- Letter
to: Congresswoman Maxine Waters
- By
Larry Elder
-
August 16, 2001
Congresswoman
Maxine Waters
10124 S. Broadway
Suite 1
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Dear Congresswoman
Waters:
I write this letter
directly to you. No one else received copies.
Your power in
America, and especially in the black community, is substantial. I
honestly, and sincerely, urge you to rethink your positions on several
issues. I have, so far, kept this letter private. I hope that after
you read this letter, you will agree to have a one-on-one, sit-down,
private conversation with me about the future and direction of black
America.
But given the
stakes, our personal feelings towards each other are inconsequential.
I reach out in good faith, based on my sincere concern for the black
community. I see an erosion of community standards, values, hopes
and aspirations.
By the way, despite
my acknowledged harsh criticisms of you, I never once attacked you
personally. I said, on many occasions: I don’t question her heart,
but I question her head. I called you a hardworking, tireless warrior
for your views.
I’m not grandstanding,
not doing this for ratings. Again, at least, until I hear from you,
I am reaching out. I hope to hear from you soon.
I recently received
an invitation to an event at a private residence to celebrate the
election of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn.
Frankly, the invitation
surprised me, given my harsh criticism of the then-candidate Hahn’s
position on several issues. Nevertheless, I accepted, only to receive
a phone call, dis-inviting me. I understand that the host received
pressure from you, among others, that I be barred from the event.
Again, as I said,
the invitation surprised me, and I don’t blame you or others
for not wanting me there. After all, this presumably celebrated your
hard work in getting Hahn elected.
I hoped, by accepting,
to finally talk with you and other black "leaders" about
problems in the black community. My producer called your office on
several occasions to get you on my show, but each time you refused.
Recently, a caller to my show said that she called your office in
hopes that she might convince you to appear on the show. She said
your office told her that "you had never heard of Larry Elder."
Again, I think I understand the tactic—the tactic of ignoring
me, in hopes to minimize that you perceive what I suspect you perceive
as a growing influence. Again, I understand.
I write this letter,
however, to issue a call. Your position on major issues affecting
the black community is simply, and flat out, wrong. Not only do your
positions fail to advance the interests of blacks, but also, in many
cases, they actually hurt them. Let’s go over them.
Gun Control
You, the NAACP, and the majority of the "black leadership"
routinely call for more gun control legislation. Powerful evidence,
however, indicates that restrictive gun laws do nothing to deter bad
guys, while making it more and more difficult for good people to defend
themselves. Violent crime rates have fallen faster and further, for
the most part, in the thirty-two states allowing citizens to carry
concealed weapons, vs. non-carry states. Japan and England now see
crime rates increasing, despite bans on private ownership of guns.
Washington, D.C., a city with perhaps the nation’s most restrictive
gun laws, ranks No. 1 in per capita murders. As former D.C. mayor
Marion Barry once incredibly put it, "Outside of the killings,
Washington has one of the lowest rates in the country."
Crime in America
remains disproportionately an urban affair. Therefore, those who most
need protection from bad guys remain—due in large measure to
your policies—most vulnerable to crime.
Affirmative Action
In America in Black and White, Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom clearly
show that the black middle class preceded affirmative action. Moreover,
it insults the hardworking black men and women of this country who,
since slavery, built the black middle class, day by day, brick by
brick, backache by backache. The first black member of the Federal
Reserve Board, Arthur Brimmer, studied affirmative action’s impact.
By affirmative action, I mean preferences, the lowering of standards
to achieve "diversity" or "multi-culturalism"
or "inclusion." I do not include outreach, or using efforts
to inform others, irrespective of race, gender, etc., of available
opportunities. Brimmer concluded, "I would say that most blacks
I know did not get [their jobs] because of affirmative action, but
it’s impossible [to determine the exact number]."
In 1962, Ebony
magazine ran a series of motivational articles called, "If I
Were Young Today." Each month, they asked a black achiever—Federal
District Judge Herman Moore, union leader A. Philip Randolph, famed
Los Angeles architect Paul Williams—to provide advice to today’s
youth. Each spoke of drive, vision, hard work, and preparation. Not
one even implied the need or desire for preferential treatment.
In 1963, Whitney
Young, then head of the Urban League, proposed a kind of a "Marshall
Plan" for blacks. A member of the league, however, objected to
what he called "the heart of it--the business of employing Negroes
[because they are Negroes]." Moreover, Whitney Young suggested
his "Marshall Plan" for a period of ten years. This means,
if Young prevailed, affirmative action would have ended in 1973!
The Detroit News
recently wrote that, at seven Michigan colleges and universities,
blacks within six years graduate at a rate of 40% compared to 61%
for whites and 74% for Asians. Blame lowered standards to achieve
campus "diversity." This mismatching of students—placing
someone in a major league school when he or she would have been better
at Triple A ball—causes, according to one study a loss of $5
billion a year to the black community. Moreover, affirmative action,
in the educational field, masked the real problems, substandard education
K-12. Yet you, the Democratic Party, and the unions all resist many
changes urban parents want, including vouchers.
Besides, hard
work wins. Back in 1901, thirty-six years after slavery, Booker T.
Washington said, "When a Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes,
to sew, to write a book, or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or
to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, or to build a house,
or to be able to practise medicine, as well or better than some one
else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour. In the long
run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race,
religion, or previous history will not long keep the world from what
it wants.
"I think
that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether
or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the people
in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our presence
is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community. No
man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual,
and moral well being of the place in which he lives is long left without
proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently
nullified."
Welfare
You fight any attempt to roll back the welfare state, and voted against
the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. This act caused a 50% reduction in
the welfare rolls, without a corresponding increase in abortion. It
reduced teen pregnancy, without a corresponding increase in abortion.
Census records from 100 years ago found blacks, in some cases, more
likely than whites to marry and have children within a traditional
family structure. As recently as 1960, 22% of black children were
born to unwed parents. Today, the figure stands at 70%, with 85% spending
at least some time living without a father in the house, at least
for part of their lives. Racism? Blame Lyndon Johnson’s War on
Poverty, coupled with a "you-owe-me" victicrat mindset that
creates dependency and fosters irresponsibility.
In 1985, the Los
Angeles Times conducted a poll, asking poor people whether poor young
women "often," or "seldom," have children in order
to get on welfare. More poor people (64 percent) than non-poor (44
percent) agreed that welfare recipients "often" have children
to get additional benefits. More poor people than non-poor people
agreed that welfare fosters dependency.
War on Drugs
You recently condemned the CIA for its alleged role in the creation
of urban America’s drug problem, bellowing at a Town Hall meeting:
"If I never do anything else in this career as a member of Congress--I’m
gonna make somebody pay for what they’ve done to my community
and to my people." Never mind that the New York Times, the Washington
Post, and the Los Angeles Times all wrote stories debunking the notion
that the CIA had played anything other than an incidental role in
the creation of a drug war. Furthermore, what about personal responsibility?
Did some strange mystical racist force cause black people to ingest
or inject drugs?
Many young blacks,
convicted of drug-related offenses, waste away in jail. Many never
committed violent crimes. Yet, you do not call for the end of the
War on Drugs.
You claim you
condemn drugs, but you wrote a letter to Janet Reno to back off of
a joint federal joint Justice Department local DEA probe. The probe
centered on James A. Prince, a childhood friend of your husband’s.
The authorities suspected him of drug trafficking, and some DEA agents
working on the probe suddenly got yanked off. Some, on the record,
accused you of interfering with a legitimate probe. For all these
reasons, I suspect that you question the legitimacy of the government’s
War on Drugs. Why not, then, publicly call for an end to this expensive,
unfair, corrupting War on Drugs?
In 1979, former
Black Panther, Joanne Chesimard, gunned down a New Jersey State Highway
Patrol Officer. A jury convicted her of murder, and sentenced her
to life in prison. In a daring breakout, Chesimard escaped from prison
and fled to Cuba. Congress passed a unanimous resolution urging Castro
to send Chesimard back to America and face charges. You, however,
wrote Castro a letter, urging him to let her stay, stating "she
was persecuted as a result of her political beliefs and affiliations."
You further likened her to Martin Luther King!
The War on Drugs
requires a growing use of informants, thus compromising the integrity
of our criminal justice system. Under the guise of fighting the War
on Drugs, President Clinton authorized more wiretaps and asset forfeitures
than under the Bush and Reagan administrations combined. Economist
Milton Friedman said, "Today in this country, we incarcerate
3,109 black men for every 100,000 of them in the population. Just
to give you an idea of the drama in this number, our closest competitor
for incarcerating black men is South Africa. South Africa—and
this is pre-Nelson Mandela and under an overt public policy of apartheid—incarcerated
729 black men for every 100,000."
Janet Reno estimates
that nearly half of all street crime is directly related to criminals
seeking money to support drug habits. I urge you to take a courageous
stand and publicly pressure the government to end this war.
Racism
Black leaders refuse to acknowledge the good news: Racism no longer
remains a potent threat in American life. Most blacks remain solidly
middle class, with blacks forming businesses at a faster rate than
whites. The black domestic product, were it a separate country, makes
it one of the fifteen wealthiest nations in the world.
Harvard’s
Orlando Patterson, a liberal Democrat, said, "The sociological
truths are that America, while still flawed in its race relations…is
now the least racist white-majority society in the world; has a better
record of legal protection of minorities than any other society, white
or black; offers more opportunities to a greater number of black persons
than any other society, including all those of Africa…"
In one recent
year, three out of four blacks, with SAT scores between 1250 and 1300
received admissions into the nation’s 28 most elite colleges.
Only one in four whites with comparable SAT scores received admission.
SAG, the Screen
Actors Guild, reports roles going to blacks equal the percentage of
our population in the nation. Unemployment rates for married black
men just about equal those for married white men.
Yes, black net
worth remains but a fraction of white net worth, but government programs
cannot close that gap without forcibly taking money away from somebody
and giving it to someone else. Instead, hard work, personal responsibility,
avoiding slovenly behavior, getting an education, and focus create
growth and opportunity. You display precisely these qualities in your
life and career, and form the basis for your success.
As mentioned before,
70% of today’s black children are born outside of wedlock. Nearly
25% of young black men possess criminal records. In many urban schools,
the dropout rate exceeds 50%. Because of these problems, there are
only 100 eligible, marriageable black men for every 111 eligible,
marriageable black women. Nearly three-quarters of inner-city kids
at the elementary school level fail to read, write, and compute at
grade level.
In America, we
see two black Americas. The majority black world reflects increased
prosperity, growing homeownership, and steady asset accumulation.
The other, the so-called black underclass, remains disturbing. Quite
simply, we see too many children having children. It stands, far and
away, as America’s No. 1 problem. Whatever role racism played,
the complete abolition of white racism would leave these problems
unresolved.
I await your response.
Sincerely yours,
Larry Elder
LAE/ph