Beto O’Rourke’s Finest Hour is Debunked in Banned Video
On July 30th, 2019, sharing a stage in Detroit with nine other Democrat contenders for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, Beto O’Rourke outdid himself. His finest moment came midway through the debate in response to a question about racism in America.
In a well rehearsed tirade that went well beyond his allotted time, O’Rourke – who fancies himself a cross between Jack Kerouac and Martin Luther King, with a soupçon of Che Guevara and a dash of Mother Teresa thrown in – denounced America’s entire identity, from founding to the present, as defined by violent white racists. His opening line went something like this:
“This country [dramatic pause, as if the weight of it all is too much for him emotionally], though we would like to think otherwise, was founded on racism, has persisted through racism, and is racist today.”
In another corner of America, someone was watching O’Rourke on July 30th, recording what he was saying and was about to say. This man wasn’t running for president, and he doesn’t work for a major news network. But his name is Vincent James, one of the most data driven video journalists in all of American alternative media. That attention to detail has earned James, and his channel, “The Red Elephants Vincent James,” over 290,000 online subscribers and his videos have been watched over 34 million times, just on YouTube.
Just on YouTube because the assortment of facts that James posted in response to O’Rourke’s unfactual diatribe was banned from YouTube, and has to be viewed on BitChute. This video, still up on BitChute, is entitled “How the Left is Pushing America Further Right,” and Exhibit A is O’Rourke’s cavalcade of lies, which James exposes and debunks, one at a time.
Beto’s Examples of White Racism, #1
Disproportionate Sentencing
O’Rourke’s first point, following his opening, was “There are 2.3 million people behind bars tonight while we enjoy our freedom, disproportionately comprised of people of color…”
For James, as he puts it, exposing this particular falsehood is picking low hanging fruit. He immediately refers his viewers to “Table 43A of the FBI 2017 Crime Statistics,” shown below.
The inimitable Vincent James doesn’t stop at pointing out the obvious, that total arrests for murder in the US in 2017 were 9,468, of which, 5,025 were blacks. He then does something that is yet another example of the power of alternative media – on screen, using his cell phone calculator, he shows the viewer how to use that information to calculate crime rates per 100,000 of population, which is a common way for actuaries and other analysts to measure human behaviors. As it turns out, he demonstrates that Blacks in the U.S. were arrested for murder in 2017 at a rate of 12.5 per 100,000, whereas the rate in that year for non-Hispanic Whites was 1.4 per 100,000, nine times less likely.
One of the hallmarks of watching Vincent James is his painstaking attention to statistical data, and he doesn’t disappoint in this video, putting up a series of compiled bar graphs that show how, in every significant category – murder, robbery, rape, assault – Black crime rates per 100,000 are approximately five times greater than the rates for Hispanics, and approximately ten times greater than the rate for non-Hispanic Whites.
These are fairly straightforward facts, coming from the FBI, and these facts, according to James, are the reason Blacks are incarcerated at a higher rate than members of other ethnic groups. But James isn’t done. If you want attention to detail and lots of data, watch Vincent James.
He then corroborates the FBI statistics with CDC data, displaying a report (depicted below) showing that homicide rates – meaning all murders whether or not there was an arrest – are also about ten times higher among Black victims than among non-Hispanic White victims. He corroborates that with a May 2019 study by the Violence Policy Center which looked at these rates per state and came up with similar findings to the CDC.
James demonstrates, pretty much irrefutably, that the reason Blacks are disproportionately more represented in prison in America is because Blacks commit disproportionately more crimes.
Beto’s Examples of White Racism, #2
A “Rise” in Hate Crimes
James is just getting warmed up, however, as he examines O’Rourke’s next point. As O’Rourke put it:
“But it was only until this administration, and this president, (heavy pause, dramatic gesticulations from the gangly SJW), that racism was invited out into the open [another heavy pause, audience applause]. For the last three years, there’s been a rise in hate crimes in every single one of them; those counties that hosted a Trump rally in 2016 saw on average more than a 200 percent increase in hate crimes.”
To lead into his response, another dizzying array of debunking statistics, James coolly explains “the term ‘White’ and the term ‘hate crime’ have become sort of a collocation at this point, but it’s absolutely false.” He then pulls out the FBI statistics on hate crimes by race of offender and victim, and shows the overall number of hate crime convictions in 2017, 6,370, was only slightly higher than the number of hate crime convictions in 2016, at 5,770.
James then cites studies – always with onscreen images of the actual data – showing, on the other hand, a sharp rise in hate crime hoaxes in recent years. But his most noteworthy point is that it is not White people who are committing the most hate crimes, and it isn’t even close. This is something that runs utterly counter to Beto’s entire spiel, and by extension, to the entire narrative being fomented by the Democrats and the media in America today.
As shown in the next image grabbed from his video, James has analyzed FBI data on hate crime convictions by perpetrator and calculates a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 Black Americans, compared to a rate of 1.1 per 100,000 non-Hispanic White Americans. This is an astonishing finding. While these rates are low in both cases, a Black American is more than three times as likely to commit a hate crime as a White American.
One has to ask, who is going to compile and report this data, if not Vincent James? Will this sort of information ever appear on CNN, or even on Fox? This is not pleasant data to review. But neither is Beto O’Rourke’s phony sermon, filled with lies and calculated to foment racial tension. The next slide James prepared further illustrates the absurdity of claiming that Whites, overall, are the most likely commit acts of violence against members of other races. And again, it’s not even close.O’Rourke wasn’t through, however, and neither is James. O’Rourke’s next target was America’s racist system of public education.
Beto’s Examples of White Racism, #3
Racist Bias in School Punishments
Struggling to contain his indignation, O’Rourke offered yet another example of endemic racist behavior on the part of White Americans towards “people of color:”
“In a kindergarten classroom, a four or five year old child [“of color”] is five times more likely to be disciplined, or suspended, or expelled, than a white child and by the same teacher for the same infraction in the same classroom today.”
James proceeds to dig out an NPR report on the study O’Rourke referenced, highlighting on the screen the actual text of the article where it does state that there is a higher rate of discipline, but it’s three times higher, not five times higher. And that’s just for starters.
The study, “Data Snapshot: School Discipline,” produced in 2014 by Obama’s Dept. of Education, says nothing about the same teacher administering differing punishments based on race, or for the same infraction, or even whether the suspensions they tracked are the result of repeat infractions vs first offenses. And, as James shows, the NPR report summarizing the study acknowledges that the study made no attempt to explain why there might be a disparity in suspensions.
Where the Dept. of Education steers clear of explanation, however, James dives in, offering reasons that might be obvious to anyone who isn’t determined to merely ascribe all statistical disparities based on race to the all encompassing bromide “white man bad.”
Most obvious, and color blind, is the parental status of K-12 students. The next two tables show an extremely high correlation between success in school and parental status. In the first table, immediately below, it can be seen that children in single mother homes are 2.5 times more likely to find themselves in juvenile detention. As the next table shows, this translates into a much higher likelihood of a child not completing high school.
The next slide, below, shows that nearly all high school dropouts come from single-mother households. The absence of two parents, typically the absence of the father, is the variable most highly correlated to failure to graduate high school. And this is also perhaps the primary factor that leads to fewer opportunities later in life (and higher rates of incarceration) for African Americans.
That assertion is backed up by hard data. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, presented by the Kids Count Data Center, 65 percent of African American children are being raised in single parent households, compared with 23 percent of non-Hispanic Whites, and 16 percent of Asians.
Beto’s Examples of White Racism, #4
Immigrants Are More Law Abiding Than Natives
Maintaining his state of apoplexy, O’Rourke turned now to the topic of immigration, stating:
“When Trump’s talking about this invasion of immigrants who are coming to get us, who by the way, commit crimes at a far lower rate than anyone born in this country…”
James immediately unleashes an avalanche of published statistics and data that clearly contradict Beto’s assertion. One of the most memorable, and telling, was the following, taken from a study summarized in an article published in 2017 by The Hill: According to the FBI, 115,717 murders were committed in the U.S. from 2003 through 2009, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office documents that criminal immigrants committed 25,064 of these murders.
This is a stunning statistic. In a lengthy follow up, James cites numerous studies looking at these statistics by individual states. It is evident that it is far easier to prove, if one were so inclined, that in fact criminal immigrants are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in the United States, not the other way around.
Beto’s Examples of White Racism, #5
African Slaves Built America
As part of the Democratic push for “reparations,” the conventional wisdom now holds that most of what constitutes the current assets of the American nation were built on the backs of slaves; that without their presence, the nation would not have attained great wealth; that the fruits of their labor were denied them and indeed explain the wealth disparity seen today between Black and White Americans. Or, as O’Rourke put it:
“White people were literally kidnapping people from West Africa to bring them here to build the greatness of this country on their backs and then denying their ancestors the meaningful opportunity to enjoy in the wealth that they had created.”
James counters this argument with rather compelling logic. First, only 4 percent of southerners owned slaves and it was an undeveloped agrarian community, whereas in the north there were free men building an industrial economy. Second, North America received millions fewer slaves than Central and South America – so if these slaves were so critical to building a prosperous nation, why aren’t the nations of Central and South America doing better than America?
Continuing, James points out that the vast majority of infrastructure built in the 19th century – railroads, bridges, highways – were built by Irish or Italian or Chinese immigrants, all of whom worked without benefits and endured great adversity. Finally, to put it in perspective, James notes that during the 19th century, the Arab slave trade was 100 times worse, with millions killed, and that slavery in that part of the world is ongoing even to the present day.
Beto O’Rourke Represents the American Left
Putting things in perspective, unfortunately, is not something to expect from “Beto” O’Rourke. And while democratic voters, as evidenced by poll after poll, are tired of his act, they aren’t tired of the script. Telling lies regarding rates of incarceration, hate crimes, school punishment, illegal immigrant crime rates, and the legacy of slavery, is the currency of the Left. It’s almost all they’ve got.
Is this why YouTube had to take down this video by Vincent James? Because he bothers to dig up data, from impeccable sources, that absolutely demolishes these false assertions?
The title of the video by Vincent James doesn’t mention O’Rourke, he is just a telling exemplar of something being done by American politicians and mainstream media personalities – rampant, continuous, biased, alienating lies piled upon lies – that has got to stop. The primary point of the video James produced – and got banned – is that these lies being told by the American Left are pushing America’s White men to the Right. And the more absurd and extreme they get with their lies, the more White men will be pushed rightwards, and the further in that direction they will go.
It’s interesting to wonder exactly what it was that got this video banned by YouTube. If you watch the entire 36 minute presentation, you’ll probably have an idea or two. But when the establishment tells lies about almost every issue surrounding race, over and over, for what now amounts to most of any young person’s life, they start to look for answers elsewhere. The cognitive dissonance is simply impossible to ignore.
Should anyone be surprised that a growing number of young White men might question their supposed “privilege,” when for their entire lives they’ve known that they must go to the back of the line for every job, every college admission, every promotion, and every government contract?
Beto O’Rourke, and all his ilk, from the halls of Harvard to the penthouses in Pacific Heights, are hypocrites, demagogues, corporate socialists, globalist shills, borderline traitors, and fools, preaching a false gospel that is both nihilistic and naive. It is to the credit of people seeking truth, like Vincent James, that they remain measured in their condemnation of an establishment that has targeted them for destruction.
The noble high road is to reject racism in all its forms. And it is not racist to argue, using compelling data, that the prevailing form of racism is not coming from the Right these days, it is coming from the Left, and it is not directed against “people of color,” it is primarily directed at White men. Perhaps the biggest risk, and the biggest potential tragedy, is that these alienating lies darken the souls of everyone they touch, undermining the natural compassion towards all people which is a defining element of American character.
In the spirit of compassion, one might suggest to Vincent James, and to all of his like minded cohorts, that they are not alone. These lies they’re being fed harm everyone, Black and White. You cannot heal lingering wounds by obsessing over them. You cannot nurture upward mobility by teaching victimhood and dependence.
“Beto” O’Rourke may stand 6′ 4″ tall, but his message is small, dark, depressing, and useless.
Vincent James, along with every other right-of-center vlogger, is encouraged to expand their repertoire. They might not only continue to debunk the lies, but also make common cause with Americans of all colors who recognize that what the Left preaches is the death of industry and happiness; the destruction of a fine nation and a glorious culture. Here are some people he might connect with who share many, if not most of his views. It is likely they will get on very, very well:
Taleed Brown, Brandon Tatum, Will Johnson, Candace Owens, David J. Harris, Jr., Larry Elder, Pastor Mark Burns, Terrence K. Williams, Keith and Kevin Hodge, Dr. Carol Swain, Chandler Crump, Anthony Brian Logan, Lynnett Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, Mike Nificent, Patricia Dickson, Antonia Okafor, Horace Cooper, Star Parker, Allen West, Wayne Dupree, CJ Pearson, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Jon Miller – a woefully incomplete list, there are so many more, but a good start…
Most important of all, Vincent James, and every other truth seeking, data driven iconoclast whose life work online sits on the edge of the deplatforming abyss, is urged to never compromise, but always evolve. The censors who would silence him should think twice. Facts and logic have a funny way of having the last word, no matter what.
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Edward Ring is a contributing editor and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Greatness, and a regular contributor to the California Globe. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, and other media outlets.
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