Ben Stein: ‘Real Problem With Race’ Is ‘Self-Defeating Black Underclass’

FILE -In this Nov. 12, 2007 file photo, Ben Stein is interviewed in New York. Monotone TV personality Ben Stein has been stripped of his Sunday New York Times business column because of his work as a pitchman for a ... FILE -In this Nov. 12, 2007 file photo, Ben Stein is interviewed in New York. Monotone TV personality Ben Stein has been stripped of his Sunday New York Times business column because of his work as a pitchman for a credit monitoring company. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Conservative pundit Ben Stein on Monday said that the “black underclass” in America cannot escape “the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs,”

On Newsmax TV, Steve Malzberg asked Stein about a report that the mother of Michael Brown, the black teen shot and killed by a Ferguson, Mo. police officer, faces felony charges.

Stein said he hadn’t seen the report, and instead started discussing his views on race.

“You would think, if you read the liberal mainstream media, that the main problem with race in America was poor innocent black people being set upon and mistreated by the police. That’s just nonsense,” he said, according to video recorded by BuzzFeed.

“I mean, the real problem with race in America is a very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass that is — uh, just can’t seem to get its way going in the way that blacks were able to before the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs,” Stein continued.

He added that President Obama has failed to address this issue.

“I mean, it’s an amazing thing — blacks were on their way in this country, even after the horrors of slavery, and then drugs came in, the destruction of families came in, and the crisis in the black community is just absolutely unbelievable,” he said. “And that, it seems to me, is something that Mr. Obama could have addressed, and he just ignored it completely.”

About a week ago, Stein called Obama “most racist president there has ever been in America” in an appearance on Fox News.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Please somebody rid us of this vile mouthpiece.

  2. I think we can officially turn off the Ben Stein comments now. Dude is a racist prick and if you call him on it he’d probably say something that can be reduced to “nuh uh, I can’t be cuz I’m jewish and my peoples was and is the oppressededest, which means I can talk with impunity about all my racist beliefs about black murkins.” The only thing that would ever get me to want to hear from him again is a game show called Win Ben Stein’s Execution.

  3. Avatar for Dink Dink says:

    Does this fool know about … DUCK DYNASTY?

  4. “that, it seems to me, is something that Mr. Obama could have addressed”

    This sort of goes along with the article from the other day that someone linked about the belief system among whites that blames black people for their own plight and staunchly refuses to acknowledge systemic and institutionalized hurdles and obstacles that continue to oppress the black community…and the fact that even liberals in the South tend to gravitate towards that belief (northern/eastern liberals being the only ones who have fully embraced the idea that there are systemic/institutionalized problems that should be addressed). It’s all their own fault…opportunity is already equal…affirmative action is actually favoritism and white oppression…welfare and food stamps and unemployment only encourage them to be more lazy…it’s all cuz they’re so easy to get hooked on drugs…culture of family decay and where’s their daddies?, etc. etc. etc.

    Teatroll Rosetta Stone: “We really really really wanted Obama to legitimize all of those positions because, as a black man, if he had just taken our side and chided the black community, we would forever be able to point at it as proof that we’re right and that things like welfare and Medicaid, etc., should be destroyed.”

  5. Avatar for zoran zoran says:

    Its amazing that more shit doesn’t fall on Stein’s shoes when he opens his mouth.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

150 more replies

Participants

Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for nickdanger Avatar for artemisia Avatar for Diogenes67 Avatar for chammy Avatar for trippin Avatar for theod Avatar for Dawn_Rainbow Avatar for Lacuna-Synecdoche Avatar for sniffit Avatar for sealift67 Avatar for candirue Avatar for captaincommonsense Avatar for richf Avatar for hugopreuss Avatar for dave_mb Avatar for dnl Avatar for zlohcuc Avatar for AlfredLehmberg Avatar for CommieMommie Avatar for StormThrown Avatar for flankton Avatar for SeanRe Avatar for tommy10009

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: