable and measured way in representing their deep concerns to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. I regret that the Repertory Theatre, in the interests of the common good, has not been more responsive.” Two days after the riot, the theatre’s executive director, Stuart Rogers, reluctantly canceled the play, pointing out that because Sikhs would not promise to stay away, he could not guarantee the safety of the audience. Sikhs were delighted.
Tony Blair’s Labour government, which is courting the Sikh vote, explained away the violence. Home Office Minister for Race Equality, Fiona MacTaggart, said the protestors were just exercising their right of free speech, “which is so much part of the British tradition” and “as important as the free speech of the artist.” The incident came just as Parliament is considering a bill that would make incitement of religious hatred a crime punishable by seven years in prison. If the bill passes, it may be illegal to put on a play like Behzti. [Nick Britten, Sikhs Storm Theatre in Protest Over Play, Telegraph (London), Dec. 20, 2004. Nick Britten, Violent Sikh Demo Forces Theatre to Cancel Play, Telegraph (London), Dec. 21, 2004. Government Should Denounce Protest, Observer (London), Dec. 22, 2004.]
Browning of Britain
During the 10 years between 1991 and 2001, the number of non-whites in Britain grew from 3 million to 4.6 million — accounting for 73 percent of population growth — and now makes up more than eight percent of the British population. Anne Power, professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics, says the non-white population is increasing rapidly because of mass immigration of young adults and high birth rates.
The number of African blacks living in Britain increased by 120 percent, to 485,000, about the same as the number of Caribbean blacks. Bangladeshis were up by 73 percent to 283,000; Pakistanis increased 57 percent to 747,000, and the number of Indians living in Britain increased by 25 percent to just over a million, making them the single largest non-white group. In contrast, the number of whites increased by 600,000, or just 1.2 percent. Non-whites like to live in London. More than 78 percent of Africans live there, along with 60 percent of Afro-Caribbeans, 54 percent of Bangladeshis, and 42 percent of Indians.
How are white Britons reacting? Just like Americans — they are clearing out. Prof. Power found that areas with the largest influx of non-whites saw the largest exodus of whites. Also like America, Britain has fewer all-white areas to which whites can flee, now that non-whites are spreading out across the country. “We are getting polarization and a growing racial divide at one level but dispersal at another,” says Prof. Power. [Richard Ford, Race Divide in Big Cities Widens as Whites Move Out, The Times (London), Dec. 8, 2004, p. 5.]
The media love to run stories accusing cab drivers of racism because they don’t like to pick up young black men. There are good reasons for this — fear of being robbed being the most obvious — but according to a study in New Haven, Connecticut, by a group of economists, blacks are also bad tippers. The study found that 40 percent of blacks do not tip at all, compared to just 10 percent of whites. Drivers who serve black passengers can expect 8.6 percent less income than those who serve whites.
The study also found that black drivers are stiffed more often than whites — 80 percent more often — and that they get only about two-thirds as much in tips as whites, which leave them with 6.6 percent less income than whites. (The study said nothing about whether black drivers were more likely to have black passengers.) [Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff, Race, Tips, and Economics, Forbes, Nov. 1, 2004, p. 136.]
