The Self-Righteous Will Never Learn
Frontpagemagazine.com / July 12, 2001
By David Horowitzwww.frontpagemag.com
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/horowitzsnotepad/2001/hn07-12-01p
I
RECEIVED THIS E-MAIL response to my article "Progressive
Crime Wave." My response
follows.
From:
Brad Allen
Cleveland, Ohio
To: David Horowitz
SO WHAT ARE WE DISCUSSING HERE? Is it the fact that black
people are more genetically predisposed to committing crimes than
other races or is the argument environmental? The mentality
of this country can be gauged by the response.
We all know that the inner cities of America are the most undesirable places to live in this country. Why is this? Is it because black people have a tendency towards taking nice neighborhoods and turning them into warzones or are the ghettos of America a reflection of the economic opportunities (or lack thereof) that have been presented to black people?
It is amazing to me not only how blacks are demonized on this website and characterized as lazy and sadistic but also how the quasi-intellectuals who post comments on this website cannot see that all of these problems that you discuss have their roots in economic opportunities. Of course crime is higher in regions of the country where per capita household income is lower. Did you ever think that the lack of funds could be a reason for someone to commit a crime? Can anyone deny that the inner cities of America have the most inferior schools? "W" sure cannot, as evidenced by his voucher plan.
We live in a society which protects the interest of the rich. If you can't see that, then you are either intellectually challenged or dishonest. On a very fundamental level, this country is unequal and the inequality begins the first day of school when an inner city youth cracks open their twenty year old textbook inside of their poorly maintained elementary school because at the same time a suburban child is opening up their brand new textbook inside of their newly refurbished elementary school. What is so equal about that? I understand that this type of thought will meet its share of opposition, but that is to be expected because any time someone tries to point out the flaws in our system, they are either vilified or killed. So I invite all denials to this argument, as it will only show how many people are not willing to admit that this system is flawed and that there are changes that need to be made.
From:
David Horowitz
To: Brad Allen
"During the 1960s, one neighborhood in San Francisco had the
lowest income, the highest unemployment rate, the highest
proportion of families with incomes under four thousand dollars a
year, the least educational attainment, the highest tuberculosis
rate, and the highest proportion of substandard housing ... That
neighborhood was called Chinatown. Yet, in 1965, there were only
five persons of Chinese ancestry committed to prison in the
entire state of California."
James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrenstein, Crime and Human Nature,
1986. Cited in Larry Elder, The Ten Things You Can't Say In
America, pp. 43 and 44
David Horowitz is editor-in-chief of FrontPageMagazine.com and president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.