Like many conservatives, Bill Bennett is either clueless when it comes to racial issues or he is an outright bigot. You would think at this point someone would have told him where he went wrong in his comments about African-Americans, but it appears he only takes advice from other clueless conservatives, who only know how to throw gas on a raging racial fire.
In a recent speech, instead of apologizing to the African-American race, Bennett went as far as to
blame the news media for distorting his remarks about how hypothetically aborting black babies would lead to a reduced crime rate in society.
Bill Bennett and his supporters continue to totally miss the mark. No one thinks he meant his statement literally. No one cares that he personally finds it a repugnant statement. The point is, Bill Bennett believes the statement to be literally true, however repugnant.
Yes, Bennett does believe, (without basis), that aborting only black babies would reduce the crime rate more than, say, aborting only white babies.
I have a few hypotheticals for Bennett as long as we are engaged in a "freakonomics" fantasy. Aborting all conservatives would lead to a raising of the minimum wage and universal health care. Aborting all conservatives would lead to equal rights for gays and strengthening of social security. Aborting all conservatives would lead to a more peaceful planet, less government sanctioned death, and a balanced budget. Aborting all conservatives would eliminate the culture of corruption, improve democracy in America, and help alleviate racial tensions.
While those statements are repugnant as well, there is one big difference. The hypotheticals above about conservatives are true. The statement Bill Bennett made as a hypothetical about African-Americans is literally false. Bennett's insistence that his statement is true --without any study to back it up, and without accounting for other factors that occur after birth, such as poverty or prejudice, exposes his underlying bigotry. That is why people are angry, not because the "liberal media" took him out of context.