O Tempora, O Mores! (January, 2007)

Not Guilty

British National Party (BNP) members popped champagne corks outside a courthouse in Leeds, England, Nov. 10, celebrating the acquittal of party chairman Nick Griffin and publicity director Mark Collett on race hate charges. An all-white jury reached a not guilty verdict on all counts after five hours of deliberation. Mr. Griffin, a speaker at the 2002 and 2006 AR conferences, told 200 supporters gathered outside Leeds Crown Court, “We have shown Tony Blair, the government and the BBC, they can take our taxes but they cannot take our hearts, they cannot take our tongues, and they cannot take our freedom.”

This was a retrial of the two men, after an earlier jury acquitted them of certain charges but could not reach decisions on several others. The case stemmed from a secretly-filmed BBC documentary, in which Mr. Griffin told a West Yorkshire audience in 2004 that Islam is a “wicked, vicious faith” and said Muslims were turning Britain into a “multi-racial hellhole.” Mr. Collett got into trouble for telling an audience of BNP members, “Let’s show these ethnics the door in 2004.” That prosecutors chose to retry Mr. Griffin and Mr. Collett, despite having a weak case — only a minority of jurors at the earlier trial voted to convict on any charge — suggests the BNP is right: The prosecutions were politically motivated from the beginning.

After the verdict, Chancellor Gordon Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister early next year, drew exactly the wrong conclusions. Rather than recognize the folly of outlawing “hate speech,” he proposed even more oppressive laws. “I think any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we’ve got to do whatever we can to root it out from whatever quarter it comes,” he told the BBC. “And if that means we’ve got to look at the laws again I think we will have to do so.” [BNP Leader Cleared of Race Hate, BBC News, Nov. 10, 2006. Brown Hints at Law Change, Sky News, Nov. 10, 2006.]

More on Michigan

Although supporters of racial preferences cheered University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman’s pro-diversity diatribe on Nov. 8, many Michiganders were angry when she pledged to use tax-money to fight the will of the people. She may have gotten the message. Proposal 2 goes into effect on Dec. 22, and so far there is no indication U-M is going to court. A statement issued by the university now says it may ask for judicial “clarification” on how to “interpret” Proposal 2. In late November, Pres. Coleman sent an email message to all students and faculty soliciting ideas on how to “promote diversity” within the guidelines imposed by Proposal 2. The tone of the message was much softer than her post-election rant, leading both supporters and critics of Proposition 2 to believe the university may abide by the law.

A frustrated spokesman for BAMN (By Any Means Necessary — one of the main pro-preferences groups), Donna Stern, describes Pres. Coleman’s email as “lame” and “completely inadequate.” She wants the university to argue in court that any admissions system that does not use race preferences automatically discriminates against non-whites. Miss Stern also scoffs at Pres. Coleman’s commitment to “diversity.” “The university hasn’t been arguing that black students are intellectually equal. It was saying ‘we need to let some black students in for diversity,’” she says. “The university will not admit that standardized tests it uses are biased. Every admissions officer in the country knows that they are biased.” As for the proposal, Miss Stern dismisses the results as “white men voting to preserve white privilege,” adding, “If it had been left to the electorate in Alabama and Mississippi on whether to eliminate Jim Crow, we wouldn’t have eliminated Jim Crow.”

Sharon Brown, a lawyer with the Pacific Legal Foundation believes the university’s apparent volte-face is an admission that any attempt to fight Proposal 2 in court would probably fail. She says Proposal 2 is the “mirror image” of California’s Proposition 209, which has withstood repeated court challenges since voters approved it in 1996. [Scott Jaschik, Retreat on Affirmative Action? InsideHigherEd.com, Nov. 28, 2006.]

Ancient Lineage

Scientists have long debated which ancient group gave rise to modern Europeans: Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who migrated to Europe in two separate waves between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago, or Neolithic farmers who arrived from the near East after the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. A new study, which analyzed Y chromosomes (passed from father to son), finds that 80 percent of European men carry the Y chromosome markers of the Paleolithic hunters while 20 percent are descended from the Neolithic farmers. The scientists further believe that 95 percent of all European men can be classified into ten groups, each representing a distinct paternal lineage. The Y chromosome results are strikingly similar to those of a study of mitochondrial DNA (passed from the mother) that concluded modern European women are descended from seven distinct ancestors (see Bryan Sykes’ 2001 book, The Seven Daughters of Eve).

Scientists think the ten paternal groupings represent clans that were isolated from each other by glaciers and other geographic barriers. After the glaciers melted and hunters took up farming, the clans began to mingle. [Europe’s 10 ‘Founding Fathers,’ BBC News, Nov. 10, 2006.]

In the Genes

Important new DNA analysis conducted by 13 different research centers in the US and the UK finds that individual human beings are at least 10 times more different from one another than previously thought. Instead of being 99.9 percent identical, it is more like 99 percent. That means humans are as different from each other as it was previously assumed we were all different from chimpanzees. Instead of 99 percent, the new research suggests we are 96 percent identical to chimps.

Heretofore, scientists believed human variation came from differences in each person’s DNA “letter” sequence. It now appears that people differ in the number of copies of key genes. It was previously assumed that people got two copies of every gene — one from each parent — but the new research finds that a child may receive several copies of certain genes from a parent.

In announcing what they described as a “breakthrough,” the scientists said the new discoveries should explain why some people are prone to genetic diseases. Left unsaid, except as a passing reference to “mental variations” between humans, was the question of racial differences in IQ and other traits. One suspects that the scientists know more than they are saying. The research subjects were 270 Europeans, Africans and Asians, and the scientists found enough differences between them to assign all but one to a distinct racial group. [Steve Connor, Genetic Breakthrough That Reveals the Differences Between Humans, Independent (London), Nov. 23, 2006.]

Suffer the Children

As AIDS rages through Africa, witch doctors continue to promote the sex-with-a-virgin cure. Hymen blood, they explain, will cleanse a man. Willing virgins are hard to find, so men rape children. Child rape is so common in Zimbabwe that an organization called the Girl Child Network (GCN) has set up a village where victims get shelter, medical treatment and advice. The village recently invited tribal chiefs, government officials and “traditional healers” to a session that was supposed to dispel the myth of the virgin cure.

Zimbabwe has a National Traditional Healers Association, and its secretary, Alex Mashoko, says witchdoctors who tell patients to rape virgins are giving his profession a bad name. “The government must give tough penalties on this,” he says. “I don’t accept things like that. It is not good.” The virgin cure myth is common in South Africa, too. Recently, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told his countrymen not to rape young girls for medicinal purposes. The youngest recorded rape victim in South Africa was nine months old. [Steve Vickers, Staging Sex Myths to Save Zimbabwe’s Girls, BBC News, Oct. 24, 2006.]

Protecting the Flowers

John Wilson is a former prosecutor and a member of New York’s Conservative Party, who currently serves as a criminal judge in Brooklyn. He’s also the author of a self-published children’s book called Hot House Flowers (available on Amazon.com for $15.99), described by critics as “a thinly-veiled anti-immigration screed.” The book describes what happens to beautiful flowers when dandelions sneak into their greenhouse and begin to hog the water and soil. The flowers begin to wither but do nothing because they don’t want to appear “intolerant.” The flowers are finally saved by a benevolent gardener who plucks out all the dandelions. By the end of the book, the beautiful flowers have learned never to let dandelion seeds grow in their greenhouse again.

Judge Wilson says he wrote the book in order to explain complex issues to his four-year-old son in a way a child could understand. “It’s intended to describe defense of home and defense of country, and the reasons for that defense,” he explains. “I’m not making any political statements here. They shouldn’t call me anti-immigration, because I’m not. I know we’re a nation of immigrants. But illegal immigration is making a mockery of the rule of law.”

The usual people are saying the usual things. Norman Eng, spokesman for the New York Immigration Coalition, says, “It’s a shame that someone would write a children’s book that teaches intolerance and hatred of immigrants.” Another dandelion advocate, Margaret Fung of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, complains that the judge is “dehumanizing” immigrants by comparing them to “weeds” and “invaders.” “I would hate to be an immigrant in his courtroom,” she says.

If she’s illegal, she probably would. Judge Wilson says the subject of a defendant’s immigration status comes up in bail hearings. “It’s got to be a factor,” he says. “If a person’s an illegal immigrant, how likely is it that he’s going to come back to court?” [Adam Lisberg, Judge is in Immig Groups’ Bad Books, New York Daily News, Nov. 27, 2006.]

Poetic Injustice

Ellenor Bland is a Conservative Party member and a town councilor in Wiltshire, England. She had hoped to become a Member of Parliament, but that hope was dashed when she emailed several party members a bit of doggerel about scrounging Pakistani immigrants (see below). Mrs. Bland says her husband sent the message as a joke, but senior Conservatives were not amused. Claiming to be “horrified,” Tory leader David Cameron ordered Mrs. Bland expelled from the party and her name struck from the candidates’ list. The Liberal Democrats used the incident to portray the Conservatives as hopelessly “racist.” Their campaign chairman, Ed Davey, says, “[T]he Conservative Party clearly continues to contain some deeply unpleasant elements.” The Liberal Democrats have reported Mrs. Bland to the Commission for Racial Equality, which has begun an investigation.

The anonymous poem has been circulating for years (it actually predates the Internet), and there are American, Canadian, Irish and Australian versions (in the American version, it is about Mexicans). This is also not the first time it has gotten a politician or bureaucrat in trouble. In 1993, a California assemblyman named Pete Knight gave out copies during a Republican strategy session. He initially defended it as an “interesting poem” but later caved in and apologized. In 2002, the treasurer of Colorado governor Bill Owens’ reelection campaign resigned after sending the poem to several people. More recently, the director of the Arkansas Emergency Management Agency resigned after sending a version to his employees, and both the Irish and British governments launched official inquiries when the poem began showing up in official email. [Kirsty Walker and Luke Salkeld, Tories Axe Election Candidate in Storm over Racist Poem, Daily Mail (London), Nov. 7, 2006. Alan Connor, The Poem that Ends Careers, BBC News, Nov. 7, 2006.]

‘The Poem’ (UK version)

I cross ocean poor and broke

Take bus, see employment folk

Nice man treat me good in there

Say I need to see Welfare.

Welfare say, “You come no more

we send cash right to your door.”

Welfare checks they make you wealthy!

NHS — it keep you healthy!

By and by, I got plenty money

Thanks to you, British dummy!

Write to friends in motherland

Tell them “come as fast as you can.”

They come in turbans and Ford trucks.

I buy big house with welfare bucks!

They come here, we live together.

More welfare checks it gets better!

Fourteen families, they move in

But neighbor’s patience wearing thin.

Finally, white guy moves away,

Now I buy his house, then I say,

“Find more aliens for house to rent”

And in the yard I put a tent.

Everything is very good,

and soon we own the neighborhood.

We have hobby, it’s called breeding.

Welfare pay for baby feeding.

Kids need dentist? Wife need pills?

We get free! We got no bills!

Britain crazy! They pay all year

to keep welfare running here.

We think UK darn good place.

Too darn good for white man race!

If they no like us, they can scram.

Got plenty room in Pakistan!

Disparate Discipline

In Franklin County, Ohio, which includes Columbus, blacks are 29 percent of the public school population but get two thirds of all suspensions — usually for fighting or other “disruptions.” In nearby Worthington and Dublin, blacks are more than five times more likely than whites to be suspended for fighting and disruption. Naturally, black parents are crying “racism” and the NAACP demands an investigation.

Education experts say white teachers do not understand black culture, and lack strong “classroom management skills” which makes them overreact. “We don’t know what to do, so we suspend kids,” says education professor Gwendolyn Cartledge of Ohio State University. Indiana University professor Russ Skiba, who studies race and discipline, says, “It’s not like we’re talking about blatantly racist teachers. It’s more like there are almost unconscious differences.” The NAACP is getting what it wants. Reynoldsburg school district Assistant Superintendent Steve Dacking says his schools are recruiting black teachers. [Charlie Roduta and Jennifer Smith Richards, Disciplinary Trend Upsets Black Parents, Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 17, 2006.] No one seems to be able to grasp the fundamental fact that black students make more trouble than whites.

Culture of Corruption

Mexican-style corruption is making its way north, thanks to dope- and people-smugglers and US officials who put greed ahead of their oaths of office. Since 2004, prosecutors have brought smuggling-related charges against more than 200 government employees, including Border Patrol agents, policemen, county sheriffs, prison guards, motor vehicle clerks, school administrators, soldiers, and a supervising FBI agent. Thousands more are currently under investigation. “It’s the tip of the iceberg,” says James “Chip” Burrus, the FBI’s assistant director of criminal investigations. “There is a lot more down there. The problem is you don’t know what you don’t know.”

What is known is that the border is flush with ill-gotten money, and there are plenty of bureaucrats happy to cash in. Some bribes have been in excess of $1 million. In one case, senior border patrol agent Juan Alvarez, along with his brother Jose, helped a drug-smuggling operation bring in more than 60,000 pounds of marijuana between 2003 and 2005. The security and scout work they provided was so sophisticated, says Assistant US attorney Marina Marmo-lejo, they could have moved “nuclear weapons” across the border. The smugglers paid the brothers $1.5 million. In another case, the Border Patrol discovered that one of its agents, Oscar Ortiz, was a partner in an illegal immigrant smuggling ring. During the investigation, they further discovered that Mr. Ortiz was himself an illegal alien who had been arrested in 2001 on suspicion of smuggling illegals in the trunk of his car. In a separate case in 2005, the FBI arrested 71 members of the Arizona National Guard, state prison guards and a federal inspector on bribery charges.

One of the highest-level officers corrupted by Mexicans was Hardrick Crawford, the FBI Agent in Charge at the El Paso office. A Mexican casino boss and drug trafficker named Jose Guardia became friends with Mr. Crawford, who is black. He arranged a job for Mrs. Crawford, set the couple up as members at a fancy country club, and paid for vacations in Las Vegas. He even had Mr. Crawford’s lawn mowed for free. When other FBI agents told Mr. Crawford that Mr. Guardia runs drugs, launders money, and bribes officials, Mr. Crawford defended his friend and tried to conceal the relationship. He now faces five years in prison for failing to disclose gifts, and lying to the Inspector General’s office.

Critics blame the spreading corruption on government agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying they are under pressure to hire as many agents as possible and are skimping on background checks. Others, such as Michael Maxwell, who resigned from the internal affairs unit of the Citizenship and Immigration Service, believe the government doesn’t care. “Nobody is seriously addressing corruption,” he says. “The corruption is pervasive,” Paul K. Charlton, US attorney for Arizona agrees, and says things are getting worse. “The concern for me is that we can very quickly develop a culture that would be more accepting of that kind of misconduct. You only have to look south of the border to see what happens when a certain level of corruption is accepted.” [Ralph Vartabedian, Richard A. Serrano and Richard Marosi, Rise in Bribery Tests Integrity of US Border, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 23, 2006.]

‘Green Card’ Army

More and more foreigners are filling the ranks of the US military, lured by changes made by President Bush and Congress that make it easier for soldiers to become US citizens. Until 2002, immigrants in uniform had to wait three years before applying for citizenship. Now they can apply after just one day of active duty. Congress did away with application fees, awards posthumous citizenship to immigrants killed in combat, and extends the citizenship to families. Nearly 70,000 foreign-born men and women — about five percent of the total — are now on active duty. As of October, 25,000 foreigners had become citizens by serving in uniform, with another 40,000 eligible to apply. A third of non-citizens are from Mexico and Latin America.

Neo-conservative ideologue Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations thinks filling the military with foreigners is a wonderful idea. “I would go further and offer citizenship to anyone, anywhere on the planet, willing to serve a set term in the US military,” he says. “We could model a Freedom Legion after the French Foreign Legion. Or we could allow foreigners to join regular units after a period of English-language instruction, if necessary.” Mr. Boot also believes the US should open recruiting offices “from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City.” Baghdad might be a nice place to start.

Insanity, say critics who worry that the trend to sell citizenship for service will produce a “green card army” of doubtful loyalty. “Service to the country is good. But my concern is that by taking in too many non-citizens into the military, we separate service and duty from citizenship,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “If the Pentagon seeks to save money by seeking a cheap source of labor among non-citizens through accelerated citizenship, a real potential exists that we may turn soldiering into a job Americans won’t do. We’re not at a point of concern yet, but if you get military units with 20 to 30 percent non-citizen, who just signed up for the benefits, what government will they uphold? We have to be careful we don’t open the doors to a pool of applicants who are not open to American values.”

The Pentagon, looking to fill its thinning ranks, is enthusiastic about foreigners. A 2005 study from the Center of Naval Analysis concludes that “non-citizens are a vital part of our country’s military. Demographic trends and new incentives make it likely their numbers within military ranks will grow. [They] will provide the service a more richly diverse force.” [David McLemore, Immigrant Soldiers Serve the US, Dallas Morning News, Nov. 28, 2006.]

Real Hate Crime

On Oct. 31, three white women — two 19- and one 21-year-old — attended a Halloween block party in Long Beach, California. As they made their way through the crowd, a group of black men began taunting them with lewd remarks and obscene gestures. The women ignored them, but the harassment continued. The situation escalated when the blacks began pelting the women with lemons and small pumpkins. A number of young black women then joined in, egging on the men, and the crowd became more aggressive. People began chanting, “We hate white people; fuck whites!” The white women tried to run away, but the blacks surrounded them. “It was like animals, like a pack of hyenas,” recalls one of the victims. The blacks separated the white women, who were frantically trying to call police on their cell phones, and the black women began kicking and clawing at them. A black man smashed one of the whites on the head with a skateboard, knocking her unconscious. He hit her again while she lay on the ground, as the black women kicked her.

If a big, strong black passerby had not broken up the fight, the women could well have been killed. The woman hit with the skateboard suffered 12 facial fractures and may lose her vision. The other women suffered concussions, bruised lungs and broken bones. Their attackers ripped out their pierced earrings.

Shortly after the beating, police arrested ten young blacks — nine girls and a boy, aged 12 to 17 — but witnesses say that as many as 40 people took part. Those arrested face charges of felony hate crime, assault with a deadly weapon, battery and robbery. The victims say they are so upset they are afraid to leave their homes.

In the weeks following the attack, police arrested more assailants. Incredibly, the DA’s office was at first reluctant to charge the blacks with hate crimes. Deputy District Attorney Brian Schirn said that a hate crime requires intent from the beginning to target someone because of race. Shouting racial abuse is “despicable,” he explained, but not necessarily a hate crime. “I’m not going to be pressured into filing hate crime charges if there is no evidence,” he added.

Wiser heads prevailed, and on Nov. 22, prosecutors filed hate crimes charges against eight of the black girls. At the arraignment, lawyers told the court the girls were “good students” who had no history of violence or prior criminal records. One of them had even won an athletic scholarship to USC and had represented the United States at a track meet in China. Her lawyer urged the judge to let her out of jail so she could take the SATs.

The victim who was beaten with the skateboard had hoped to become a professional photographer. She has now dropped her college photography courses because she can no longer see well enough to take pictures. [Tracy Manzer, Victims of Attack Share Their Story, Long Beach Press Telegram, Nov. 3, 2006. Tracy Manzer, Two More Arrested in Attack, Long Beach Press Telegram, Nov. 13, 2006. Hector Becerra and Rong-Gong Lin II, Long Beach Teens Face Hate Crime Charges, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 22, 2006.]

Fool, Britannia

Immigrants are already 40 percent of the population of London, and are expected to account for 60 percent in 12 years. The shift is accelerating because so many whites are clearing out. More than 100,000 left the city this year alone, and when they leave, non-whites take over. Just as South African whites fled Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban for guarded compounds in suburbs and small towns, white Britons are abandoning London, Birmingham and Bradford for rural market towns or even foreign countries.

White flight from Britain overseas is the subject of a book called Time to Emigrate? by George Walden, who served as education minister under Margaret Thatcher. He argues that immigration has created “unacceptable” crime and terrorism risks, and has doomed British culture. Mr. Walden describes immigration as “the greatest gamble this country has ever taken.” As he pointed out in an interview: “Already, we’re seeing the failure of the policy of multiculturalism, which — as Trevor Phillips, our race relations czar has pointed out — has come down to separate development; in other words, apartheid. We have a dangerous mixture of people who do have colonial resentments; who have fundamentalist beliefs; and who have absolutely no desire to integrate.” Mr. Walden paints a grim picture of London a decade hence, which he believes will be “a three-ring circus without the laughs” — including largely white inner and outer rings bristling with security, and a “multicultural ring” exclusively made up of “ethnic immigrants.” “The rougher parts of the multicultural ring will be ghettoes of crime, poverty and racialism in reverse,” he says. [Rowan Philips, Immigration Sparks White Exodus from UK, Sunday Times (Johannesburg), Nov. 26, 2006.]

Election Fallout

One result of November’s congressional elections, in which Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, is more influence for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Because black constituents almost never vote out incumbents, many of the 43 members, all Democrats, are among the longest-serving members of the House. According to seniority rules, they can expect to become chairmen of several important committees and subcommittees. John Conyers of Michigan, a champion of slavery reparations, is likely to head the House Judiciary Committee. Harlem congressman Charles Rangel, who wants to bring back the draft in order to send more suburban whites to Iraq, is slated to head the Ways and Means Committee. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi will chair the Homeland Security Committee, and Juanita Millender-McDonald of California will run the House Administration Committee, which oversees federal elections. Overall, blacks are expected to chair five major committees and 17 subcommittees.

“These are committees that have great influence on the concerns of the African-American community,” says Hilary O. Shelton, of the NAACP. “Committees like the Judiciary, which could touch on hate crimes, civil rights enforcement and voting rights enforcement . . . we couldn’t ask for a chair that better represents the challenges in the Judiciary committee and civil rights than John Conyers.” “Within the Congress, their influence went from about a one to a nine,” says David Bositis, of the Joint Center for Economic Studies in Washington. “This is by far the peak — ever — for the Congressional Black Caucus.”

What can we expect to see as the CBC begins to push its agenda? Hearings on hate crime laws, reparations, and conspiracy theories about Katrina relief and voter disfranchisement. The CBC will also push for more “diversity” among Capitol Hill staffers. [Erin Texiera, Blacks Gain Power in New Congress, AP, Nov. 22, 2006.]

One CBC member who will not get a plum chairmanship is Alcee Hastings of Florida. Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi refused to appoint a political foe, Jane Harmon of California, to chair the House Intelligence Committee, and Mr. Hastings was next in line. Mrs. Pelosi passed him over, too. Mr. Hastings is a former federal judge who was acquitted on charges of bribe-taking but was then later impeached by the House and removed by the Senate in 1989. He is the only federal judge who has ever been removed by congressional impeachment.

Instead, Speaker Pelosi has chosen Silvestre Reyes of Texas to chair the sensitive committee, and La Raza hails this as “an important breakthrough for the Latino community.” Rep. Hastings did not exit gracefully. When it was clear he was out of the running, he issued a statement that ended with, “Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet.” [Katherine Shrader, Reyes to Head House Intelligence Panel, AP, Dec. 1, 2006.]

The most fateful consequence of the Democratic takeover, however, is the probable passage of President Bush’s disastrous amnesty bill. In a press conference the day after the election, the president said he shares the Democrats’ approach to immigration “reform” and is looking forward to working with them on the bill that stalled in the last Congress because of opposition in the House.

Republicans are pledging to fight, but cannot promise victory. Says Rep. Tom Tancredo, “We will fight it, we will lose. It will go to the Senate, it will pass. The president will sign it. And it will happen quickly because that’s one thing they know they can pass. I am absolutely horrified by this prospect, but I have to face reality.” [Stephen Dinan, Bush Eyes Democrats for Help on Amnesty, Washington Times, Nov. 9, 2006.]