O Tempora, O Mores! (March, 1996)
American Renaissance, March 1996
Contemptible Canadian Customs
Prof. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, is the author of the remarkable book Race, Evolution, and Behavior. Prof. Rushton’s publisher is the American company, Praeger, so books by the Canadian author are in fact imported into Canada. Early in January, Canadian customs were found to have held copies of the book for nine months while they determined whether or not it might be “hate” literature and therefore illegal to import.
An Ontario group called Canadians for Foreign Aid Reform (C-FAR) had ordered five copies of the book directly from Praeger. A spokesman for the group, Paul Fromm, reports that neither he nor Praeger was informed that the books had been confiscated for study; they simply showed up nine months later with a notice they had been reviewed for possible violation of customs laws. A spokesman for Praeger says that the last time the company had trouble shipping scholarly books was in the mid-1980s, when it was unable to get books into the Soviet Union.
Michael Cléroux, spokesman for Canadian customs, says that the government was only enforcing the import laws, which forbid “goods alleging that an identifiable group is racially inferior and/or weakens other segments of society to the detriment of society as a whole.” He explained that a complex book would require study by a group of experts and consultation with lawyers. He conceded that the book was already widely available in academic bookstores in Canada but insisted that his department was required to make its own decision about material crossing the border.
Fortunately, this episode has been widely reported — and ridiculed — in the Canadian press. (Rudy Platiel, Customs Official Delayed Rushton Book for 9 Months, Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 3, 1996. Pat Dare, Customs Halted Race-evolution book in Hate Investigation, Ottowa Citizen, Jan. 3, 1996, p. 1. John Herbert, Rushton Books Finally Arrive, London Free Press, Jan. 3, 1996, p. B3.)
Unreported, so far as we know, is the fact that two books published by Scott-Townsend, the American publisher, have been banned from Canada as “hate literature.” They are Race, Intelligence and Bias in Academe by Roger Pearson and Shockley on Race and Eugenics. Both are excellent, scholarly works. Just as inexcusably, the May, 1994 issue of the American immigration control newsletter, Border Watch, was also forbidden entry. Paul Fromm of C-FAR notes that among the videos that were examined this winter for salacious content but permitted entry to Canada were “Anal With an Oriental Slant,” “No Holes Barred,” and “Anal Sluts and Sweethearts.”
In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has decided to remove every painting, statue, picture, and decoration from the 110-year-old parliament building. These apartheid-era works were invariably of and by whites, and celebrated white leaders and the climactic moments of white rule. The National Assembly Speaker, an ANC activist named Frene Ginwala explained, “We will take everything down . . . to avoid the problem of what do we take down and what do we leave.”
Upwards of 7,000 items will be removed, including a giant portrait of then-Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd outlining his plans for apartheid, and a portrait of Paul Kruger, founder of the first Afrikaner republic. For six months at least, they will be replaced by a United Nations exhibition of anti-apartheid art. No decision has yet been made on their final disposition. (Brendan Boyle, Reuters, Apartheid Pictures Come Down In S. African Parliament, Jan. 25, 1996.)
A Homeland of their Own
Many of South Africa’s 3.5 million mixed-race “coloreds” are increasingly opposed to the current black-dominated government. For one thing, they do not qualify for the majority of new affirmative action programs because they are not considered black. Even if they could qualify as black, 75% of all South African coloreds vehemently reject any claims of racial kinship to the majority population.
Under apartheid, coloreds had separate schools and were denied the right to vote. Nevertheless, during the 1993 elections the overwhelming majority in the Western Cape Province, where coloreds are concentrated, voted for the white-controlled National Party. Many feared black domination as much as whites did.
Coloreds are increasingly conscious of their distinct cultural identity. Recently, a group of protesters marched on the South African Broadcasting Corporation, demanding a “coloreds only” television channel.
Since the end of apartheid, droves of blacks have been moving into what were once colored-controlled areas. Many coloreds find this migration intolerable and are demanding a colored homeland. To accomplish this, some activists in the 40,000-member Colored Resistance Movement have allied themselves with the National Party. They realize that if they help the Nats return to power, the new alliance would be far more likely than the current government to grant them a homeland.
Although many coloreds were anti-apartheid activists, they do not see this new spirit of cooperation with whites as a compromise. Malcolm Lupton, head of another “brown power” group called the National Liberation Front puts it this way: “For us, whites are not a big problem. They will never return to power anywhere on the African continent . . . We see them as an asset.” (Ken Wells, ‘Coloreds’ Struggle To Find Their Place In a Free South Africa, Wall St. Journal, Dec. 6, 1995.)
Though no one quite knows why, the end of white rule in South Africa has been followed by a sharp increase in “witch” killing. Belief in witches is widespread among blacks; four fifths are estimated regularly to consult sangomas, who, though not technically witches, deal in mysterious folk medicines.
In some tribes, there is simply no such thing as an accident. Any unfortunate occurrence must have been the result of witchery. Venda tribesmen also believe in zwivhuya according to which there is only a limited amount of wealth and happiness to go around; any extra can have been accumulated only through witchcraft.
According to traditional tribal practice, when someone is suspected of witchcraft a sangoma is called in to sniff out the culprit and then the chief determines punishment — usually banishment from the village. Lately, gangs of youngsters have stopped waiting for the chief’s sentence and summarily kill the witch. They often sing ANC “liberation” songs while they burn, beat or stone the wretch to death. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, are killed this way every year.
In the far north of the country there is a town called Motonawabaloi, which means “place of the witches” in the Sotho language. One hundred twenty-two people live there, all of them accused witches who managed to escape mob execution but dare not return to their homes. Witch-killing is not easy to stop because so many blacks sympathize with it. “Homeland” judges often let killers off lightly. Some sangoma remedies are indistinguishable from witchcraft. According to a traditional practice called muti, strength can be gained by drinking a stew made of human body parts. To be effective the parts must have been removed while the original owner was still alive. The penis is considered particularly potent. (Witchcraft in South Africa, Economist, Dec. 9, 1995, p. 85.)
African Americans
What may be the best-preserved West African tribal community has been found in the jungles of — South America. In the 17th century, African slaves were brought to work the plantations of Surinam. Many escaped and fled into the wild interior to establish villages. Today, there are six tribes of Maroons, so called from the Spanish word cimarron, which means a runaway horse that has gone wild. Maroon villages are still unlinked by roads and can be reached only by canoe.
Maroon society is matrilineal, as it is in Africa, and in the evening parents tell their children spider fables from Ghana. The Maroons worship snakes, and build thatched spirit houses for them along the forest paths. Recently, the Maroons have decided to promote tourism. “We want to show white people we are clever and smart, that we have a culture equal to theirs,” explains a tribal leader. (Laurie Goering, ‘Pure’ African culture thrives in S. America, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 11, 1995, p. 11.)
Separate in Death
The funeral parlor business is one of the most segregated in the country. In most areas, undertakers handle clienteles that are either exclusively white or exclusively black. Until 1985, funeral homes were labeled “white” or “black” in state directories, and there are still separate, black and white national undertakers’ organizations. The business is actually getting more segregated. Until recently, small towns could support only one funeral director, who buried everyone. Now, families are more likely to drive to a nearby town to get service from someone of the same race.
Undertakers who still do handle both races say that traditions differ. Whites like to put the body in the ground in two to four days, while blacks often wait eight to ten days for family members to gather. White services are reserved, while black funerals are boisterous and full of song. Whites tend to show their sympathy for the bereaved during a visitation period, while blacks like to attend the funeral itself. Nationally, in 1993, 21 percent of American corpses were cremated, but fewer than one percent of black corpses were cremated. “Why burn twice?” is a common objection. (Suzi Parker, Equal but Separate, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sept. 6, 1995, p. F1.)
Ethnic groups also differ in whether they want to be told they have fatal diseases. Only 35 percent of Korean-Americans think patients should know the truth. The figure for Mexican-Americans is 48 percent; blacks, 63 percent; whites, 69 percent. (Lindsey Tanner, Truth not Always Best, Doctors Told, Houston Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1995, p. 11A.)
Your Tax Dollars At Work
New York State has discovered that at least 700 prisoners collected welfare during 1994-95 while they were in jail. It is illegal to do so, but people simply sell or give away their welfare benefits and social services cards. The state estimates that at least $200,000 was spent in the name of people who were actually behind bars; many got kickbacks from the new beneficiaries. The state makes no attempt to recover the money or to prosecute cheaters, so this is a no-risk crime. (Beating the System, Reader’s Digest, Nov. 1995.)
Fearful Truths
A Florida Department of Education study called “Successful Schools” has reported that one of the common characteristics of good schools is that they have few non-white students or teachers — the fewer the better. The report has prompted the usual uproar, which only confirms Mark Twain’s observation that nothing astonishes people more than to tell them the truth. Gerald Richardson, the department employee who directed the study denies that he was suggesting that removing non-whites would improve schools. “It was just information,” he says about the report, “information that we could share.” (AP, Racial Information in Report Riles Educators, Tallahassee Democrat, Jan. 1, 1996, p. 8B.)
Even More Fearful Truths
In its January 13/14 weekend issue, the Financial Times of London published an article by Joe Rogaly called “The White Tribe’s Sunset.” It reported that birth rates among Europeans are below replacement level (2.1 per woman) everywhere in Europe. Italy (1.3), Spain (1.2), Germany (1.3), Russia (1.5), France (1.7), the UK (1.8), and Hungary (1.7) are all failing behind. Only Ireland at 2.1 is barely keeping even. The author, himself white, seems to think this is nothing to worry about: “The pale sub-species that has been predominant, and behaved so abominably, during the 19th and 20th centuries may be on its way out.”
Unfit for Habitation
We reproduce this article, verbatim and in toto, from the San Francisco Chronicle of Jan. 19, 1996. It was headlined, “L.A. Study on Race Relations.”
We can all get along, we just need more programs to improve race relations, an organization of community groups says in a new report.
City officials must make human relations a top priority or Los Angeles could become ‘unfit for habitation,’ said the 100 page report by a coalition of 11 groups formed after the city’s 1992 riots.
Mens Sana in Corpore Sano
The University of Nebraska football team, considered the best in the nation, can boast another distinctive achievement: a record number of players charged with crimes. In 1995, four of its varsity players were benched on a variety of charges: assault, sexual assault, weapons violations, and possession of stolen property. By January of this year, a basketball player had already been charged with beating his girl friend.
Athletes at Florida State University commit so many crimes — three were arrested for sexual assault in one nine-day period in 1994 — that students now refer to the Seminoles as the Criminoles. In one two-year period 28 University of Colorado football players had brushes with the police.
The sporting view was recently expressed by Bennie Blades, formerly of the University of Miami and now with the Detroit Lions. Musing on the publicity over O.J. Simpson’s assaults on his wife, Nicole Brown, he said:
It’s gonna be a lot harder for us to get out of trouble. Three years ago, you smacked a girl around, people say maybe she asked for it. But nowadays, whether she asked for it or not, they’re gonna haul you off. [First Down and 10 (years?), New York Post, Jan. 4, 1996.]
So far, the press has carefully refrained from pointing out that athlete criminals are overwhelmingly black.
Truth or Consequences
John Pike is senior vice president at CBS for late-night and non-network programming. In a discussion about programming he is reported to have said that blacks are an important, specialized audience for the following reasons: They do not have jobs and can therefore stay up to watch late-night TV. They enjoy comedy because they cannot follow an hour-long drama. They are a big network audience because, unlike cable, the networks are free. CBS is in the usual tizzy about “racism” and has promised a prompt investigation. (Lawrei Mifflin, CBS Studies Racism Charge, New York Times, Jan. 17, 1995)
Not to be Remembered
In the November, 1995 issue we reported that although Yale and Princeton have memorialized all their war dead, including men who fought for the Confederacy, Harvard has scrupulously kept Confederates off its honor roll. Recently the Harvard Alumni Association strongly proposed that this omission be corrected. The Harvard Board of Overseers was considering the proposal favorably, but decided to send it back to the alumni association for review after the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) protested any change in the status quo. “Our goal is to get the University to abandon this issue all together, and we’re going to win,” says a BLSA spokesman. (Tara Dawood, BLSA Successfully Protests Harvard Civil War Memorial, Harvard Law Record, Dec. 8, 1995, p. 1.)
“Home invasions” are a common crime committed by Vietnamese in the United States against other Vietnamese. Robbers burst into a house and torture the occupants until they reveal where valuables are hidden. Frequently they kill the victims so there will be no witnesses. This crime has been common in southern California but has now appeared in Spokane, Washington, in the rural eastern part of the state.
A young Vietnamese couple was shot to death after the man was beaten beyond recognition and his wife slashed with a knife. Their five-year-old son watched it all, while his two-year-old sister slept. The victims were perfect targets. They were on welfare but ran several illegal, cash-based businesses from their home. Friends suspect that they probably had about $40,000 stashed in various places around the apartment. They were frequent patrons at the local casino and have taken several expensive trips to Vietnam. The wife had recently been flaunting a diamond ring that she claimed had cost $7,000.
They were perfect targets for another reason. Vietnamese do not trust the police and usually refuse to cooperate with investigators. If neighbors, including three other Vietnamese families, heard any gunfire they are refusing to talk about it. (Putsata Reang, Asian Gang Linked to Killings, The Spokesman Review (Spokane), Jan. 14, 1996, p. A1.)
Placating the Losers
Every year there is a fundraising party for the National Symphony in Washington, DC, which is held in the National Building Museum. A Second World War P-39 fighter plane hangs from the ceiling of the museum’s Great Hall, where the banquet for the National Symphony Ball is given. Each year a foreign embassy or country acts as official sponsor of the ball, and this year it was the Japanese embassy. The organizers of the ball, fearful of offending the losers in the Pacific War, covered up the large white stars on the wings and fuselage of the plane that identified it as a military aircraft.
This toadying has infuriated veterans groups. The American Legion points out that no matter what the reasons, it is highly irregular for an agency of the American government to conceal official insignia. (Joyce Price, Museums Hide Stars on Plane, Anger Vets, Wash. Times, Dec. 29, 1995.)
Another Multicultural Paradise
The population of Trinidad is 40 percent black and 40 percent subcontinental Indian, with a mix of whites, Chinese, and Latin Americans accounting for the rest. Blacks, who have dominated the government ever since independence from Britain in 1965, are in for a change. This year, the first Indian Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday takes office after a razor-thin victory in parliamentary elections.
Not surprisingly, voting is almost exclusively along racial lines, with 90 percent of all blacks and Indians voting for the parties of their races. This year, Indians won because 80 percent of them voted whereas less than 60 percent of the blacks bothered to.
The new prime minister has promised to introduce a Race Relations Act prohibiting racial discrimination. Some blacks, who are alarmed to see Indians outstripping them in business, education, and now government, fear that, in practice, “equal opportunity” will mean racial preferences for Indians.
Trinidad has a history of racial friction. Twice during the 1970s, black-power demonstrations got so far out of hand that the government declared a state of emergency. In July 1990, a black Muslim group tried to overthrow the (black) government in a rebellion that resulted in 23 deaths, 250 injuries, and a week-long siege of Parliament. (Larry Rohter, For New Trinidad Chief, Race Question Looms Big, New York Times, Jan. 1, 1996.)
Odd Coincidences
President Bill Clinton appointed a record number of non-whites — six — to fill his 14-man cabinet. Three years later, four of his appointees have been investigated by the Justice Department on ethics charges. All four are black or Hispanic.
In the last 25 years, 70 congressmen have faced criminal charges. Fifteen percent of them have been minorities, four times their proportion in Congress. (Helene Cooper, Capital Offense, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 1996, p. 1.)
WHO has AIDS
The latest data from the World Health Organization indicate that some six million adults and children have contracted AIDS since the disease was first identified. Seventy-five percent of infections occurred in Africa, with nine percent in the Americas, seven percent in the United States and five percent in Asia.
The number of adults currently infected with HIV (but not necessarily suffering from AIDS) is estimated to be 17 million. These cases are not evenly distributed either; 66 percent are thought to be in sub-Saharan Africa. For the first time, the World Health Organization has estimated the percentage of sexually active adults in each country who carry the virus. In fifteen countries — all in black Africa — more than five percent sexually active adults carry HIV. The highest percentages in the world are Botswana (18 percent — nearly one in five), Zimbabwe (17 percent), Zambia (17 percent), and Malawi (14 percent). (Global Program on AIDS, WHO press release, Dec. 15, 1995)
In the United States, one half of one percent of adults have HIV, with black men, at three percent, six times more likely than average. One percent of adult black women have HIV. (J. Philippe Rushton, Race, Aids, and Sexual Behavior, Chronicles, Jan. 1996, p. 39.)
Ripe for Harvesting
Koreans are colonizing Argentina just as they are portions of the United States. They first began to come in 1965 and now the close-knit community numbers about 35,000. During the late 1980s there were as many as 50,000 but many left for the United States during a difficult period of high inflation. Koreans now own more than 1,000 businesses in Argentina, including several newspapers and a cable television channel. There are 300 Korean cultural, athletic and business associations, as well as 30 Korean Protestant churches.
Koreans have been particularly successful in textiles and now dominate garment districts in larger cities. They have the reputation of working 12-hour days and hiring illegal immigrants from Bolivia at slave-labor wages. When they are assured of anonymity, Argentines grumble that Koreans are taking over the trade.
Sang Hyun Kim, a poor farm boy from South Korea, is typical of the first wave of immigrants. He arrived in 1965 and now has a successful insurance business. He has also brought nine of his brothers and sisters to Argentina and all own businesses. “In Korea, there were too many people and too few economic opportunities,” explains Mr. Kim. “When I arrived in Argentina, I thought it was a paradise, like virgin territory ripe for the harvesting . . .” Now that they have established themselves as an economic force, Korean leader say their next goal is more political power. (Calvin Sims, Don’t Cry, This Land is Rich in Kims and Lees, New York Times, Nov. 15, 1995, p. 1.)
