O Tempora, O Mores! (September, 2005)
American Renaissance, September 2005
Some Nerve
On May 14, 2003, Jamaican Tyrone Williams picked up a tractor-trailer full of 70 illegal aliens in Harlingen, Texas, and began driving them across the state through the scorching heat. After several hours, he saw in his rearview mirror that someone was waving a handkerchief through an opening where a taillight had been knocked out. He pulled over, opened the doors, and found that many of his passengers were suffering from asphyxia and heat stroke, and that several had died. Mr. Williams unhooked the trailer and fled in the tractor. In all, 19 died in what authorities claimed was the deadliest human smuggling attempt in US history. Mr. Williams was caught, tried and convicted on smuggling charges, and faces a life sentence. Thirteen others from the smuggling ring also face charges.
Lawyers for the families of seven of the dead illegals are suing Great Dane, Inc., the manufacturer of the trailer. They say the company is responsible for the deaths because the trailer had no ventilation system and no escape latches. The suit also faults Great Dane for not putting labels in the trailer saying people shouldn’t be hauled in it. The suit names Mr. Williams, the smuggling ring, and the leasing company that owned the rig all as co-defendants, but under the “deep pockets” theory Great Dane would pay if damages are awarded.
The lawyers — from the firm of Moreno, Becerra, Guerrero, and Casillas of Montebello, Calif. — want a jury trial, in which they will demand $1.4 million in damages for each case, funeral expenses, attorneys fees, and punitive damages. Pre-trial hearings will begin September 6 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building in Victoria, Texas. [Greg Bowen, Trailer Builder, Driver Sued by Survivors of Fatal Smuggling Attempt, Victoria Advocate, Aug. 3, 2005.]
Family Honor
Hatun Surucu was a young Turkish woman born in Berlin who rebelled against her traditional Turkish family. She was sent back to Turkey and forced to marry a cousin at the age of 16, but she divorced and returned to Berlin pregnant. She gave birth at age 17, and began living like a German woman — she gave up her headscarf, wore makeup, went to school, and dated German men. Her three brothers, who lived in Berlin, thought this behavior dishonored the family and often told her to stop. One evening as she was leaving her house, they shot her to death. They were convicted of murder and are now in jail.
The case became a cause célèbre in Berlin. Turkish women marched in the streets, and people put up a shrine where Miss Surucu was shot. Many Turks, however, sided with the brothers. One Turkish student in Berlin told his teacher that Miss Surucu deserved her death because “she lived like a German, didn’t she?” Berlin averages about one such honor killing every month. [Yann Ollivier, Germany Shaken by Honor Killings in its Turkish Community, AFP, March 4, 2005. Tony Paterson, ‘How Many More Women Have To Die Before This Society Wakes Up?’ Telegraph (London), Feb. 27, 2005. Ray Furlong, ‘Honour Killing Shocks Germany,’ BBC (London), March 14, 2005.]
In Birmingham, England, a Muslim girl and a young Sikh were lovers, which distressed their families. The man’s family threatened the girl’s family. In retaliation, six of her male relatives went to the shop of the man’s father and beat to death the man who was working there. He turned out not to be the young lover’s father, and had nothing to do with the romance. Two men were convicted of murder and got life sentences. [Iain Robinson, Father’s Identity Mistaken In Killing, Express and Star (Wolverhampton, England), June 11, 2005.]
Immigrants are bringing similar violence to America. According to police reports, Ahmad Abdelmomen, a 21-year-old Egyptian Muslim immigrant who lives in Oakland County, Michigan, beat his sister, Engy, so severely that he broke her back after he found her talking to a “white, Catholic boy.” Her parents waited a day before taking her to the hospital. Originally, prosecutors said the parents delayed because they approved of the punishment; they dropped that charge after the parents agreed to a no-contest plea of medical neglect. The parents are undergoing psychological examinations to determine whether it is safe for the girl to stay at home. Her brother faces a charge of aggravated assault. [Niraj Warikoo, Oakland Family in Trouble over Beating, Detroit Free Press, June 23, 2005. L. L. Brasier, Oakland Teen is Taken from Home, Detroit Free Press, June 24, 2005.]
Amandeep Atwal, a 17-year-old Sikh living in Kitimat, British Columbia, with her family, fell in love with a young man named Todd McIsaac. The family was distressed to learn about this, and Miss Atwal decided to leave home and move in with her boyfriend in another British Columbia town. The girl’s father, Rajinder Atwal, insisted on driving her there. At a rest area, Mr. Atwal stabbed her 17 times. He then put her in the foot well of the front seat, covered her with a blanket, and drove for 21/2 hours before taking her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Mr. Atwal played the grieving father, claiming the girl had killed herself, but he was convicted of murder and got a sentence of 16 years. [BC Man Must Serve 16 Years for Killing Daughter, Canadian Press, June 22, 2005.]
Droit de Seigneur
We reprint the following item on the latest marriage of the king of Swaziland, verbatim and in toto:
King Mswati III has formally married his 11th wife, a 21-year-old woman whom he chose three years ago at an annual parade of bare-breasted maidens held in his honor, the government said. Two more women are brides-in-waiting. The king’s choices formally become wives only upon becoming pregnant, and Mswati’s latest wife, Noliqwa Ntentesa, is carrying his 25th child. The king, Africa’s last absolute monarch, has been widely criticized for his extravagant lifestyle in a nation where 7 in 10 people live on less than a dollar a day. [Michael Wines, Swaziland: King Marries 11th Wife, New York Times, May 31, 2005.]
Back in 1997, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system (CMS) in North Carolina started suspending all students who misbehave. The result has been a lot of suspensions: 52,648 in 2003-04. Nearly 11,000 students were suspended at least twice and 6,700 at least three times. Four hundred fifty students had ten suspensions or more. One third of the suspensions were for violent offenses, including weapons possession, sexual assault, robbery, and “aggressive physical or verbal actions.”
Blacks and whites each make up 42 percent of the enrollment at CMS, but blacks got 75 percent of the suspensions, with black boys — a fifth of the total enrollment — accounting for 46 percent. In national studies, white boys are suspended most often after black boys, but in CMS, second-place honors go to black girls, who got 26 percent of the suspensions. White boys and girls were just 20 percent of those suspended. Overall, blacks were suspended at four times the white rate — one in three vs. one in twelve. Blacks were also far more likely to be arrested at school than whites. In 2003-04, police made 1,004 arrests on CMS campuses; 81 percent of the suspects were black.
The racial disparity embarrasses administrators. “It’s a very difficult issue, and it’s uncomfortable for folks,” says assistant superintendent Susan Agruso. “Part of it may be related to culture. Part of it’s poverty . . . You don’t want to believe there are biases, but the truth is, there probably are.” But Miss Agruso also says student misbehave: “We have kids who haven’t learned that you’re respectful to teachers, you don’t curse in class, you don’t get up and walk around.”
The usual people say cultural differences between white teachers and black students lead to unjustified suspensions, particularly with subjective infractions like “generally disruptive behavior” and “insubordination.” Anti-“racism” activist Tim Wise, for example, says that when black students talk back to teachers, it may not be disrespect, but engagement, like when black churchgoers shout back to ministers. [Liz Chandler, Adam Bell, Melissa Manware and Peter Smolowitz, School Suspensions Soar, Charlotte Observer, June 12, 2005, p. A1. Liz Chandler, Adam Bell and Peter Smolowitz, Blacks Suspended Far More than Whites, Charlotte Observer, June 12, 2005, p. A1.]
According to the CDC, US infant mortality declined between 1995 and 2002, dropping from 7.6 deaths per 1,000 live births to 7.0. The overall rate would be even lower were it not for the high black infant mortality rate — 13.9 in 2002, more than double the rate of 5.9 for whites. The infant death rate for Indians was 9.1, for Hispanics, 5.8, and for Asians, 5.0. Washington, DC, had the highest infant mortality rate in the nation at 13.5, followed by Mississippi (10.4), Alabama (9.7), Louisiana (9.5) and South Carolina (9.3) — all with large black populations. The states with the fewest infant deaths — New Hampshire (4.9), Massachusetts (5.0), Maine (5.3), and Utah (5.4) — are overwhelmingly white. The CDC attributes the racial gap to age and health of the mother, multiple births, low birth weight, premature births, frequency and quality of prenatal care, and availability of doctors. The CDC has set a goal of reducing the national infant mortality rate to 4.5 by 2010, a 36 percent reduction that will be hard to achieve. [Miranda Hitti, Infant Deaths Down, but Racial Gap Persists, FoxNews.com, June 10, 2005.]
Black children who survive infancy have many more injuries than whites. According to a study by Ohio State University, black children are almost eight times more likely to be burned or shot, seven times more likely to be hit by a car, six times more likely to be intentionally injured, and more than twice as likely to die as a result of an injury. The authors say blacks need “injury prevention initiatives,” whatever they may be. [Racial Disparity in Trauma, Physician’s Weekly, May 31, 2005.]
Last year, comedian Bill Cosby told an NAACP meeting that the worst problems for inner-city blacks are reckless procreation, bad parents, and even black-sounding names. Many blacks were angry, but many silently agreed.
Black University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Eric Dyson, author of Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?, believes blacks reacted to Mr. Cosby according to whether they are part of the success-oriented “Afristocracy” of black lawyers, doctors, business executives, etc. or the failed “Ghettocracy” of welfare mothers, bums, gang-members, and ex-cons.
Although he is part of the Afristocracy, Prof. Dyson sides with the ghetto, calling Mr. Cosby “mean-spirited,” and complaining his remarks were exploited by white conservatives. He also criticizes Mr. Cosby’s former comedy act for not discussing race or criticizing white racism, noting that he “has never lambasted white America the way he has black America.” Prof. Dyson thinks we should find the causes of black self-destruction rather than criticize its victims. In other words, it’s all whitey’s fault. [Jason B. Johnson, When Lower-Class Blacks Took a Hit from Bill Cosby, Author Dyson Came Out Swinging in Their Defense, San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2005, p. E1.]
The Paternalistic Press
Newspaper stories about crime often leave out the race of the suspect. The usual policy is to mention race only when it is part of a complete description. Editors argue that writing that the robber was “a black teenager” is not enough detail to catch the man but could promote “negative stereotypes.” [Tony Marcano, Why Don’t Some Articles Identify Suspects by Race? Sacramento Bee, April 25, 2004.] Leaving out race but including sex apparently runs no risk of creating “negative stereotypes” about men.
Just how much detail does the racially repressed Washington Post need before it will tell us a suspect is black? More, apparently, than it is ever likely to get. Recently, the police were looking for four murder suspects in a Washington, DC, suburb whom they officially described as follows:
‘Black males, possibly late teens or early twenties. One of the suspects is about 5’7”, 22-25 years old, wearing a gray long-sleeve T-shirt, and cornrow hairstyle. The suspect’s vehicle is described as a newer model tan or beige/light colored sedan.’ The Washington Post could bring itself only to say that the suspects were in their late teens and early twenties and were driving a beige sedan. [Michael Gettler, Race and Relevancy, Washington Post, July 24, 2005.] No doubt, if today’s editors had been running the paper back on Dec. 7, 1941, the headline would have been “Youths Bomb Pearl Harbor.”
Some journalists have had enough. Recently, the North Andover, Mass., Eagle-Tribune adopted the no-race-unless-there-are-lots-of-other-details policy. The editorial page editor, Ken Johnson, objected by e-mail: “This strikes me as just too much wrong-headed PC nonsense. Are we to write that ‘Three men from east Texas were convicted of dragging James Byrd behind a pickup truck until he was decapitated’ without mentioning that the thugs were white and the victim black?” Another journalist, Brian McGonigle, joked in response, “Actually the victim would technically be black and blue and red all over.” The newspaper suspended both men for three days without pay. [Being ‘PC’ is not Black or White, Rockingham News (NH), July 29, 2005.]
Despite invasions by Saxons, Romans, Vikings, Normans and others, the native white population of Britain retains much the same genetic makeup as the original Ice Age people who first settled the British Isles 12,000 years ago.
“There’s been a lot of arguing over the last ten years,” says archaeologist David Miles, author of The Tribes of Britain, “but it’s now more or less agreed that about 80 percent of Britons’ genes come from hunter-gatherers who came in immediately after the Ice Age. The numbers were probably quite small — just a few thousand people.”
The original settlers were nomadic tribesmen who followed herds of reindeer and wild horses north into Britain from what is now France, Germany and Holland. They became isolated when rising sea levels cut Britain off from Europe. The differences between modern Britons and Europeans can be attributed to random mutations that occurred over time, the most visible of which is red hair. “It’s something that foreign observers have often commented on,” Dr. Miles explains. “Recent studies have shown that there is more red hair in Scotland and Wales than anywhere else in the world. It’s a mutation that probably occurred between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago.”
Dr. Miles’s group analyzed blood groups, oxygen traces in teeth, and DNA samples taken from ancient skeletons. [James Owen, British Have Changed Little Since Ice Age, Gene Study Says, National Geographic News, July 19, 2005.]
Ebonics Returns
Back in 1996, the school board in Oakland, Calif., declared that Ebonics, the urban dialect spoken by US blacks, was a separate language. Now the school board in San Bernadino plans to “affirm” and “recognize” Ebonics through a supplemental reading program to improve black self-esteem and school performance.
“Ebonics is a different language, it’s not slang as many believe,” says Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State Bernadino. “For many of these students, Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language.” Retibu Jacocks, a black activist who will monitor the program, says, “This isn’t a feel-good policy. This is the real thing.”
Beginning in the 2005-2006 school year, the San Bernadino school district will also start training teachers in black culture and customs, and will expand the curriculum to include the impact of blacks on society. School board vice president Teresa Parra opposes the black-oriented curriculum, fearing it will lead to demands for special programs from Asians and Hispanics. “I’ve always thought that we should provide students support based on their needs and not on their race,” she says. [Irma Lemus, Ebonics Suggested for District, San Bernadino County Sun (San Bernadino, Calif.), July 17, 2005.]
