U.S. crime rate could be significantly reduced by sterilizing all African-American females

[Troy]

"A more controversial conclusion arrived at by the authors and propagated by controversial pundits like conservative Bill Bennett was the notion that the U.S. crime rate could be significantly reduced by sterilizing all African-American females." From Kam's review of the film Freakonomics: http://aalbc.it/FREAKONOMICS

[Xeon]

Oh well, there ya have it.....

[Cynique]

As I recall, the original conclusion reached by the freakonomic authors was that once abortion was legalized, figures showed that the crime rate dropped. This led them to deduce that unwanted children were more likely to grow up and become criminals, but that abortion nipped this possibility in the bud. Go figure.

[Troy]

I watched Freakonomics last night. While the book may have stated or implied what I quoted from the film review; the actual film did present or even drawn the same conclusion (that crime would be “…reduced by sterilizing all African-American females”).

All the film said was that legalized abortion had the biggest impact on crime reduction. Apparently, legalized abortions reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. These unwanted children, who are typically the ones responsible for most crimes, were simply not born. The crime reduction was an inadvertent response to Roe v. Wade.

That said, there were a couple of other places where the film grated on my nerves, because the way Black folks were depicted.

Cynique, I read the book when it first came out. I don't recall reading the conclusion Kam wrote in his review -- but I chalked it up to simply not remembering.

I'm going to ask Kam about the reference. I'll pull that line from the review if it can not be attributed directly to the book.

Someone did post a link to an audio on my Facebook profile showing Bill Bennet running with the abort all Black babies conclusion: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200509280006 but again Bill is drawing his OWN conclusions and not attributing them directly to the book.

[Chrishayden]

No it wouldn't.

Somebody has to sell that dope for these people so they can balance out the payments. Also, you need a reservoir of unemployed people so you can keep wages down. Also, the inner cities, where most poor black people have, are the vice areas.

Which means, they would have to have someone else in here doing that--import a bunch of Chinese or Indians.

Besides all that-- didn't Bennet make that statement as an example of what might be an obvious answer to a problem but that wouldn't be morally acceptable?

[Chrishayden]

On top of that what crimes are you talking about?

White collar crime? Importation of drugs into he US along the Mexcian border? Stock fraud? Sex crimes such as incest? Racial hate crimes?

Troy, you're supposed to be a leader. You can't be out here appearing that you support such positions.

[Troy]

Chris, don't mistake my open mind and willingness to entertain different idea for adherence to such positions -- especially those espoused by Bill Bennett.

Indeed after speaking with Kam, it is not clear that the authors of Freakonmics stated anything African Americans specifically about abortions. I will let the review stand but I've added a comment.

In fact, the idea that legalized abortions has reduced crime is disputed by other economists, who say that the Levitt’s (or Dubner, I forget who is the economist) methodology was flawed.

But we also see that "right to lifers" are the ones opposing voicing the greatest opposition.

Everyone has an agenda.

[Xeon]

On top of that what crimes are you talking about?

He was referring to everyday violent street crimes (homicides, armed robberies, rapes, drug dealing, physical assaults, etc). Unfortunately, something Negroes have excelled at. In fact, there is a widely held belief by some that IQ, race and crime are inseparable. They believe blacks (as a group) have a genetic predisposition towards certain types of crime. Go figure.....