Poverty Law Center is Rich and Devious
The Montgomery Advertiser has just published a sweeping, nine-part exposé of one of the country’s best known anti-racist organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. The paper has concluded that the center, run by Morris Dees, has wildly exaggerated the threat of the Ku Klux Klan in order to get money out of liberal whites. It has been spectacularly successful. Since 1984, the center has brought in about $62 million in contributions. During this period, it had investment income of $22.1 million, which is more than it spent on programs.
One of the center’s favorite tactics is to bring civil suits against Klansmen and racialists in order to bankrupt them. In a series of fund-raising letters, it implied that it had squeezed $7 million dollars out of a Klan group for the benefit of the mother of a lynching victim. In fact, the mother got only $51,800 from the impoverished Klansman, while the center collected millions of dollars through the appeal.
The Montgomery Advertiser also notes that the center has had a very bad record with black employees. It has hired very few and many of these have left, complaining of everything from paternalism to racial slurs.
Yo, Man!
At one time, academics predicted that black dialect would disappear as blacks learned to speak standard English. The reverse is happening. Linguists report that underclass blacks are speaking a language that is steadily diverging from the mainstream. One reason is that many blacks refuse to speak “white” English and taunt other blacks who do. Some teachers in black schools have given up trying to correct their students’ grammar, while others teach English as a second language.
Even ghetto blacks understand standard English because they hear it on radio and television. However, as black vernacular devolves, it may soon become completely incomprehensible to whites.
Bad Rap
Every year, the NAACP gives Image Awards to blacks who are credits to their race. This year, it plans to give one to a “gangsta rap artist” named Tupac Shakur. Mr. Shakur is currently facing two separate criminal charges, one for rape and the other for wounding an off-duty policeman in a shootout. The National Political Congress of Black Women, which had denounced Mr. Shakur’s smutty recordings even before he got in trouble with the law, asked the NAACP not to give him an award. The NAACP executive board took a vote and decided to honor Mr. Shakur as planned. “This is an issue concerning the cultural self-determination of the African-American community,” explained Executive Director Ben Chavis, presumably with a straight face.
Meanwhile, in Miami, Florida, a white county commissioner has proposed that another rapper, Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew, be given a seat on the local cultural affairs council. The rest of the commission, including all its black members, rose up in alarm, cited Mr. Campbell’s degeneracy, and defeated the plan. Jesse Jackson then criticized the black commissioners for not promoting a fellow black. “They elect those black commissioners and then they sell us down the road,” he complained.
Into the Sunset
Making famous men out of unknown blacks can be risky — and expensive. The Postal Service decided to include black cowboy, Bill Pickett, in its “Legends of the West” postage stamp series, but he is so far from being a legend that no one knew what he looked like. Engravers mistakenly put a likeness of his brother Ben on a stamp and ran off 20 million sheets before anyone noticed. Truck loads of stamps have been recalled and destroyed. Taxpayers will be billed about $1.1 million for the mistake.
Progress on Anti-White Bias Cases
The federal appeals court has ruled that a white employee of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC can sue for racial discrimination. A lower court had actually ruled that because he was not a member of a protected group he had to prove systematic discrimination against all whites rather than simple racial discrimination against himself.
A white doctor has won $480,000 in damages in a discrimination suit against the Chicago Transit Authority. William McNabola, who specialized in workers’ compensation claims, was fired from the transit authority in 1986. The Seventh Circuit Court noted in its ruling that the authority was guilty of many kinds of discrimination. At one point, more than 70 percent of the independent-contract lawyers used by the authority were black even though only three percent of Chicago’s lawyers are black.
In St. Louis, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has come to the defense of white police officers. The city adopted an affirmative action program in 1980 that required bypassing more eligible white men so as to hire women and non-whites. In one of its exceedingly rare actions on behalf of whites, the EEOC pronounced the system illegal.
High-Priced Immigrants
Donald Huddle, a Texas economist, has calculated that in 1992, immigrants — both legal and illegal — cost American tax payers $42.5 billion in direct costs alone. That figure reflects government spending of $62.7 billion (public schooling, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, bilingual education, and the unemployment compensation paid to Americans pushed out of jobs) minus the $20.2 billion in taxes paid by immigrants. Of course, on top of this, immigrants got a free ride for all government services that are not considered handouts: police and fire protection, highway construction, libraries, parks, military security, etc. Also not included in Prof. Huddle’s reckoning are crowding, pollution, and environmental compliance costs for millions of newcomers, as well as the disproportionate crime rates of immigrants. The cost of cultural and racial displacement is beyond calculation.
Congress prefers to look the other way. In March, the House soundly defeated a bill that would merely have asked local school districts to keep count of how many illegal aliens they were educating. Opponents of the measure said that such a count would be reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Non-Citizens Welcome
The California city of Milpitas has appointed a non-citizen, Mohan Trikha, to the city’s planning council. One council member, Barbara Lee, vigorously opposed the move, and the city considered drafting a regulation requiring all appointees to be citizens and registered voters. The city backed down when it realized that this would disqualify many non-whites. The city council is now all white and most members feel just awful about that. One councilor explained that he feared a citizenship requirement could be construed as an obstacle to involvement by non-whites in city government.
Back to Cuba
A black Alabama state representative, Alvin Holmes, is well known for his single-minded promotion of the interests of blacks. Earlier this year, when the state legislature was considering a bill that would make it easier for the state police to help deport foreign criminals, Rep. Holmes took particular aim at Cubans:
‘They all ought to be sent back to Cuba, including the ones that aren’t in jail . . . They don’t do nothing but hurt the blacks. They all ought to be sent back . . . I wish every one of their citizenships would be taken.’ Not to be thought prejudiced, Rep. Holmes went on to recommend that all people from Norway, Sweden, Ireland, France, Germany and El Salvador be repatriated too.
Besides his duties as a legislator, Rep. Holmes is a professor of history at Alabama State University.
Heart of Darkness
Southern Zaire has some of the richest copper and cobalt mines in the world At one time, mineral exports accounted for two thirds of the country’s foreign exchange. Now, the New York Times tells us, after the collapse of what passed for a government, and successive waves of ethnic warfare, the whites who ran the mines have gone back to Europe. What used to be an industry that employed thousands has collapsed into a tangled wasteland of rusting machinery. In most places, the only “mining” is done by ragamuffins who shovel through slag heaps looking for scraps of copper.
The same newspaper — and reporter — also wrote about the recent funeral for Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ran the Ivory Coast in extravagant, self-aggrandizing fashion for 34 years. The story described the country as “rooted spiritually some where between the brutal competitiveness of Western commerce and the brilliantly complex and often mystical culture of ancient Africa.”
Truth in Surprising Places
U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, a Democrat from Alabama, says he is against current immigration policies that will reduce whites to a minority. He called current policy a “horror story.” The usual people are calling him the usual names.
This Happy, Happy Land
In January, a lady sailor, who claimed not to know she was pregnant, gave birth to a baby boy on board the destroyer tender Yellowstone. It is thought to be the first time in U.S. naval history that a sailor has ever had a baby on board ship.
A black man who shot and wounded a white man in the hope of starting a race war got a 20-year prison sentence. Last March, Darryl Arnold bought a 9 mm pistol in a Los Angeles gun store, walked out, and shot the first white man he saw.
On Jan. 2, 1994, the Sacramento Bee published a guest editorial that contained this surprising line: “Stripped of its euphemistic clichés, multiculturalism’s fundamental characteristic is its hostility to the majority culture of white America.” The author, Lance Izumi, is a Japanese American.
For the first time in its 131-year history, the IRS will publish tax forms in a language other than English. 1040A short forms in Spanish will be distributed in California and South Florida.
During earthquake relief in Los Angeles, the Federal Emergency Management Agency posted signs all over town, in Spanish and English, telling people that aid was available to everyone, including illegal immigrants.
Catalina Vasquez Villapando, the first-ever lady Hispanic treasurer of the United States, has been charged with tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to falsify documents. She could get 15 years in prison and $750,000 fine. Her signature still appears on currency being printed today.
A veteran teacher in the Montgomery County, Virginia schools has been put on leave and could be fired for telling a class that when blacks move into neighborhoods, the crime rate goes up and whites decamp. “I guess we’ll have to move to Norway,” were some of Albin Wozniak’s impermissible words.
On the Bandwagon
It was only a matter of time. American Arabs have noticed that there are real advantages to being an official, protected minority. There are 870,000 Arabs in the United States, and many are determined to persuade Congress to grant them victim status just like blacks, Hispanics, and everyone else. Being a victim in America cannot be all bad; in 1992, 27,000 more Arabs took the risk and immigrated.
One of the largest concentrations of Arabs is in Detroit, and they have already gotten the Michigan departments of Mental Health and Public Health to give them money for multicultural and minority programs. Some colleges also include Arabs in affirmative action programs. If Congress blesses their efforts, Arabs will be able to claim preferences across the board.
Black Flight
The Los Angeles Sentinel is one of the oldest and largest black newspapers in the country. Founded in 1933, it has long had its offices on Central Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles. This used to be the black part of town, but is now dominated by Hispanics. This year, the paper upped stakes and moved to the Crenshaw district, to which most blacks have moved. Blacks, just like whites, flee the encroachment of people unlike themselves.
Shop ’Til You Drop
Walter Wilbon is a Chicago black man who openly admits that he conned the Social Security system into paying him $465 a month in disability benefits. However, it is in his off-the-books job — milking Medicaid — that he shows real resourcefulness.
Mr. Wilbon’s routine is not hugely lucrative for him — he makes about $100 on a good day — but in 1991 it cost taxpayers exactly $101,422.62 in Medicaid charges. His hustle is simple: Get free prescriptions for diseases he does not have and sell the medicine on the black market. Many Medicaid recipients do this, but Mr. Wilbon is remarkable for his persistence. City records show that in 1991, he made 426 doctor’s visits (to 111 different doctors) and got more than $87,000 worth of free prescriptions. He has studied enough to know just what symptoms to claim, and when that doesn’t work he browbeats doctors into writing prescriptions.
On his most successful day, March 14th, he walked home with $1,136.04 worth of medicine and medical equipment. He also steals anything he finds in doctors’ offices. The difference in his year’s prescription costs — $87,000 — and his total Medicaid bill — $101,422 — is accounted for by lab tests and doctors’ fees.
Most of what Mr. Wilbon makes off with he can sell at only a fraction of the prescription cost. Heavy drinkers pay about 36 cents each for anti-ulcer pills that cost $1.66 each. The drug soothes upset stomachs. Crack smokers are willing to pay $2.00 to $3.00 for bronchial inhalers because they open up the lungs for larger doses of crack smoke. Inhalers cost taxpayers $20 each. Only syringes have a higher street price than prescription price; Mr. Wilbon can sell the 15 to 25 cent needles for as much as a dollar each.
Eventually, Medicaid will catch up with Mr. Wilbon and force him to restrict his visits to only one doctor. This is the system’s only way to control Medicaid thieves, but it is under attack because it “limits the choice” of recipients.
Mr. Wilbon, who lives in public housing, has six children and 16 grandchildren. “I don’t like to do real work,” he explains.
Give ’em Hell
The Justice Department has kindly set up a toll-free telephone line to solicit your views on how the department could be improved. There are any number of things you can advocate: deportation of illegal aliens, more border police, the addition of “Hispanic’ as a racial classification for criminals (so that crimes by Mexicans do not inflate the “white” crime rate), vigorous prosecution of the Crown Heights case (see below), or anything else that would help. Call early and often: (800) 546-3224.
Slow Progress
Attorney General Janet Reno has reluctantly decided to start the process of bringing federal civil rights charges against a black who was acquitted of stabbing a Jew to death, while friends chanted “Kill the Jew.” The killing took place in Brooklyn in 1991 during the Crown Heights riots. In a verdict that astonished most observers, the accused man was let off despite overwhelming evidence of guilt.
This federal trial — if there is one — will be much like that of the officers who beat Rodney King and were acquitted of most charges in a state trial. The feds leaped instantly into action that time, but it took tremendous political pressure from New York before Miss Reno would agree to investigate the Crown Heights case.
In another matter, New York City’s new mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, has announced that he is doing away with the city’s minority set-aside contracting program, which he called “indefensible as a constitutional matter.”
Money for Non-Whites
The federal Education Department has ruled that universities can discriminate on the basis of race when distributing scholarships even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination of this kind. The department ruled that discriminatory scholarships can be made to remedy past discrimination, but no findings of past discrimination need be made. It also ruled that race-based scholarships can be used to diversify the student body. This all just so much mumbo jumbo. Schools may discriminate against whites as much as they like.