O Tempora, O Mores! (November, 1993)

The Wages of Liberalism

In August, 26-year-old Amy Biehl was killed by a mob of South African blacks, making her the first known American victim of race murder in that country. Miss Biehl was in South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship after having become interested in Africa while at Stanford University. She had been spending a lot of time in the black slums around Cape Town, as part of her effort to “fight oppression.”

On the day she was murdered — just a few days before she was to return to the United States — she was driving three black friends back to their homes. Young black thugs stopped the car, pulled her from it, and hit her in the face with a brick. She broke away but was caught and stabbed repeatedly in the head. The presence of three black women in the car with her was no protection and the blacks were unharmed. One of the thugs explained that they had attacked Miss Biehl because she was white.

Tsietsi Telite, chairman of the Pan-Africanist student wing was calm about the killing: “The youths and students are so angry and frustrated that when they see someone who they identify with the dispossessing classes, anything can happen, and could happen again.” [Bill Keller, South African strife claims American life, Miami Herald, 8/27/93, p. 9A. Davan Maharaj, U.S. Student Killed by a mob in South Africa, LA Times, 8/26/93, p. 3.]

Amy Biehl’s death is a perfect example of liberalism’s effect on its intended beneficiaries: Far from showing gratitude, the “oppressed” respond with hatred. It is the same in South Africa as in the United States.

The Wages of Ignorance

For the last ten years, the black-white gap in student test scores in Pulaski County, Arkansas has remained unchanged. White eighth graders, for example, are in the 74th percentile on national tests while black eighth graders are in the 32nd percentile. School administrators are baffled by this persistent gap because these children have been attending integrated schools all their lives.

Pulaski County has a financial interest in narrowing the gap in test scores. If, by the year 2000, it can reduce the difference so that the average black score is 90 percent of the average white score, the district will not have to pay back $20 million it borrowed from the state to pay for integration. [Danny Shameer, Black-white test score gap lingers after decade, Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock), 8/19/93, p. 1A.]

It would be hard to think of a more perverse incentive based on greater ignorance. Any reputable geneticist could explain to the school district that the gap can be narrowed only if white scores drop. For $20 million, Pulaski County has a strong temptation to teach white students as little as possible, so that they, too, will score in the 34th percentile.

Filing for Dollars

In 1988, a storage tank collapsed and spilled diesel fuel into the Ohio River. Ashland Oil was sued because of the accident, which was well reported in cities down stream. One of those cities was Louisville, Ky., where the accident continues to reverberate in unexpected ways.

A group of black con artists has been distributing forms to blacks, explaining that anyone who files one will get $3,000 in compensation for “water contamination” caused by the fuel spill. There is a $2.00-per-form “notary fee” for filing the forms. Hundreds of blacks heard about the deal and swarmed into makeshift offices to fill in forms. Many paid for forms for everyone in their families.

The con artists told customers that white people would not be allowed to file, and that this was part of a special effort to make sure that blacks got what they deserved. This not only appears to have made the fraud more attractive to blacks, but ensured that it could go on longer without whites — and the authorities — hearing about it.

Hundreds of Louisville blacks signed up for a similar fraud in late 1989. At that time the supposed payoff was to be $7,000. [Andrew Melnykovych and mark McCormick, Apparent scam plays of lawsuit, targets blacks, Louisville Courier-Journal, 4/24/93, p. A7.]

Say, Mon, Wahs Dat Flag?

David Lawrence is publisher of the Miami Herald, and is typical of whites who have somehow convinced themselves that the displacement of people like themselves is a fine thing. In an August 8 editorial he wrote about how wonderful it is that the Miami city council recently voted to allow official city business to be conducted in Spanish:

This country’s future, previewed in South Florida, is a future of many colors, many faiths, a variety of tongues.

We can serve as example to America . . . What is happening in Dade County is happening, albeit more slowly, in Florida and elsewhere in these United States. Those who see this as an opportunity, who see this as the Great American Adventure will be the best prepared for a good future.

He goes on to say that he looks forward to hearing the Star Spangled Banner sung in Spanish and Haitian creole. [David Lawrence, Miami, yes, is very much in this country, Miami Herald, 8/8/93, p. 3C.]

Strange Fruit

“Dark Fruit” is the name of a stage show put on by a group called the Pomo Afro Homos, a trio of black homosexual “performance artists.” According to the New York Times, “Dark Fruit” is “a collection of six satirically-edged sketches and monologues about black homosexual life and the myths and attitudes around it.” Apparently, this is a subject of considerable interest in New York City; the Pomo Afro Homos have been performing at Lincoln Center. [Stephen Holden, black, homosexual performance artists use Dark Fruit to hone their cutting edge, Chicago Tribune, 7/29/93, p. 12.]

White Madness

Warren, Michigan used to have a requirement that all city employees live within the city limits. This used to be common all over the country, since off-duty police and firemen can respond more quickly to emergencies and because employees work more diligently for the city in which they live.

In 1986, the United States government brought suit against Warren, claiming that since only one percent of the city’s population was black, the residency requirement was a disguised form of racial discrimination. This summer, the newspapers in the Detroit area have been filled with ads paid for by the city, promising compensation for victims of this terrible form of “discrimination.”

The ads even solicit claims from blacks who would have applied for a job with the city but did not because they knew about the residency requirement. How is the city going to disprove such claims? Needless to say, whites who did not apply for jobs for the same reason cannot file claims. [Notice to potential victims of discrimination, Detroit News, July 30, 1993.]

Dog Days in Brooklyn

Before its population changed, Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay was a thriving pleasure quarter and tourist trap. One of its landmarks was a restaurant called Lundy’s, which shut down in 1979. Two years ago, the city started trying to revive Sheepshead Bay, but since Lundy’s could not be persuaded to reopen, the authorities decided to commission an artist named Audrey Sackstein to paint a happy restaurant scene on the outside of the building. (These days, a painting of peace and prosperity is thought to be almost as good as the real thing.)

Miss Sackstein duly painted a 7-foot by 8-foot tableau of Lundy’s in the 1950s. All the waiters and diners were white, since she assumed that would have been the case in the 1950s. Later she learned that Lundy’s hired only black waiters so she corrected her painting. This, of course, offended local blacks, who claimed that it was demeaning to portray blacks only as menials. At the urging of the project coordinator, Peter Romero, she abandoned historical accuracy and painted in a few black diners and white waiters.

This did not satisfy the local blacks, who smeared tar over the faces of some of the white diners. Miss Sackstein then decided to end the controversy by turning all the people in her mural into dogs, on the assumption that “everyone likes dogs.” Mr. Romero objected. Believe it or not, he was afraid that anyone who had seen the original would think that the change was meant to convey the idea that blacks are akin to dogs. He ordered Miss Sackstein to turn all the dogs back into people with a “proportional share” of blacks.

Miss Sackstein, god bless her, is standing firm. She refuses to change her painting and has threatened a law suit if anyone else does. [Art by the Numbers, NY Daily News, 8/7/93.]

Gifts from Uncle Sam

The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art and the Centro Cultural de la Raza have jointly sponsored what they call a “public work of art.” “Artists” David Avalos, Elizabeth Sisco, and Louis Hock have been going to places around San Diego where illegal immigrants congregate, and then give away ten dollar bills to illegals. One of the artists said he was making a political and artistic statement about “the interaction of physical space with intellectual space and civic space.” The recipients are said to be surprised, confused, or suspicious. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) helped fund this masterwork.

Local congressman Randy Cunningham has demanded that the NEA stop the program immediately and ask for its money back. “I can scarcely imagine a more contemptuous use of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,” he says. [Endowment gets heat over handouts as ‘art’, Chicago Tribune, 8/8 93, p. 12.]

Congressional Cover-up

Critics of the NEA recently set up an exhibit in the Capitol building of some of the other “art” that our government funds. They reasoned that if congressmen actually saw this rubbish they might think twice about paying for it. One of the featured exhibits was titled “Testicle Stretch with the Possibility of a Crushed Face.” House Speaker Tom Foley let the exhibit stay up no more than 15 minutes before he sent uniformed capitol police to close it down. It is worth recalling that people who oppose government-funded art are accused of censorship . . . [National Review, Aug. 23, 1993, p. 12.]

The Mayor Speaks His Mind

Mayor David Dinkins of New York City has been criticized in a recent report about his mishandling of riots in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn two years ago. Shortly after the critical report appeared, he said this on a black radio station:

I see a lot of brothers and sisters everywhere I go. I got to tell you, the reception I get . . . is so wonderful it sustains me. I don’t care what other folks are saying. When brothers and sisters come out and encourage me, it makes everything all right.

[The Mayor speaks his mind, New York Post, 7/27/93, p. 20.]

“Other folks,” dear reader, means you.

The Gang That Couldn’t Think Straight

Five Hasidic Jews, all dressed in traditional black garb, recently stopped at a gas station near Kenosha, Wisconsin. Three black men opened fire on them, wounding one of the Jews and a station attendant. The three told police they felt threatened by the Hasids, whom they claim they thought were KKK members. [Hasid shot as ‘KKKer’, N. Y. Post.]

Things That Go Splash in the Night

It has been widely reported that in New York City, young blacks have been terrorizing women in public swimming pools by tearing off their bathing suits and pawing them. It is less well known that young blacks break into the pools at night, after they are closed. The city has expressed official concern that unauthorized bathers may drown, but they have another complaint. In the morning, some of the pools are so full of broken beer bottles, dirt, and urine that they must be closed for cleaning. [Michael Marriott, the lure of splashes in the night, NY Times, 8/21/93, p. 21.]

People Problems

Time Magazine recently published a cover story on the use of guns by Omaha delinquents. Most of the article is about a young white criminal and it ends with a challenge to the city to lead the nation in stamping out juvenile violence.

Eddie Stanton is an Omaha man who has founded an organization called Mad Dads to oppose violence and drug-taking. The Omaha World Herald reports that after the Time article appeared, he held up a copy of the magazine at one of his meetings and said, “What I love about this article is that it tells the truth. It says this problem is all across our community . . . This is not a black, Hispanic problem. This is a city problem. This is a people problem.” [Laurie Niles, Stanton: Magazine issues challenge, Omaha World Herald, 7/29/93.]

On the same page of the same day’s Herald (July 28, 1993), is a story about juvenile arrest rates in Nebraska. Non-whites are arrested three times as often as whites and are four to five times more likely to be in jail. [Christine Laue, Minority Arrests Studied, Omaha World Herald, 7/29/93.]