William Bennett: Abort Black Babies To Reduce Crime

William Bennett, a prominent conservative commentator and former Education Secretary in the Reagan administration, is under fire for making a patently racist comment.

Bennett opined on his "Morning in America" show, "But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down". He added that this would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

If you aborted every black baby in this country, would the crime rate go down? Yes, but the same thing would happen if you aborted every white baby, or every brown baby. The great majority of crimes are committed by young people -- if the birth rate goes down, so will the crime rate.

This morally reprehensible statement lays bare the racist heart of William Bennett. The "Culture Wars" veteran used black babies as an example, because in his "heart of hearts" he believes crime and African Americans are synonymous.

Conservative crusaders like Bennett make a fetish out of taking "personal responsibility" for one's mistakes and sins, but he refuses to apologize. "I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition," Bennett explained on his "Morning in America" radio show. Maybe so, but only a racist would "put forward a hypothetical proposition" that entailed aborting every black baby born in this country.

Bennett's racist declaration needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms by Republicans and Democrats alike; unfortunately, I don't hear much indignation coming from conservatives.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "The president believes the comments were not appropriate." Not appropriate? Why such a timid and cowardly response? A president who hates racism would have categorized Bennett's remarks as "outrageous, racist and immoral."

In 1993 William Bennett edited "The Book of Virtues" -- a handbook on conservative morality. Bennett's behavior since then proves that he would be better suited to write "The Book of Vices"; he would have no trouble writing chapters on gambling and racism.