Email sent to Jefferson Educational Society Officers—June 20, 2021
MEMO to:
Pat Cuneo, JES Publications Coordinator cuneo@jeserie.org
Ferki Ferati, President ferati@jeserie.org
Ben Speggen, Vice President speggen@jeserie.org
RE: Comments related to “Race in America” Speakers Rashawn Ray & Camille
Busette by the JES Publications Coordinator and JES Staff
First, congratulations to JES for attempting to provide a platform on race relations in America today. This is a topic that is desperately needed, but one that needs to ensure balance to the various perspectives on the topic. Without ‘balance’ and an examination of alternative viewpoints, we risk alienating and offending a portion of the public that sees such discourse only as a further attempt to spread bias. A biased discussion not only fails to honestly address racial problems thereby making solutions more difficult, it can result in sowing even greater racial discord and animosity in the nation.
While Drs. Busette and Ray are to be applauded for their work in social justice and exposing examples of systemic racism in our society, it is equally true that many Black intellectuals—beyond their quoted reference to Sen. Tim Scott--disagree with some of their major tenets. In the future, I hope that J.E.S. staff will consider interviewing people who offer an alternative set of facts—individuals such as Larry Elder, Jason Riley, Burgess Owens, Shelby Steele, Candice Owens, Ben Carson, Glenn Lowry, John McWorter, Bob Woodson, or Jason Whitlock. Additionally, the works of investigative reporters such as Heather MacDonald, Chris Rufo and even Charles Murray have provided mountains of evidence that contradict your recent guest’s belief that our nation’s worst problem—to quote our current president—is ‘white supremacy’ and systemic white racism.
It was unfortunate for JES that the promotional paragraph to the conversation with Drs. Ray and Busette cited statistics to prove the existence that police brutality and racism against Black citizens was so misleading. Even if the figures were accurate, they were taken completely out of context of other facts. Nor was a source provided for these alarming figures. For example, “Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by police when they are not attacking or have a weapon: George Floyd” ignores the fact of Floyd’s violent criminal past and that he repeatedly refused to comply with police requests which contributed to his death. “Black teenagers are 21 times more likely than white teenagers to be killed by police: Tamir Rice and Antwon Rose” totally ignores the overwhelming prevalence of black crime which accounts for the vast majority of police shootings. More importantly, accounting for demographics, a higher percent of unarmed white men than Black men have been killed by aggressive police tactics. Moreover, in one study, the “black officer kills a black felon at a rate more than double the rate at which white and Hispanic officers killed black felons.” Another study revealed that black officers were 67% more likely than their white colleagues to mistakenly shoot an unarmed suspect. Another study revealed that Black officers shoot Black suspects more often than white officers. Roland Fryer, Harvard researcher, found no racial bias in police interactions with Black males that that police were more likely to use force on white suspects than black.
To continue with an examination of your introductory preface--“A Black person is killed every 40 hours by police: Jonathan Ferrell and Koryn Gaines” ignores the fact that police officers are much more likely to be killed by Black criminals than the other way around. Heather MacDonald’s research reveals, “The per capita rate of officers being feloniously killed is 45 times higher than the rate at which unarmed black males are killed by cops. And an officer’s chance of getting killed by a black assailant is 18.5 times higher than the chance of an unarmed black getting killed by a cop.”
“One in every 1,000 Black people are killed by police: Breonna Taylor.” Heather Mac Donald, who has studied the problem for years has concluded, “if there is a bias in police shootings after crime rates are taken into account, it is against white civilians.” A study by the National Academy of Sciences reported similar findings. Another report revealed that Blacks were three times more likely to be struck by lightning than be killed by police. It showed that in approximately 50 million police encounters, there were 14 deaths of unarmed Black men and 8 of these involved the suspect attacking or struggling with the police. “And, as sobering as these statistics are, they are improvements to the past. These statistics are the reason why from Minneapolis to Los Angeles people are protesting, marching, and rioting.” Such statements completely ignore the great progress that has been made in police-community relations in recent decades or why officers in most major cities today—both Black and white—are seeking retirement or leaving the profession due to the current state of demagoguery on such matters. Nor does this JES introductory statement comport to other studies that reveal the vast majority of Black inner-city residents do not wish to see a weaker police presence in their communities. Such studies reveal Black residents of inner cities overwhelmingly—86% in a recent Gallup Poll—want the same or even an increased presence in their communities—a fact that runs counter to Dr. Ray’s continual reference in the interview to “over-policing.”
In light of the above, how is a listener to weigh some of the other comments by your two guests? Dr. Busette’s assertion that the Rodney King trial was—like the George Floyd case—a ‘slam dunk’ ignored the facts surrounding this case. King was pulled over for a just cause, refused to comply with police requests, was high on drugs, and despite being tased, attacked the officers. Dr. Busette also ignored the fact that two other Black males were not abused by the police because they did in fact follow police instructions. The King incident hardly comports to a belief that police, in this case, were racist. Dr. Ray’s belief in ‘equity’ being based upon “how would officers respond if the criminal were white” (the case of Makhia Bryant) is already disproven by the studies cited above that reveal whites are more often shot in police encounters than Blacks. Many listeners would likely not agree with his position that “personal responsibility cannot be considered until all people have an equal ability to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.” Such a statement simply serves as a justification and incitement for utter lawlessness and continued looting (“reparations”) in many of our major cities today. The result is, of course, businesses fleeing such neighborhoods leaving the residents without services or goods. (Seventeen CVS stores have recently closed in San Francisco due to non-enforcement of laws against looting.)
Finally, the repeated comments of both guests that “some people are born with golden, silver, or platinum boots while others don’t even have boots in the first place”—would, if examined fairly—serve as a clear repudiation of their belief that America’s greatest problem is white racism and systemic oppression. That millions of non-white citizens choose to come to America despite their claim that our nation is racist against persons of color serves as clear evidence that the “American dream” is still alive for all non-white citizens. So do facts concerning average family income in America today. Census statistics reporting average household income by American ethnic group for 2018 revealed that the average income of English Americans ranked 85th out of 98 ethnicities at $47, 663. The median income of all white households was $65,777. Many minority groups consisting of ‘people of color’ did far better. For example, Indian Americans ($123,453), Taiwanese-Americans ($102,328), Filipino-Americans ($92,328), Iranian-Americans ($75,905), Lebanese-Americans ($75,337), and Ghanaian-Americans ($66,571) all exceeded the income of the average white family. So did Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Pakistanis, Peruvians, and many other non-white ethnic groups. These groups did far better than those identified as English-Americans. Even Haitian-Americans ($47,990) earned one spot higher than white English-Americans ($47,663) in 2018. And the white English-Americans were not alone. Scots-Irish Americans and French Americans also earned less than the average for all white Americans.
Once again, thanks to JES for bringing the views of your two guests to the attention of the residents of Erie. As I stated at the outset, this is perhaps the most important dialogue our nation is currently engaged in—one that goes to the very heart of what America stands for. I trust and hope, therefore, that JES will engage with others who possess the same passion, knowledge, and commitment on this subject, but who may see things slightly different from your two recent guests. To not do so, would be both tragic and prejudicial.
Yours in the hope that through honest dialogue, we all benefit,
Jack Bovee
Erie
Note: if the hyperlinks above do not automatically open, please go to “edit hyperlink” and then copy/paste the link into your browser for all ‘sources.’ And, in the future, please do the courtesy of providing your readers with the source of your statistics when citing such controversial figures in your opening previews.
