In April, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and then shot themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Early reports gave the impression the two boys targeted non-whites, and there are still implications that the shootings were “racist” or “neo-Nazi.” People who knew the boys think otherwise. One student named “Meg,” says this:
I am black/white mixed. And when the media is coming up with this thing that Dylan and Eric were racist, they weren’t. They were my friends. They were very nice to me, both of them. I don’t get this whole racial thing that people are coming up with.
When asked about their interest in Nazism, she replied:
That is the biggest load of [expletive] I’ve ever heard. They never wore swastikas around their arm. Never. Not in this entire year that I’ve known them. No.
One boy who knew the two adds:
They’re not Nazis. They didn’t worship Nazis. Some kids said ‘Oh I saw them reading a book on Nazis.’ They read a books on Nazis because, guess what they were learning about in World History? They were learning about the Nazis.
Other students flatly denied reports that when Mr. Harris and Mr. Klebold went bowling they celebrated strikes with a Nazi salute. As one boy put it rather sensibly, ‘I don’t think that it was a big racial thing. I mean, you see who they shot at.’ (Columbine Students Talk of the Disaster and Life, New York Times, April 30, 1999, p. A27.)
Much has also been made of the rantings found on Eric Harris’ web page. He does seem to have professed hatred for many people: Star Wars fans, smokers, people who mispronounce words, people who oppose the death penalty, and people who disagree with him. Never did he denounce non-whites. In fact, in answer to his own question, “You know what I hate?” he wrote “RACISM!” adding that people who are biased against “blacks, Asians, Mexicans or people from any other country or race besides white-American” should “have their arms ripped off” and be burned. (James Barron, Warnings From a Student Turned Killer, New York Times, May 1, 1999)
Tempest in Tallahassee
Glayde Whitney is a psychology professor at Florida State University who has written frequently for AR. His carefully-reasoned views on race and IQ attracted little attention until he wrote the forward for My Awakening, a 1998 book by David Duke. The press have fallen upon this story with the unity and creativity of lemmings, and local and national media has been abuzz with reports about the “racist” professor.
There has also been much roaring at the university, where blacks now complain Prof. Whitney’s presence creates an “intimidating learning environment” and that he must be fired. University president “Sandy” D’Alemberte has disavowed Prof. Whitney’s views but says that a tenured professor cannot be dismissed for his opinions. There was a brief hope Prof. Whitney could be booted for biased grading but, for years, he has been careful to give only objective tests.
Hundreds of students attended a public meeting on campus to rail against the professor; he declined to come and be hooted at.
The Florida Senate has now joined the attack, with half its members co-sponsoring a resolution calling his views “abhorrent.” Pushed through by a coalition of non-whites, the resolution says Prof. Whitney “promulgates dogma that supports white supremacy and anti-Semitism” and says he has “affiliations with known supremacist and separatist groups.” The resolution concludes by grandly calling itself an “instrument of truth.” Sen. John McKay of the rules committee says the resolution cannot be an official act of the Florida Senate because it is based on hearsay and Prof. Whitney has had no opportunity to defend himself.
After raging for several weeks, the controversy appears to be dying down. Prof. Whitney has maintained a quiet dignity throughout, retracting nothing, apologizing for nothing, and explaining the scientific basis of his views. Once again the country has thrown a tantrum rather than face the facts about race and IQ, but every tantrum leaves a few more doubters in its wake.
Fat Lady Stings
Aretha Franklin has won more Grammies than any other woman, and is worth millions from records, concerts, films, and books — but she stiffs tradesmen. Since 1988 creditors have filed more than 30 suits against her. These are people like her dentist, limo drivers, accountants, lawyers, plumber, florist, dress-maker, song arranger, landscaper, etc. Sometimes Miss Franklin does not pay even when there is a judgment against her, and creditors have to seize assets. Many simply give up in disgust.
‘That was her style,’ says David Greenbaum, who was her accountant until his firm sued her in 1992. ‘She was above all the mundane activity of paying bills. She was an artist.’
Many creditors are blacks who offered low rates and rush service because they were glad to do business with a black celebrity. Now, her reputation is well known in the Detroit area, where she owns posh houses, and creditors have even started a support group to console each other. (David Zeman Et. Al., Why Doesn’t Aretha Pay Her Bills? Detroit Free Press, Feb. 15, 1999, p. A1.)
Color Conscious
The Crayola company has been in business for 96 years and is about to change the name of a color for only the third time. “Indian red” is now an embarrassment, and the company is taking suggestions for alternate names. As it happens, the name is not a commentary on the skin tones of Indians. The color comes from earth of a yellowish-red color found especially in the Persian Gulf not far from the subcontinent of India. Still, the company cannot bear to think it is poisoning the minds of children. (Seeing Red, Forward, March 26, 1999, p. 12.)
Money Wasted
The federal government’s largest education program is called Title I, and was set up in the 1960s to help boost the school performance of poor children. It pays $7.4 billion a year for tutors, teachers, computers, extra supplies, etc. Over the years it has splashed out no less than $118 billion and has touched one in five American public school students. To what effect? The U.S. Department of Education itself concedes that Title I has been “insufficient to close the gap” between poor and not poor. Independent evaluators say it hasn’t even narrowed the gap. Maris Vilnovskis of the University of Michigan says Title I has been “a failure up to now.” The bad marks don’t seem to discourage Congress, which appears determined to keep spending the money. (Ralph Fammolino, U.S. Project Fails to Close Education Gap Between Rich and Poor, Studies Show, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jan. 17, 1999.)
Gypped Again
The lowdown on certain groups turns up in the oddest places. Rip-Off is a 1998 reference book about con games and con artists, for fiction writers who want their bad guys to be believable. The author, Fay Faron, has a particular interest in American Gypsies, about whom she writes with knowledge and authority:
Unbelievably, most Americans aren’t even aware we have a Gypsy population . . . Victims describe perps as being Greek, Hispanic, even Indian, a phenomenon that dates back centuries.
How many Gypsies are there in America? Since the Rom [as they call themselves] rarely identify themselves as such, nobody really knows. Estimates of 1.5 million have been bantered about . . .
So are all Gypsies and Travelers tramps and thieves? To a man, cops who work this detail will, out of earshot of the media, say . . . yes. Sergeant Roy House of the Houston PD (retired) says of the hundreds he has met, ‘There are none whose families have not engaged in scams in the past . . .’
. . . their touchstone legend dates back to 0 B.C. and is a tale that, ironically, explains why Gypsies steal. As the story goes, a Gypsy blacksmith was summoned to make four nails for Christ’s crucifixion. When the tooler awoke a day later, he found one nail glowing . . .
[A]long came an angel who explained that the spike was meant to be driven through the heart of Jesus and so instructed him to steal it, thus saving Jesus this additional agony. As a result of this kind act, God decreed the entire clan could wander the earth, stealing whatever they liked.
Miss Faron says Gypsies travel in caravans and stay in cheap motels. One of their favorite crimes is “store diversion” at large establishments like Home Depot. One group of Gypsies makes a ruckus while others hit the safe. They deliberately leave some money behind, so the theft will not be obvious.
Gypsies still tell fortunes, but the advertised price is just an appetizer. The objective is to convince a customer he (or most likely she) is under a spell, which will require a lot of expensive hocus pocus to remove. Miss Faron says that virtually all telephone psychics are Gypsies.
Another common Gypsy con game is for a young woman to “befriend” an older man and then fleece him. Most victims don’t know they have been literally “gypped,” because Gypsies almost never tell strangers who they really are.
One of the chief Republican strategists in California has announced that his political action committee will no longer give money to white men running in party primaries. State senator Jim Brulte heads a PAC that gave $600,000 to Republican candidates in last year’s campaign. Next election cycle, the money will go only to non-whites or women. “I’m not anti-Anglo Republican male,” explains Mr. Brulte, “In fact I am one. But I want my actions to set the tone, and I hope that people of like mind will move in the same direction.” Mr. Brulte thinks the reason his party is doing poorly is that it does not do enough to attract non-whites, who now make up over half of the state population. He thinks the answer is more dark faces: “Our problem is more our messenger than our message.” Other Republican strategists apparently agree. “Jim Brulte is making a good point and is saying what needs to be said,” says Ray McNally, a Republican consultant from Sacramento. Tony Quinn, a GOP analyst, says, “[The party] needs candidates that can appeal to the Latino vote and get a decent share of it . . . Brulte understands this.” (Dennis Love, Brulte: Diversity GOP Key, Sacramento Bee, April 22, 1999.)
Details in Passing
Columnist Joe Sobran notes that the killing of a black man in Jasper, Texas, has generally been treated as another sign of persistent racism and white wickedness. As he points out, there may be a little more to the story:
King [the killer, who has now been condemned to death] served a two-year prison sentence for burglary, which suggests a predisposition to violate other people’s rights. While in prison, he joined a white supremacist group and covered his body with Nazi and Klan tattoos. One psychiatrist at his trial suggested that this may have been a way to deter attacks by black inmates. Time magazine quotes another witness as saying King became part of a group known as ‘peckerwoods,’ described as ‘whites who would not yield money or sexual favors to blacks.’
Just a few details mentioned in passing. But they are worth dwelling on. White convicts complain, unavailingly, of a particularly ugly fact of life in prisons: racial attacks on whites by non-whites. Assault, robbery and homosexual rape are commonplace. The fact that there was a special slang term among inmates in King’s prison for ‘whites who would not yield money or sexual favors to blacks,’ is grim evidence of this condition. Apparently there was no need for a term for blacks who wouldn’t yield money or sexual favors to whites.
There could hardly be a better recipe for racial hatred. Young whites like King, a minority in prison, are thrown to the wolves, and they know they can expect no protection or sympathy from prison officials, liberal opinion or society in general when they are bullied and raped. The fear and humiliation they suffer is almost unimaginable, and it goes unreported.
In such snake pits, their only safety may lie in joining racial gangs. It should be no surprise when they emerge from prison not only hating blacks, but despising all conventional standards of morality. (Joseph Sobran, Becoming A Devil, March 22, 1999.)
No Confederates Allowed
A teacher at a private Christian school in South Carolina has been fired because he refused to take down a Confederate flag he displayed in his classroom. Winston McCuen, who taught history, government, and Latin at St. Joseph’s High School in Greenville, also refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at assembly. Mr. McCuen, whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy, thought his views would be accepted at a conservative, Christian school in a state that still flies the battle flag over its capitol. Though he has a wife and a baby on the way he won’t knuckle under: “I would rather keep my soul than keep my job,” he says. The Southern Legal Resource Center (SLRC) run by Kirk Lyons is preparing a lawsuit on his behalf. (Private School Fires Teacher in Flag Flap, The Washington Times, April 6, 1999, p. A3.)
Stand and Reconsider
Jaime Escalante is probably the most famous high school teacher in American history. He became the nation’s darling for reportedly teaching calculus to poor, East Los Angeles Hispanics. In Garfield High School, where the miracles were wrought, the school district turned a huge room into a classroom just for Mr. Escalante, and equipped it with observation booths so that visitors could watch the legend at work through one-way mirrors. The teacher’s exploits were made into the move Stand and Deliver.
For some reason, the miracles soon stopped. Mr. Escalante now teaches at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, but has a hard time getting students to learn algebra, much less calculus. He thinks it may be because his classes used to be all-Hispanic and could be browbeaten. Nowadays he must teach whites and blacks, and can’t bellow at them in Spanish the way he used to. (Amy Pyle, Escalante’s Formula Not Always the Answer, Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1999, p. R4.)
Immigration Initiative
A new California ballot initiative would provide for police and highway patrol officers to be trained in the duties of immigration agents. A similar provision was part of Prop. 187, which was passed by voters in 1994 but is now tied up in federal court. Presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan and Rick Oltman of Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) announced the initiative, to be known as the Local Immigration Officer Training Act. Mr. Buchanan is so far the only presidential candidate to endorse the measure, which is expected to be on the ballot for the California primary of March 7, 2000. “All it does is empower all law enforcement officials to fight against the invasion of our borders by illegal aliens who are breaking into our country and breaking our laws,” said Mr. Buchanan. Mr. Oltman is handling signature collection for the initiative, which will force the state to reimburse local police departments that seek training and certification by the INS. (Press Release, California Citizens Committee for Immigration Law Enforcement, April 20, 1999.)
Happy Campers
Almost all visitors to national parks are white, and the U.S. Park Service has been fretting about this for years. Bob Stanton, the first black to head the service, has announced new ways to get non-whites to visit. First, there will be more blacks in the storytelling that goes on in parks. For example, at Georgia’s Andersonville National Historical Site rangers will highlight minority and female prisoners [finding any must have taken prodigious research]. Rangers will also be told to put more “untold stories” about civil rights into their talks and displays.
The service will also try to divert more whites to “black” parks. It has a new diversity web site to steer vacationers to such places as Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D. C. The service also has a new web page in Spanish. Needless to say, there will be a lot of preferential hiring. Mr. Stanton wants to increase summer minority hiring 25 percent over last year, which was up 39 percent over the year before. Park service employees are now evaluated according to how many non-whites they hire and promote, and the service recruits at black colleges.
Congress keeps cranking out new non-white parks. The two latest are Alabama’s Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Arkansas’ Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. But not even places like these bring in many blacks. During a survey of Booker T. Washington National Historic Site, only 17 percent of tour groups included any blacks at all. (Gene Sloan, Park Service Adopts Aggressive Plans For Diversity, USA Today, March 26, 1999.)
Radical Chic
Ever since the shooting by New York City police of the African immigrant Amadou Diallo, the chic black thing is to get arrested protesting police violence. Former mayor David Dinkins, Congressman Charles Rangel, and State Comptroller Carl McCall have all worn the cuffs for Amadou. Some busy celebrities are said to have called ahead to make sure martyrdom won’t be too inconvenient. Jesse Jackson’s people reportedly asked the police beforehand to “make it quick’ because the great man had an airplane to catch. A spokesman for the entourage denies this. The police department says there has been no special treatment for celebrities, except that actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were kept together, at their own request, during processing. (New York Post, How to Get Busted Celeb-Style, April 9, 1999.)
In December, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the white section of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This has been described as a solitary act of inspiration, but she had been carefully selected and trained to be a pretext for a bus boycott by blacks. The boycott was led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and lasted for a year, until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
Miss Parks is now 86 years old and lectures frequently on “civil rights.” In April, Congress voted almost unanimously to award her the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor a civilian can receive from the American government. The only dissenting vote was that of Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas.
The medal was first established only for military leaders, and the first recipient was George Washington for “wise and spirited conduct” in the Revolutionary War. In the 20th century, Congress started giving it to civilians, including Frank Sinatra, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and the “Little Rock Nine,” who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. (Darlene Superville, Congress Wants to Honor Rosa Parks, AP, April 20, 1999.)
Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. has 188 professors, only four of whom are black, seven Hispanic, and seven Asian. In the view of president Roger Hull, this is an intolerable state of whiteness, to be corrected at all costs. He proposed — and the faculty approved by a two to one margin — that the next four jobs be filled only by blacks and Hispanics. Union never advertised the openings; instead, it scoured the country for promising non-whites. The four positions have now been filled and Union is pleased — though it is a little concerned about law suits. President Hull is aware of damages being paid to whites at other universities but says Union is safe because it is a private school and should be able to do as it likes. (Alison Schneider, Union College Limits Search for 4 New Faculty Slots to Black and Hispanic Scholars, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 16, 1999.)
Borzellieri Laughs Last
Frank Borzellieri, frequent contributor to AR, serves on School Board 24 in Queens, New York. In June, 1997, Perry Buckley, the only black ever elected to the board, was arrested for murdering his white girlfriend. Mr. Buckley, a married man in his late forties and a Boy Scout leader, apparently killed 30-year-old Iris Faulk in a drug-induced rage, stuffed her body under a pile of clothes in a Boy Scout meeting room, and had the locks changed so the building superintendent could not get in and find the body. The odor of decomposition eventually led to discovery, and Mr. Buckley confessed to the murder while police were questioning him about beating his wife. He plea-bargained to second degree manslaughter, and is now serving five to fifteen years.
After the arrest, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew, who is black, shocked even liberals by refusing to remove Buckley from the board, although he had removed other board members for much less serious offenses. It is likely that Mr. Crew meant to avoid having to replace Mr. Buckley with someone aligned with Mr. Borzellieri. Mr. Crew had established a precedent whereby any vacancy was filled by the candidate in the previous election who had gotten the next-highest vote total. In this case, the next person in line was James Noviello, a Borzellieri ally, so the chancellor allowed the vacancy to stand for eight months. Amidst mounting pressure on Mr. Crew to act, he finally filled the position in February 1998 with Sharon Geremia, a sworn enemy of Mr. Borzellieri. Even the New York Times pointed out the chancellor’s hypocrisy.
With school board elections approaching, Miss Geremia had a chance to win the seat on her own. However, Mr. Borzellieri found extensive fraud in the signature petitions she had gathered in order to qualify to run. The fraud was so great she did not even bother to defend herself, and withdrew from the race. “She was never entitled to the position,” says Mr. Borzellieri. “She came in a loser, and she’s going out a loser.”
Wise Beyond Their Years
On June 2, South Africa will hold its second all-race election, and some young blacks plan to vote for whites. Nicholas Ngoma (17) says: “I believe whites have more knowledge on almost everything than blacks. Look at countries governed by whites and contrast them with African countries. I believe that African countries were better run under colonialism.
Tribalism and nepotism are the norm today in South Africa, but during white governance qualification was the norm. Whites think for the interests of everybody, whereas we blacks think for our families.
Besides educational qualifications, I think that whites are more brainy than us . . .
Look at the things that are produced by whites, such as cellphones and computers. We blacks always follow whites. Even the Bible is written by whites and we blacks just follow. You will never see a white person following our culture and traditions.
Bennet Mpehle (19), a business management student, says that since South Africa has had a black president, crime has become “horrible”.
I think whites are sort of strict. Our teachers are whites and students respect them. Whites like order and know how to rule and lead. I will be very happy if we have a white president. People tend to respect the white colour. Not to say blacks cannot lead, but we take advantage of blacks.
Whites keep promises. Do you think this school will be like this if we had a black principal? . . . Go to a black school with a black principal and you will see the difference. (Cheche Selepe, The Black Youths Who Want a White President, Mail & Guardian (London), April 16, 1999.)
‘Beachhead in a War’
Whenever the U.S. Border Patrol tightens up enforcement in one sector, the human flood moves somewhere else. Recently, Douglas, Arizona, has been a popular crossing point for Mexican illegals. In March, more than 27,000 illegals were caught slipping through this town of only 15,000 people. No one knows how many make it through, and the town is considering filing suit against the federal government for failing to protect it. Illegals tear down fences, trample crops, steal things, and camp in people’s back yards. The mayor of Douglas, Ray Borane, recently wrote to President Clinton to say that “The city of Douglas, this entire area, has become a beachhead in a war . . . We’re being invaded.” Robert Marrufo, a city councilman, says that all night long, dogs in his neighborhood bark at illegals headed north. “We need help,” he says. “We’ve talked to people [the INS] till we’re blue in the face.”
Some private citizens have taken things into their own hands. On April 4, rancher Roger Barnett and his brothers caught 27 illegal aliens on his property and turned them over to the INS. Needless to say, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix has started an “investigation.” Isabel Garcia of the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos says “We believe there may be a conspiracy here to violate civil rights.” She thinks Mr. Barnett is guilty of kidnapping and false imprisonment. The rancher says the government can investigate all it wants, but points out that he was on his own property and that the illegals were trespassing. “My rights were violated, too,” he says; “I get ‘em violated every day.” “It seems like the government’s protecting everyone else’s rights but the American citizen’s,” he adds. (Ignacio Ibarra, Douglas May Sue U.S. Over Costs of Illegal Immigration, Arizona Daily Star, April 16, 1999. Tim Steller, Ranch Capture of 27 Illegals is Target of Inquiry, Arizona Daily Star, April 15, 1999.)
Democrats Truckle
Former professional basketball player Bill Bradley is Vice President Al Gore’s only current challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Bradley recently announced that “racial harmony” will be the central theme of his administration. “If I’m president, I want one thing to be known: If you want to please the boss, one of the things you’d better show is how your department or agency has furthered tolerance and racial understanding,” he explained during a recent speech in New York. “For me,” he says, “the quest for racial unity remains the defining moral issue of our time.” (Laurence Arnold, Bradley Pushes Racial Unity, AP, April 20, 1999.)
Not to be outdone, five days later Al Gore announced that America’s future depends on its ability to enforce civil rights and preserve affirmative action. Speaking to the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, he said that the key to the nation’s success is “recognizing and accepting our diversity and harmony as the greatest strength we have.” He promised to put pressure on Congress to make it easier for the federal government to prosecute “hate” criminals. (Jim Suhr, Gore Calls for Racial Justice, AP, April 26, 1999.)
Honoring Garvey
On April 26, black congressman Charles Rangel offered a resolution to honor Marcus Garvey and declare him innocent of the mail fraud charges on which he was convicted in 1925 (President Coolidge pardoned him in 1927 and had him deported). The resolution calls Garvey “a national hero in his native Jamaica, and . . . a towering figure in nations around the world,” and concludes: “(1) Marcus Garvey was innocent of the charges brought against him by the United States Government, (2) Marcus Garvey is and should be recognized internationally as a leader and thinker in the struggle for human rights, and (3) the President should take appropriate measures within his power to clear Marcus Garvey’s good name.”
Congressman Rangel is urging the Congress to recognize a man who believed blacks and whites could not live together and who wanted the entire black population of the Western Hemisphere to move to Africa.
‘The Big Payback’
The following are excerpts from the CD Beaner Go Home by the Mexican rap group Aztlan Nation:
It all started out as a fight for the land. They took away Texas, and began to expand. Still punk rednecks say: remember the Alamo. They don’t want to know who I am, but let them know I’m the M.E.X.I.C.A.N. So hit the ground and prepare for sprayin’ [automatic weapons fire].
The only immigrant is the Atlantic Ocean wetbacks. Step back. We say in Aztlan, there are no fronteros, no borders . . .
By the year 2,000 Jack, we’re gonna see who is the real wetback.
In two-triple-O, we take it back.
Brewed in Aztlan by home-boys who know how to make a dead gringo.
So get blasted like a Smith & Wesson. Learn a lesson. Share the oppression.
. . . I wanna take a nine [9 mm pistol] and make their brains hang out.
Bloodthirsty Bishop
Stanley Magoba, the leader of South Africa’s Pan Africanist Congress, is also a Methodist bishop. He has a plan for stopping the post-apartheid crime wave. In a letter to newspapers he wrote: “We must knock them on the head, cut off their ears, legs or whatever is the offending part of the body. The ugly truth is the future of South Africans depends on ruthlessly crushing criminals.” (Mutilate Criminals, Says South African Bishop, Telegraph (London), Feb. 10, 1999.)