Former Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, during a recent speech, decided to dispense some tough love to a predominantly White audience when he voiced his concerns about the state of affairs in American White communities.
“The epidemic of Whites students involved in drunk-driving incidents is deplorable,” Huntsman said. He cited a CNN health report that showed White teens (10.6%) were more likely than Blacks (6.6%) to drive drunk.
The former ambassador stayed on the attack to discuss, what he believes to be, the declining morals of white youth, “college students who have at least 10 hook-ups, meaning anything from heavy petting to sex are usually White wealthy, heterosexual and fueled by, to a large extent, excessive amounts of alcohol. This is a culture of promiscuity that is encouraged by some of our predominantly White frat houses.”
Huntsman also took aim at the violence perpetrated by Whites in schools: “White school children killing other school children must stop.
He then when on to detail the painful history of school shootings during the 1990s: “The senseless and barbaric school shootings in Pearl, Miss., Paducah, Ky., Jonesboro, Ark., Edinboro, Pa., Springfield, Ore., Littleton, Colo. and Newtown, Conn. serve as chilling reminders of what happens when there is a failure of leadership in the White family.”
Jon Huntsman referred to his speech as a wake-up call: “We can’t hide behind the stereotypical image of the Black and Hispanic violent criminal anymore… not after Tucson, Aurora, Oak Creek and Newtown. Before there was ‘gangsta’ rap you had Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Francis Ford Coppola winning award after award and Oscar after Oscar for their films filled with Whites committing brutal acts of violence. What type of message does that send if we reward movies that depict such brutality? The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Scarface, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction. These movies have all contributed to a culture of White violence.”
He continued by saying that attacks on police committed by the likes of Richard Poplawski, James W. Von Brunn and George Sodini “signal an alarming trend of White contempt for law enforcement.”
“White politicians don’t want to discuss these issues, but somebody has to speak up,” Jon Huntsman said, as he continued his assault on what he called the “White crime epidemic.”
“The typical child abductor-murderer is, likewise, usually a White male. He is single and about 27 years old. He is either unemployed or works in unskilled jobs, lives alone or with parents, while his victims are typically 11-year-old White females from middle class neighborhoods,” Huntsman continued. “Child sex offenses are among the fastest growing offenses of the Federal criminal caseload from 1994 to 2006. And during 2006, 3,661 suspects were referred to U.S. attorneys for child sex exploitation offenses.”
“Child pornography constituted 69% of referrals, followed by sex abuse (16%) and sex transportation (14%). Most suspects charged with sex exploitation were White, male, U.S. citizens, and had attended some college… Where do we point the finger for this?”, Huntsman asked after quoting those statistics from a December 2007 Justice Department report.
Huntsman continued his attack on those he referred to as “social and moral vampires.” “Child pornography or kiddie porn is a crime whose perpetrators are overwhelmingly White and whose victims are disproportionately White. This too must stop. Even in our sacred institutions such as our churches, specifically in far too many Roman Catholic churches, innocent White children are being preyed upon.”
“Seventy percent of those serving time for violent crimes against children are White,” Huntsman said as he cited the Survey of Inmates of State Correctional Facilities by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, “and White inmates were nearly three times more likely to have victimized a child than Black inmates”
“What are we doing to ourselves?” he continued. “Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Deanna Laney represent a frightening pattern of murder and neglect of White children by White mothers…. And do they take responsibility? No. They either blame it on some phantom Black man or say God made them do it.” Huntsman also referenced reports from over recent years, of White female teachers taking advantage of and exploiting their minor students.
The former Chinese ambassador talked about several discussions he’s had with foreign diplomats, “I’ve been asked by several officials from other countries why are we so adamant about going after terrorists who have killed American citizens, when we seem to be alright with our spree and mass killings; when our citizens attack government buildings such as Timothy McVeigh did at Oklahoma City.”
Jon Huntsman raised the issue of fiscal irresponsibility, saying, “Our current economic crisis can also be traced to a pandemic of greed perpetrated by the predominantly White male old-boys-network.”
“Monetary estimates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners approximate the annual cost of White-collar crime as being between $300 and $660 billion as of 2005.”
Huntsman paused for effect.
“While you’re looking for the Black or Hispanic with the ski-mask and gun,” the former presidential candidate exclaimed, “the Bernie Madoffs have ‘made off’ with our economic fortunes. How many more Enrons, Worldcoms, Tycos, HealthSouth’s, and ImClones do we have to endure before we get the message?”
“When will it all end?” lamented Huntsman.
Author’s confession:
Dear reader, this article is only an invention. Jon Huntsman never delivered a speech such as this. However, the statistics stated in the article are fully real and very true.
No leading White political or religious leader has ever, to my knowledge, come close to expressing the thoughts and views outlined in this composition. Very few of our national leaders have made a call to arms in the fight against racism, either because it was considered a political non-starter or because it was in their own selfish and destructive political interest to stoke the prejudicial and racist fires of American society.
Nevertheless, if they did, what do you think the response would be? It’s okay if you don’t have an answer. I realize that it’s difficult to come up with an answer to a question that has rarely or never been asked.
Other groups (especially Blacks and Hispanics), however, have had to deal with similar rhetoric for centuries, right here in America, and have had to answer the question I just posed to you, time and time again.
Our need to examine these inequities is exacerbated by the recent comments made concerning undocumented workers in America, the racist claims of the “Birthers,” and the outright venom spewed by many on talk radio and cable news in the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict that goes beyond critique and enters into the realm of bigotry.
This writer knows there are some who may be offended by the assertions that have made in this piece; this is regrettable, and yet I understand. I also know that some would try to assert that I am somehow being anti-White (a charge that will come as a complete surprise to my Swedish-American wife of many years). But before you give full sway to your feelings of anger and disgust, answer this: were you this offended when Blacks or Latinos (and other ethnic groups) were being characterized in the same way? Did you challenge the people who made (and those who published) derogatory and inaccurate remarks about other ethnic groups, to tell the whole truth?
Now, do I believe that just because the majority of serial killers, embezzlers and those who commit violent crimes against children are White men that indicates the majority of White men are serial killers, embezzlers and commit violent crimes against children? No. Again, I emphatically say no. It would be false logic and erroneous reasoning (as well as bigotry of the first order).
This, however, has been the fallacy and bigotry that many people of color have had to live under. No, dear reader, this piece was not written as a tit-for-tat job, but rather as a means for all to see (through the looking glass as it were) a perspective not seen much. It is to provoke, at the very least, the asking of the question: why when certain crimes and infractions are committed, inordinately, by Whites, ethnicity isn’t mentioned or it’s not about race?
And conversely, why, when it comes to Blacks and Hispanics, that seems to be what it’s all about?
It makes one feel helpless when a tragedy is ripped from its actual social context and real human suffering and then racialized for the masses, does it not? It’s not easy being made to look like deviants, criminals or malcontents, is it? It is frustrating and dehumanizing when the few are made to represent the many; when the face of evil and all that is thought to be wrong with society bears a resemblance, in ethnicity, to you.
This, I understand all too well. If that is how you feel, please remember it; meditate on it. For it is the same feeling that many of your fellow citizens have had to live with on daily basis. In conclusion, let us also ponder this: A fictitious speech had to be written to talk about the crimes and indiscretions of White folk; the words and speeches that are used to degrade and debase Black folk and other people of color is all too real.
This piece originally was published on February 23, 2006, on The Black Commentator, featuring President Bush instead of Jon Huntsman; this version updated the statistics in addition to the characters.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Mint Press News editorial policy.