O Tempora, O Mores! (June, 1996)

Different Worlds

Elvie Whitney is a black English teacher who sued Chabot Community College in Oakland, California for discrimination when she was denied tenure. Her lawyers claimed that the English department at Chabot was a “bastion of elitism” and resisted multi-cultural change. In April, a jury duly awarded her $290,000 in damages plus legal fees. Later interviews revealed that the jurors indeed did find that Miss Whitney was treated differently on account of race, but not as she had claimed. They found that the college had been so eager to ensure that the one black woman in the department succeed that colleagues had not warned her that she would not automatically get tenure. They constantly gave her the benefit of the doubt, and refrained from criticizing her in ways that might have led to improvement and an offer of tenure.

“Well that’s nice, and that’s perhaps humanitarian of them but it wasn’t fair to her,” said one juror. This difference in treatment — based on race — was found to be “discrimination” worth $290,000. (Judy Campbell, Chabot Community College Found Guilty of Racial Discrimination, Express (Berkeley, CA), April 26, 1996, p. 2.) This case shows how different are the worlds in which blacks and whites live. Whites, for fear of accusations of racism, weigh every word before they utter it. The result, in the eyes of blacks is “racism” that justifies legal action.

Glimmers of Light

Miami, Florida is located in Dade county. Whites have long been an elusive minority, a trace ingredient in its exotic brew of Caribbean and Hispanic immigrants. For years, the Miami Herald has chirped about the multi-racial joy that immigrants bring, but reality seems to have begun to penetrate even its self-imposed blinders. The paper has tumbled to the fact that people with no education or profession can’t find jobs.

A recent article noted the percentage of households in various Dade County groups that are in poverty (the percentage of poor people is higher because poor families tend to be bigger than average): Haitians 35 percent; Nicaraguans 31 percent; Mexicans 31 percent; American blacks 30 percent; Hondurans 29 percent; Dominicans 24 percent. Even Cubans, the fabled Hispanic group that is supposed to be such an American success story had a household poverty rate of 16 percent, more than twice the white rate of seven percent. As usual, Asians did well, with a household poverty rate of eight percent. Interestingly, the next best performance was by Jamaicans, with a rate of 14 percent.

Since Dade County is so overwhelmingly non-white and run by Hispanics, the Herald could not even manage to find white people to blame for all this poverty, though it did refrain from suggesting that unemployable foreigners should stay home. (Gregg Fields and Mimi Whitefield, Face of the Future, The Herald (Miami), April 29, 1996, p. BM22.)

Low-g Thinking at Wiley

Christopher Brand is a professor of psychology at University of Edinburgh, who has written an excellent little book on intelligence called The g Factor. John Wiley and Sons was the publisher, and brought the book out initially in Britain, with the intention of releasing it later in the United States. Since Prof. Brand writes sensibly about the heritability of intelligence, as well as the gap between black and white IQ, the book prompted a storm of criticism in Britain, complete with the usual shrieking about “racism.” In the midst of the uproar, Wiley suddenly discovered that the book it had until then been promoting as first-class science was, on reflection, “repellent” and decided to depublish, so to speak. It has stopped filling orders and no longer wants anything to do with the book. The U.S. release has been canceled. Next month we will publish a review of The g Factor, along with a more complete account of Prof. Brand’s travails.

Straight Talk

Loompanics Unlimited (Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368) is a book distributor that specializes in the unconventional. One of its featured offerings is You Are Going to Prison, by Jim Hogshire. It purports to be a realistic, insider’s guide for people who are about to become guests of the state. A few excerpts:

To the simple question ‘Am I going to get butt-f***ed?’ the simple answer is ‘yes.’ Sorry, the odds are not with you, Mr. Fish.

Rape, especially gang rape, is almost exclusively a black on white occurrence. More than 90% of prison rapists are black and the instance of a white raping a black is the rarest of all. If this rankles your ideals about racial harmony and the essential equality of the races, etc. — tough s**t. Most rape victims are young and white.

Race relations in prison are worse than abysmal . . . If you are unlucky enough to be a white entering a large prison where young, aggressive blacks are in control and race war is continuous, you will be set upon very quickly by black guys who will try to get off in your ass . . . In some cases this may happen within hours of your arrival. (Loompanics catalogue, p. 14.)

It is almost impossible to find careful, scholarly studies of prison rape. This silence gives rise to anecdotal accounts like Mr. Hogshire’s. Things may or may not be as gruesome as he suggests, but at the very least, his book may discourage whites from committing crimes.

Call for Papers

The Journal of Libertarian Studies is soliciting papers for a special symposium on immigration. Papers selected will be published in the Spring 1997 issue. The deadline for submission is October 15, 1996, and there is no submission fee. Authors need not be libertarian; winning papers may be expositions or criticisms of the libertarian position. This journal does not usually publish dry, timid stuff. It is edited by very wide-awake men who are likely to read all submissions with an open mind. The Journal of Libertarian Studies can be reached at Box 4091, Burlingame, CA 94011 or by calling (415) 692-8456.

Knickers in a Twist

Carrie Chapman Catt, who died in 1947, is the most famous female graduate of Iowa State University. She was a founder of the League of Women Voters and a tireless champion for the 19th Amendment, which gave women the vote. Last fall, the university honored this feminist paragon by putting her name on a building.

Alas, not all is well among the progressives. In speeches she delivered in Mississippi and North Carolina, Mrs. Catt urged ratification of the amendment because “white supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women’s suffrage.” She also referred to Indians as savages, and urged that uneducated immigrants be denied the vote. Curiously, all this was known and discussed when Mrs. Catt was honored. Twenty-six out of 27 lady law-makers in the state house signed a letter in her support.

Lately, black anger has been building, but the university seems to be holding firm. It has started emphasizing her support for the League of Nations and, later, the United Nations, and is now touting her as a crusader for world peace as well as women’s rights. (AP, Suffragette’s Racial Remark Haunts College, New York Times, May 5, 1995.)

More Pep for Jesse

Jackie Jackson, wife of Jesse Jackson, has described life in the Jackson household. He was pulling on his socks, she says, when he told her he had decided to run for President:

I said, ‘Hot dog! Way to go, Jesse!’ We had a little pep rally right there. ‘Yes! I am somebody! Never surrender! Keep hope alive!’ We do that sort of thing around the house, you know. (Race and Presidential Races, San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 1996.)

Honest Dialogue

In late 1995, Kansas City appointed a task force to conduct an “honest, in-depth examination of race relations.” Mayor Emanuel Cleaver claimed that “If we are able to somehow erase this problem of race in our community, we will become the number one city on the planet.” (Philip O’Connor, Group to Explore KC Race Relations, Kansas City Star, Dec. 7, 1995, p. A1.) It is curious that racial diversity — said to be such a source of strength — is the only thing keeping Kansas City from being the top city on the planet. In any case, the task force has now grown to 300 people and has begun its work, part of which was a telephone survey of attitudes about race.

Perhaps the most significant finding is that in this age of “dialogue” and “sharing,” two-thirds of the people asked to participate in the survey refused. “And many, in declining, used racial epithets,” the Kansas City Star reports. Others, having agreed to be surveyed, stopped answering questions partway through.

So far, very few of the results of this unrepresentative survey have been released. We do know, however, that 51 percent of whites said they were in favor of affirmative action, which pleased the task force. Thirty percent of blacks said they had been harassed by the police, a figure the task force found suspiciously small. (Mary Sanchez & Glenn Rice, Race Relations Difficult to Discuss, Kansas City Star, April 6, 1996, p. C1.) It has been clear for years that people lie to pollsters about race. Now they are refusing even to talk.

Latin Solidarity

Under the slogan “Our Day is Coming,” a group of Hispanic newspapers and a Spanish-language television network have started a drive to register at least one million Hispanic voters for the November election. The main figurehead for the campaign is Cuban-born singer Willy Chirino. He recently explained his motives: “I am a person who believes there should be a way for Hispanics to get together as one nation within the United States, to forget a little bit about our own heritage — this business of “I’m Cuban,’ “I’m Mexican,’ “I’m Colombian’ — and think in terms of Hispanics and Latin people.” (Carol Rosenberg, An Anthem to Get Out the Vote, The Herald (Miami), April 17, 1996, p. 6A.)

Eyes on the Prize

Canada is such an attractive destination for immigrants that people have gone into businesses to help newcomers get legal status. The Yellow Pages for Vancouver alone list 41 immigration consultants. One is Jaswant Singh Mangat. One of his clients was an Indian woman from Fiji named Om Wati Chand. She paid Mr. Mangat $4,000 for advice and a virtual guarantee of refugee status. When her request was denied, she swore out an affidavit on Mr. Mangat’s methods, which included advice that she claim that she was raped by native Fijian soldiers:

Mr. Mangat told me that this false rape claim was necessary so that my claim would be accepted by the panel, as my story was weak. He told me that his Indo-Fijian wife, Aruna, who had attended school with me in Fiji, had received her visa to stay on a rape claim.

Mr. Mangat is now being sued by the Law Society of British Columbia for illegally practicing law. (Jerry Collins, “This False Rape Claim Was Necessary,’ British Columbia Report, Dec. 4, 1995, p. 11.)

CCRI on Ballot

The California Civil Rights Initiative, which would ban racial discrimination by the State of California, has received enough voter signatures to qualify for the November ballot. (Reuter, California Initiative to Bar Racial Preferences Qualifies, April 16, 1996.)

The nation has come to an astonishing pass when it takes a grassroots campaign by citizens to put an end to government discrimination against the majority population. Like mass immigration, affirmative action is forced upon Americans despite deep-seated opposition. All predictions are that the civil rights initiative will win easily. Voters will have had an opportunity to express themselves only because of the hard work and dedication of thousands of volunteers who put the issue on the ballot.

Bardot Speaks Out

Retired French actress, Brigitte Bardot, has written a column in the French newspaper, Le Figaro, in which she denounces Muslim immigration to France. Calling herself “a Frenchwoman of old stock,” she notes that both her father and grandfather fought against foreign invaders.

“And now my country, France, my homeland, my land, is with the blessing of successive governments again invaded by a foreign, especially Muslim, over-population to which we pay allegiance,” she wrote. “We have to submit against our will to this Muslim over-flow. From year to year, we see mosques flourish across France, while our church bells fall silent because of a lack of priests.”

Miss Bardot, who has worked almost full-time for animal rights since she retired from the screen in 1972, is especially offended by the ritual throat-slitting of millions of sheep by Muslims on feast days. She wrote that practices of this kind are intolerable: “Could I be forced in the near future to flee my country which has turned into a bloody and violent country, to turn expatriate, to try and find elsewhere, by myself becoming an emigrant, the respect and esteem which we are alas refused daily?” [alas, not our translation]

A lefty French group called Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples says Miss Bardot has broken French law because her statement is a “genuine incitement to racial hatred.” (Reuter, Paris, April 26, 1996, France’s Bardot Under Fire for Blasting Moslems.)

Scarcely News

Blacks in Oakland, California rioted on April 21 after a rap concert by Tha Dogg Pound. For three hours, thousands of fans threw rocks and bottles at police, stripped women naked, fought each other, and did “doughnuts” in the street with their cars.

One car streaked away from the riot at over 100 miles an hour, went out of control, smashed through a school yard fence, careened 200 feet across a playground, plowed through a stucco wall, and ended up in a first-grade classroom. Fortunately, no one was in school, but two riders in the car were killed. The riot and deaths were thought to be so uninteresting that they merited only a small story on page 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle. (Erin Hallissy, 2 Men Killed Speeding from Oakland Riot, San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 1996, p. A17.)

Insecticide

Another school team is being pressured to change its name. The athletes at Virginia’s Emory & Henry College are not Rebels or Redskins; they are Wasps. College President Thomas Morris points out that the name was never meant to be racially exclusive but one member of the school’s African-American Society complains that it sounds too much like the acronym WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant). (Andrew Cain, College Keeps Wasp as Mascot Despite PC Buzz, Washington Times, April 19, 1996.)

Equal Rights, Equal Standards

Last month’s “O Tempora” section (“Sanity in the Fifth Circuit”) described an important federal court ruling under which universities in the 5th circuit — Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi — are forbidden to use race as a criterion for admissions. The only exception is to correct a university’s own acts of past discrimination. The decision is causing consternation in Mississippi, where race-blind admissions are expected to cut the number of blacks entering university this year by at least 50 percent.

Ordinarily, about 60 percent of college-bound black Mississippians attend three virtually all-black colleges. Admissions standards have been significantly lower than at majority-white schools, but they must now be brought up to snuff. The entering classes at the black schools may be only 40 percent of their numbers in previous years. (Peter Applebome, Equal Admission Standards Leave Mississippi’s Black Universities Wary, New York Times, April 24, 1996, p. A14.)

Multi-racial Paradise

Winston Peters, a New Zealand Maori, is founder of the New Zealand First party, which opposes immigration, 60 percent of which is from Asia. His unabashed nativism has shot him to the top in political popularity polls. Now, an Asian immigrant named Robert Hum has founded the Ethnic Minority Party of New Zealand, which aims to promote immigration. The usual Pollyannas are saying that race has no legitimate place in politics.

Mr. Hum agrees in theory, but says that since the New Zealand First party is flirting with race, he must counter with race. “I think the Asian people are saying back to Winston Peters, “Since you have used the race card in the forthcoming elections, we have no other choice but to group ourselves under a race party as well’,” he says. (Matthew Brockett, Reuter, (Wellington, New Zealand) Asian Political Party Fuels Race Debate, April 22, 1996.)

Suffer the Little Children

When the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) catches illegal border crossers it ordinarily puts them in detention before sending them home. As a humanitarian measure, this policy is not applied to illegals who cross with minor children, since detention centers are not thought to be good for children. Instead, families are released into the United States with the expectation that they will later appear for hearings. This policy has produced a market in borrowed or rented children. Once “families” are released into the United States they disappear. An INS official concedes that this problem cannot be solved so long as families are treated more leniently than adults. (Associated Press, (Brownsville, Texas) Illegal Immigrants Renting Children, April 5, 1996.)

The Usual Split

A Milwaukee jury has split along racial lines in the murder trial of a black man. Although the panel voted to convict Wayne Hollins of robbery, the ten white jurors voted to convict on murder and the two blacks voted to acquit. Deliberations become so disagreeable that at the end the two blacks, both women, isolated themselves in the rest room. They later accused the whites of “racism,” saying they were ostracized. Whites claimed that the blacks did not want to discuss the case and interpreted deliberations as personal attacks. One black was reported to have objected that the law was written for white men.

After a mistrial was declared, the ten white jurors visited the prosecutor to explain that the inability to reach a verdict was not due to bad lawyering. “He [the prosecutor] did a good job and we wanted him to know that,” the jury foreman explained. (David Doege, Racial Split Deadlocks Murder Case, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, April 6, 1996, p. 1.)

Out of the Mouths of Brits

At Oscar time, it was politely reported that Jesse Jackson was roaring about how few blacks had been nominated. The Sunday Times of London had this to say about Rev. Jackson:

Jackson and his merry gang went protesting against — now get this — ‘an industry that depicts blacks in such a demeaning manner as to constitute a form of violence.’ How was that again? In the films I have seen over the past 25 years, blacks are depicted as wise, heroic or compassionate figures who help whites, however racist. Rarely has a black been depicted as being on welfare, burning down Korean businesses, smoking crack and committing hate crimes against whites. Better yet, when was the last time you saw a film in which the military man was not a bloodthirsty fascist, the priest a sexual pervert, the businessman a crook, the CIA and FBI chiefs secretly plotting to take over the country — any country — while the black is portrayed as positively beyond reproach? (Taki, Sunday Times, March 31, 1996.)

Thought Crimes

The U.S. Treasury Department is considering new regulations on permissible off-duty behavior for its law enforcement officers. If task force recommendations are approved, more than 19,500 agents in the Secret Service, ATF, Customs Service and IRS would be barred from “on or off-duty abusive, derisive, profane, or demeaning statements, conduct or gestures evidencing hatred or prejudice . . . on account of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.” New proposals also call for a screening process that would ensure that no one is hired who is guilty of “invidious prejudices.” (Pierre Thomas, Treasury Panel Targets Off-Duty Words, Deeds, Washington Times, April 2, 1996, p. A1.)

Africans in Chains

Charles Jacobs of the American Anti-Slavery Group notes that there is still slavery in Africa. Film footage obtained by PBS shows that in Sudan, thousands of enslaved black Christian children are routinely chained and beaten by their Arab Muslim masters in what are called “Koranic schools.” The U.S. State Department reports that in Mauritania more than 90,000 blacks are classified as the property of Arabo-Berber Muslims. Mr. Jacob’s group has found slavery in third world nations from Bangladesh to Brazil. (Charles Jacobs, Black Slaves in Africa, Letters to the Editor, Wall St. Journal, Nov. 2, 1995.)

Jeering the Jury

In his recently published book, In Contempt, black prosecutor Christopher Darden writes about the mostly-black jury on the O.J. Simpson case. From “the moment I walked into that courtroom . . . I could see in their eyes the need to settle some score. And I was the only prosecutor who knew what the score was.” “They didn’t want proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” he adds. “They wanted proof beyond some degree that mortal man can’t provide.” So why did he take the case? “I had naively believed my presence would, in some way, embolden my black brothers and sisters . . . and that they would convict a black icon when they saw . . . the overwhelming evidence. Instead, I was branded an Uncle Tom, a traitor used by The Man.” (Larry Reibstein, Donna Foote, and Mark Miller, Darden Takes the Gloves Off, Newsweek, March 25, 1996, p. 46.)

Next Question, Please

Colleges and universities as well as the College Board, which administers the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), have noticed a rise in the number of students who decline to disclose their races. Last year, 94,000 SAT takers failed to make a designation, as opposed to 78,000 five years ago. In the California university system, the number of applicants refusing to answer the question increased by 28.5 percent in 1995 over the year before. College officials and independent consultants agree that whites, who believe their race is a liability, account for the increase. (Steve Stecklow, Is “What’s Your Race’ a Trick Question? More College Applicants Now Say It Is, Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1996, p. B8.)

Innocence Betrayed

Well known for their generosity, retired Parisians Claude Vitrey and Denise Bouchard often took in poor strangers for the night, but they got little thanks from Mahmoud Benchaiba and Mohamed Meroue.

The two ex-convicts held the aged couple prisoners in their own home for a year. They stole the couple’s pension money, beat them, and barely fed them, while they sold drugs from the house. The ordeal finally came to an end only when the two Arabs were arrested for drug trafficking and police discovered their living arrangements. Mr. Vitrey was hospitalized for shock; Mrs. Bouchard for malnutrition. (AP, Kindly Couple Held Hostage for a Year, Detroit News, April 14, 1996, p. 8A.)