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Thu, 09.29.2005

William Bennett Makes Racist Comments

William Bennett

On this date in 2005, white-American radio talk show host William Bennett was quoted as making racially divisive statements about Blacks in relation to abortion and crime.  The former education secretary spoke to them on the program “Morning in America.” Here is the transcript from the show.

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't touch this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?
CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as abortion disproportionately occurs among single women. No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit is, yeah.
BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both, you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well.
CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. 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. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

The comments drew criticism from Senate minority leader Harry Reid who said he was appalled. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy called them racist, and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said they were shameful.

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