Bill Bennett said aborting every black would reduce the crime rate, but it was "impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible." This caused a media firestorm chastizing Bennett for his insensitivity.
Recently, a lesser known individual made the following remarks during a conference broadcast on CSPAN:
And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate black people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate black people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. … the problem on the planet is black people.
Should those comments not receive even more condemnation as Bennett’s? The speaker was actually proposing the elimination of a people group as the solution to the problems in the world.
How ridiculous, how racist, how acceptable, because the statements were not calling for the extermination of black people. The idea was presented by a black Africana professor about killing white people..
Can you imagine the furor that a statement like that would set off if it were about anyone but white people? Just Google Bill Bennett and see the reaction he got in the media.
Now Google Kamau Kambon and see the aftermath of his blatently racists and genocidal comments.
There is only a page and a half of news articles, most from conservative sources or papers in NC where he was a visiting professor at NC State. You will find only one mention in a national mainstream media source – a Washington Times editorial.
This is the most prevelant type of media bias – the decision by the MSM on what constitutes "news" and what does not. This is the perfect example.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a letter from NC State distancing themselves from Kambon, as well as a link to another MSM story. This one by the AP.
Aaron,
You've done this before, but let's go ahead and do this again:
1. Bill Bennett – former member of Reagan's cabinet, major national name, author of books about how superior he is to the rest of us morally.
2. Kamau Kambon – guy that nobody had ever heard of before you posted about his ridiculous diatribe.
They aren't on the same level, and thus reactions to the speeches are going to be different. You're acting as if the media needs to find every single example of insanity and treat it equally. Unfortunately, that's impossible. Celebrities rule the day, and Bennett's a political celebrity.
Sam,
Bill Bennet's excellent publications of stories that encourage virtue and morality should be lauded – why accuse him of trumpeting his own morality, an obvious ad hominem attack?
Yes, Kambon is more obscure, but he was in a public square, speaking as a University Professor to college students. You have a point, but the extreme language he used (more extreme than Bennett's in that he *meant* it) makes it newsworthy despite his relative obscurity.
I'm sure that the media routinely overlooks anti-white (male) and anti-Christian slurs, as well as equally "unwise" absurd examples used by others. Don't make me google for quotes from Jesse Jackson, Farrakahn, or Barbara Boxer :p
Bennett is a gambling addict with the audacity to tell me how to live my life. Thanks, but I'll look for my moral advice from elsewhere.
And as for ridiculous quotes? Of course you can find them. But suggesting, even in gest, the abortion of a race seems rather extreme to me. Maybe that's just me though.
Sam, I agree that he blew his "witness" and I agree that teachers should walk their own talk – but such venom! And the point was not to lessen his unwise comment (which he meant facetiously), but to argue that the press singles out white Christians (males) while excluding equally heinous things said seriously by non-whites and non-Christians.
Not that they never notice such things, but often. Do you disagree that such a bias exists in our media?
Sam,
I thought you might make that argument and I agree with you to some extent. A nationally recognized figure deserves more attention than an unknown. But I also think the language of Kambon is so outrageous that it deserves attention.
My other question is, do you honestly think that if a basically unknown white guy made the statement about a minority group that it would receive the same lack of attention? Unfortunately, I don't think so.
If a white guy had said that he would (and should) be condemned from every media outlet in the nation (possibly world). It is a horrible thing to say something like that regardless of who says it.
Aaron,
I don't know where you live, but I run into racist idiots all the time. And they say unbelievably stupid and hurtful things (one day, a guy at a bar told me that the fact that only white men had stood on the Moon was PROOF that whites are better than blacks). No national media came running.
I this case, the moron was black, and on C-SPAN. Sure, he should get pilloried for being a jackass. I don't have a problem with that. But Bill Bennett's a whole different ballgame from some no-name professor that nobody cares about.
And as for your post Seeker, I don't have any problem at all with the Press singleing out powerful white men, particularly those who used to be members of a presidential cabinet, who say things that are vaguely racist. If more blacks and minorities held cabinet positions, and subsequently said incredibly stupid things, I think that the media would treat them in just the same manner.
Maybe.