Horowitz takes stage amid controversy

Offering no apologies for his advertisement rejecting black reparations for slavery, conservative journalist David Horowitz spoke to a crowd of 400 at the School of Management last night.

“Blunt talk is a form of respect,” Horowitz said. “The attitude was I hurt people’s feelings [with the ad]. This is a university campus. When you took a small child to an offensive movie, you covered their eyes, covered their ears. You can’t do that with adults.”

Horowitz’s talk, “Racism and the Intolerable Left,” focused less on his advertisement, ‘Ten Reasons Why Reparations For Slavery is a Bad Idea — and Racist Too,’ and more on general beliefs that liberal leaders are damaging the lives of minorities, as well as squashing open debate on college campuses.

“I want to improve the quality of intellectual life on campus,” Horowitz said. “I want more vigorous debate, more meeting of argument with argument. If someone is being obnoxious, the right should be there to be obnoxious back.”

Security was the highest priority of the College Republicans, organizers of the talk. Throughout his nearly two-hour speech, Horowitz was flanked by three bodyguards. All bags were searched at the auditorium door by Boston University Police Department officers, and no signs were allowed inside. According to Nick Savides, president of the College Republicans, such precautions were necessary.

“We discussed quite a lot of possibilities,” Savides said. “He’s had pies thrown in his face, plus his speech at Berkeley turned into a violent commotion.”

Horowitz began by addressing the controversy that has brought him widespread attention, ripping an air on college campuses that creates a situation necessitating his needing personal bodyguards.

“An atmosphere has been created where editors can be intimidated, where people are afraid to speak out. That is a real problem,” Horowitz said. “They’re afraid of being called racists by campus fascists.”

Horowitz attacked those who shield blacks from the truth, thus insulting their intelligence and ruining their chances for success. Using black economist Walter Williams as an example, Horowitz explained the dangers of not being blunt.

“Williams thanked professors for telling him he was failing and screwing up. He said that was the only way he learned,” Horowitz said. “Don’t just get rid of the tests black kids are failing. That’s liberal patronization.”

While Horowitz admitted reparations to slaves are “morally justified,” he made it clear that he believes they are insufficient and useless.

“Forty acres and a mule doesn’t even begin to make up for the 236 years of servitude,” Horowitz said. “But there’s nothing that can be done to make up for the injustices. Accepting that is just part of growing up.”

A supporter of reparations to German Jews and Japanese kept in internment camps during World War II, the difference in his feelings lie in slavery reparations not going to the actual former slaves.

“How are you going to explain to Jose Martinez, who came to this country 10 years ago and is struggling to put bread on his family’s table, that he has to pay reparations to Johnny Cochran and Jesse Jackson, who are multi-millionaires?” Horowitz said.

“People have short memories and aren’t paying attention. Slavery issues aren’t going to make an impact to someone who’s worried about whether his dot-com is going to go under.”

In Horowitz’s ad, he says the argument that all blacks continue to suffer from slavery’s economic consequences is unsubstantiated. The backlash he has faced over discussion of collective success surprises him still.

“One hundred thirty-six years ago, black people in America had nothing. First time out of the gate, they were betrayed,” Horowitz said. “Today, the collective income of black America would make it the 10th largest economy in the world. But you can’t talk about it; you’re a racist.

“No one can talk in practical terms anymore. The whole revolutionary left is living in a fantasy. You might as well be a follower of Genghis Khan than a Mao Tse Tung.”

The heart of Horowitz’s argument lies in attacks on black liberal leadership, centered in Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, along with groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. According to him, there’s been a shift from the “moral leadership” of Martin Luther King Jr. to “an exercise in waving the bloody shirt.”

“The NAACP solution to solving the test score gap is to sue the test makers. To say the tests are biased against blacks,” Horowitz said. “This is nuts. The SATs were brought in to protect minorities, to give them a shot at getting in against racist admissions boards.”

Horowitz continued his attack on Democrats, openly questioning their role as the party of minorities.

“Every agency in every inner city in America has been run by Democrats for 50 years,” Horowitz said. “They’re a party that’s presided over schools that don’t teach, and the worst part of it, schools that don’t care that they don’t teach.”

He cited grade inflation in inner-city Los Angeles as proof liberal coddling hurts the average black in the long run.

“Don’t teach them, they don’t learn, but then tell them they did. Don’t give them an ‘F,’ give them a ‘B,’” Horowitz said. “They won’t know they didn’t learn until they graduate or drop out, go into the job market, and suddenly see they have no shot at the American dream.

“The liberal leaders didn’t send their kids to the inner city schools, but they’ll fight to the death for them. These kids are getting screwed. It’s not about Abraham Lincoln and it isn’t about my ad. This is about the life chances of these kids getting snuffed out.”

Horowitz stood by his support of school vouchers, saying it is the only means for improvement in such inner city schools.

“There is no incentive in the system to improve, whatsoever,” Horowitz said. “How do you motivate these people? Allow people to take their dollar out of the system.”

He went on to attack Jackson’s crusade against a merger, claiming too few blacks hold management positions. Horowitz believes his motives were skewed to benefit his own interests.

“Their program wasn’t about poor kids, it was about a shakedown. He gets $100 million out of them,” Horowitz said. “Maybe there are no blacks in executive positions because we have 12 million inner-city kids getting ‘F’s.”

Horowitz’s claim that blacks owe a debt to America has drawn the most criticism and drew the most questions at the conclusion of the talk. His reasoning is that America is, without a doubt, the best place for blacks to be living.

“I think it’s insulting to hear America is a racist country. Fess up. We are all bigots,” Horowitz said. “Forget races. Think of men and women. Have you never had a bigoted thought about the opposite sex?

“If we’re so racist, why are all those Haitians ready to risk their lives to come here? The idea that we are all sharing a common bond is revolutionary. It just happened to come to a group of white Christian males. We all owe a debt to them.

“I yearn for the time when all African Americans get to not ignore the kick to the groin, but to understand how a Constitution allowing slavery was transformed into one where black people were made equal in the eyes of the government, as they were in the eyes of God.”

The audience, described by Horowitz as “incredibly civilized,” left with a mixed impression of the conservative journalist. Most were impressed with the intelligence and demeanor Horowitz showed, but many still disagreed with his viewpoints.

“He’s very educated, doesn’t sugar coat anything,” said Lee Tasey, a graduate student in the School of Theology. “I was in agreement with him coming in, and by the specific way he spoke, I was reinforced and have more courage to proclaim it.”

Other students said the speech was, if nothing else, thought provoking.

“I thought he was extremely racist in terms of ideology before, but he just has different views and a different perspective,” said Samit Bhalla, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “But he does have a certain agenda. He didn’t mention anything about the justice system.”

“He definitely made me think differently,” said fellow senior Mohamed Illys. “People do live better here than in Haiti, but the point is they had a choice to come here. They weren’t brought in chains.”