Crimes Against Blacks

On the NBC-TV Hurricane Katrina fundraiser, rapper Kanye West whined that George Bush doesn't care about black people. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the National Baptist Convention of America, that race played a role in the hurricane casualty numbers. I believe that those statements are themselves racist, slanderous and extremely harmful to America’s image.

I’m glad that Laura Bush spoke up:

I think all of those remarks are disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country, the first lady said in an interview with American Urban Radio Networks.

I’m glad that Kanye West was loudly and lustily booed during last night's NFL kickoff show. The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number, reports the Boston Globe. (Drudge Report)

Unfortunately, the disgusting behavior reveals an ugly side of our culture. The Pew Research poll released yesterday reports that 66% of blacks believe that the government response to Katrina would have been faster if most of the victims were white (versus 17% of whites). It is clearly worth our effort to understand the root cause of this racial disparity.

Yesterday I was walking Cookie and listening to Hugh Hewitt discuss the social pathology on display in NOLA, when Hugh asked for a listener to send him the latest NOLA crime statistics. Cookie and I scooted home, I Googled NOLAPD, found the stats and shot them off to Hugh.

From Hugh Hewitt.com

New Orleans had 4,668 violent crimes committed within its borders in 2004. (HT: Palos Verdes Blog). Given this level of violent crime, was it not completely foreseeable that absent a major National Guard and police presence deployed in the city after the storm came through that there would be destructive looting and mayhem of a far more serious type?

The murder rate in NOLA is 5 times higher than New York City and 10 times higher than the national average. Given the population demographics in New Orleans it is not a surprise that most of the criminals are black as are most of the victims.

Bob Herbert, of the NY Times reports that Hurricane Katrina was preceded by many years in which the people of New Orleans (especially its poorest residents) were shamefully neglected by all levels of government. The public school system, for example, is one of the worst in the nation. About 10,000 of the 60,000 students were suspended last year, and nearly 1,000 were expelled. Half of the high school kids fail to graduate in four years.

New Orleans is one of the most liberal cities in America, a city run by Democrats for 60 years. The city is 75% black, the mayor is black, the police chief is black, most public officials are black. So why are the blacks so poorly off in this progressive model of a city?

Listen to the great black economist and author Thomas Sowell. The fundamental reason that many people do not rise is not that class barriers prevent it but that they do not develop the skills, values and attitudes which cause people to rise. The liberal welfare state means they don't have to, and liberal multiculturalism says they don't need to change their values because one culture is just as good as another. In other words, liberalism is not part of the solution, but part of the problem.

The same counterproductive and self-destructive attitudes toward education, work and ordinary civility found in many of America's ghettos can also be found in lower-class British communities. Anyone who doubts it should read British doctor Theodore Dalrymple's book Life at the Bottom, about the white lower class communities in which he has worked. These chaotic and violence-prone communities in Britain do not have the excuse of racism or a legacy of slavery. What they do have in common with similar communities in the United States is a similar reliance on the welfare state and a similar set of intellectuals making excuses for their behavior and denouncing anyone who wants them to change their ways.

Former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm once gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. Paraphrasing Lamm: To destroy America invent multiculturalism and make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. Establish an underclass with a 50% dropout rate from high school. Then create government entitlement programs and a cult of 'Victimology.' I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.

This is exactly what has happened in America since the days of the “war on poverty.” Liberal government programs have “invested” well over $5 Trillion on welfare programs while many of America’s ghettos sink to the level of New Orleans.

You tell me who is keeping the blacks on “Uncle Sam’s Plantation.” (Starr Parker)