Racism...nationally and locally...

Let's start nationally...

Who said this?

"you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

You might have guessed that such a comment came from a KKK leader or a skinhead. However, you may be shocked to discover that it came from former Secretary of Education and radio talk show host William Bennett.

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

Bennett's remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book Freakonomics (William Morrow, May 2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. But Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent households and therefore more likely to commit crimes; they did not put forth Bennett's race-based argument.

I'm not really sure what there is to say after that. I CAN'T EVEN THINK of an excuse that ANYONE could come up with that didn't involve EXTREME RACISM.

Now,let's check out locally...

First off, two Assembly members fired two long-time budget employees...one of whom was a black woman and the other a Hispanic male...to be replaced by a white male temp. They did so under sneaky circumstances...without bothering to notify the rest of the Assembly until the meeting.

Big shock...it caused an uproar:

Critics on the Assembly said the firing was premature, since a reorganization plan has not been approved. Most Assembly members were not aware of what happened until it was over.

Greene said what shows that race was a factor is that the Assembly could have saved money by releasing another of its employees -- clerk Barbara Gruenstein -- who earned the same salary as Gray-Jackson but had decades less job longevity. The Assembly appoints both positions.

Fellow Assembly members Allen Tesche and Pam Jennings even stated that they believed it was racially motivated. However, the Anchorage Daily News wussed out:

Ms. Fairclough and Mr. Coffey don't appear to have thought through the ramifications of what they did. The abrupt firing of Elvi Gray-Jackson, a longtime Assembly employee and director of the Assembly office, was a jolt to the city's black community leaders. A self-described "strong, opinionated, black woman," with a successful city career to her credit, Ms. Gray-Jackson served as a role model. The Assembly leaders should have had both the political and common sense to see that. The charge of "insensitivity" may stick. But insensitive doesn't necessarily mean racist.

Yeah...OK. Once again we see that the right has been successful at scaring folks away from the word "racist," even when it probably applies.

The paper is even afraid to use it in a more obvious situation:

Martha Ann Toms now joins a list of Native women killed on Anchorage streets in recent years, murders we've covered at KTUU-TV -- Della Brown, Tina Shangin, Genevieve Tetpon, Vera Hapoff, Annie Mann, all Native and all murdered.

“On our informal list we’re keeping, we have nine women who have been killed,” said Susan Sullivan, executive director of Victims for Justice. “We hope that this case won't be like the other eight, where really the victims themselves and their families really never did see justice.”

Sullivan says it’s not clear why the rate of victimization of Native women is higher than the rest of the population, but she says enough is enough.

IT'S NOT CLEAR WHY SO MANY NATIVE WOMEN ARE DEAD????? The rape and murder rate for Native women has been through the roof for YEARS, we've had white boys driving through the streets targetting Natives with paintball guns AND WE ARE TOO SCARED TO USE THE WORD RACISM?

I was angry and called Ms. Sullivan to ask her about that quote...which was not completely accurate, as I found out. I ended up getting my name on a list to volunteer when they come up with a Board or Committee to work on these issues.

Part of the reason I haven't been posting here as much is because I've been involved in an issue within my neighborhood regarding "assisted living" homes and houses geared towards recovering alcoholics. I went to my Community Council meeting and discovered in a room full of white faces that I have neighbors who believe that upstanding citizens who happen to be poor and recovering alcoholics are undesirable because they somehow "change the character" of the neighborhood for the worse.

Interesting...could it be because they actually "change the COLOR" of the neighborhood? Many in the "Oxford House" program are Natives who are in recovery and here from the villages because they want to live in a sober environment.

All of this made the release of this report more interesting:

In the past ten years, Comeau says, the Caucasian majority in the school district has declined from 69 percent to 56 percent.

"So we assume in the next four to five years we'll be a 50 percent or more majority-minority community, and in one way that's good because there will be no majority culture in Anchorage. It will really be a community of different cultures. And hopefully that's going to drive more collaboration instead of the separations that sometimes -- we have problems,” said Carol Comeau.

It explains a lot as to why the racism issue seems to be bubbling to the surface.

I admit that I'm probably more sensitized to discrimination issues than your typical white girl.

- For six years I played in a band with four lesbians and spent lots of time in the gay community. We played many gay-oriented events, including the 1993 March on Washington for Gay Rights. At that same time, "homosexual rights" issues exploded in this town and I saw "upstanding, churchgoing folks" become hateful monsters in front of my eyes.

- I've been in recovery from alcohol and drugs since 1985, where I got to see the "Native Sobriety Movement" rise up from its infancy. I had the honor of participating in sobriety "talking circles," I went to "sweats," and sponsored a number of young ladies from the villages.

- In 1989, I participated in the "Martin Luther King Citywide Choir" which gave me a few "firsts," including my first experience as a "racial minority." This was the beginning of my involvement in the Gospel and Blues communities.

- Throughout my experiences, my dating history could be characterized as "The Rainbow Coalition"...the result of which is my beautiful daughter.

I don't have much patience for stereotypes, ignorance and denial.

I'll keep everyone up-to-date on the "Committee" prospects.