THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

On September 2, 2000 I wrote an article entitled ONLY AN EVIL PERSON WOULD SAY WHAT WE ALL KNOW ABOUT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. It began it with these words: "So I will."

Watching Clinton moving in to a hero's welcome in Harlem, I do not hear anybody else speaking out loud about another fact that we all know. Once again, only an Evil Man would dare bring it up.

Blacks are the bedrock of Clinton support. Clinton is a corrupt man. But the fact no one mentions is that the overwhelming majority of the black population never hesitates to support corrupt people.

Remember Mayor Marion Barry, who was Mayor of Washington when he was convicted on drug charges? He was then overwhelmingly reelected Mayor of Washington. This is one of many examples where the overwhelming majority of the black electorate simply will not throw out the crooks.

The fact is that black countries and black portions of the United States are wretchedly governed by the officials they elect.

Robert Novak actually said that Home Rule in Washington is a failure. Everybody knows that. But every other jurisdiction in America has home rule. The big difference between DC and all the others is that the Washington electorate is black.

Normally, condemning DC Home Rule would therefore make Novak anaziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.

But DC's Home Rule is costly to rich people, bureaucrats and media types. To liberals, these are the only real human beings. So Novak can get away with saying something they all know is true.

At the same time that he says that DC Home Rule is a failure, Novak also declares that there is something wrong with a Republican Party that isn't attracting enough of this wise and right-thinking black electorate.

Repeating that ritual nonsense helps preserve Novak's respectability.

The July 17, 1999 article, RACIAL PROFILING IS THE FAULT OF BLACK CRIMINALS, explained why my sort of Evil Speech is necessary. If innocent blacks are not to be unfairly targeted for police suspicion, they will have to start blaming black criminals for their predicament. Until then, they are simply excusing the real culprits.

So, should a Hate Crimes Commission arrest me and maybe Bob Novak for racial heresy?

You can either go to that logical extreme or you can encourage people to talk about unpleasant realities. We can either do what we do now, and refer to blacks as a wise electorate that must be appealed to, or we can demand that the erring majority of black voters start to think and vote like adults.

Blacks are certainly right when they say whites in general have white supremacist attitudes, but they don't want to face what that really means. What it really means is that whites think that blacks CANNOT become politically mature. Liberals and respectable conservatives insist that such a demand is cruel and unusual, and that the mass of blacks is simply incapable of doing any better.

So when Colin Powell tells Republicans that they must cooperate with the present black "leaders," he is saying that they cannot do better. When Republicans say they must "appeal to black voters" by abandoning principles and intelligent policy, they are demonstrating the most white supremacist of attitudes.

Since I am an official Evil Man, my attitudes are probably white supremacist. So maybe the unspoken attitude is correct. Maybe the mass of blacks can't grow up, and should be accepted as permanent political juveniles.

But we should refuse to give black voters any slack in our demand that they grow up politically before they are accepted politically.