Via the New English Review’s blog, I see a story about three Palestinians being allegedly beaten up by football players at Guilford College, a Quaker foundation.

The races of the football players is unmentioned by the Associated Press, but their names are given, so I can tell you that it was two white players and one black football player who were charged, in case you were wondering. In case you thought the race of the attackers, usually unmentionable, might possibly be relevant in when they’re accused of a hate crime. In case you wished that the Associated Press would do its damn job.

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Three football players at Guilford College, a school with a Quaker background, face assault and ethnic intimidation charges after an attack on three Palestinian students, authorities said.

The victims were beaten with fists, feet and brass knuckles early Saturday by attackers who called them “terrorists” and used racial slurs, the News & Record of Greensboro reported Tuesday.
….

Authorities charged Michael Bates, 19, of Reidsville, North Carolina; Michael Robert Six, 20, of Greensboro, North Carolina; and Christopher Barnette, 21, of Semora, North Carolina, with ethnic intimidation and assault and battery, according to court documents. They were released Monday on $2,000 (euro1,500) bail.[Three College Football Players Face Assault Charges for Alleged Attack on Palestinian Students , January 24, 2007 ]

The university has issued a statement that avoids pre-emptively declaring anyone guilty, which shows that they’ve heard about the Duke Case.

David Bernstein of the Volokh Conspiracy has this post

I was very surprised this morning to hear NPR’s Nina Totenberg mention–more like emphasize–that ten of the twelve jurors in the Scooter Libby obstruction of justice trial are white, and two are black. I’ve been trying to figure out what possible relevance this has, and haven’t been to come up with anything. Is there any reason to believe that whites are easier or harder on obstruction of justice defendants than are blacks? Am I missing something? If I’m right that it’s not relevant, I think it’s poor practice to mention individuals’ race.The Volokh Conspiracy - Racializing a Non-Racial Issue:[David Bernstein, January 23, 2007 at 6:39pm]

First of all, I’ve repeatedly argued that mentioning race is important–and second, for why it might be important in this case, see this pre-purge National Review article by by Neal Freeman.

(Neal Freeman.is no longer associated with NR–he was skeptical about the war in Iraq, and more skeptical about the war on “Unpatriotic Conservatives”)

When Nofziger finally went to trial in the winter of 1988 (that’s right, 1988) he was thrust before a jury of his peers–as it happened, 12 black peers from the District of Columbia, who if the law of averages means anything had voted against Ronald Reagan with aberrational intensity. The prosecution lost no opportunity to make the point that Nofziger and Reagan were politically indistinguishable. Nofziger had, after all, been one of Reagan’s closest aides since the gubernatorial days in Sacramento. By the end of the five-week trial, jurors could have been forgiven for supposing that Nofziger had spent most of his year in the White House personally closing out welfare accounts. The jury voted solidly for Mondale and conviction. Even the working press, which does not shrink from the sight of a right-winger getting what’s coming to him, felt that something other than justice had been done.Justice - Lyn Nofziger’s conviction National Review - August 5, 1988

A Frenchman writes to Mark Steyn to ask is some of France’s fertility might be explained by actual Frenchperson’s giving birth:

MARK REPLIES: Well, first things first. There are no “official” figures because France, as a matter of policy, does not keep records on Muslim vs non-Muslim births. SteynOnline–Letter Column

This is something that David Orland has written about on VDARE.com–see Connerly’s Racial Privacy Initiative: The Unhappy French Connection.

The problem here is that if you ban statistics by race, you not only prevent the government from using them for bad purposes, you prevent anyone from using them for anything. Ignorance is not necessarily bliss.

With no official data, you have to try using the evidence of your eyes–Steyn is quoted as saying

“What’s the Muslim population of Rotterdam? Forty percent. What’s the most popular baby boy’s name in Belgium? Mohammed. In Amsterdam? Mohammed. In Malmo, Sweden? Mohammed.”LP: Say Goodbye to Europe

And I’ll take this opportunity to repeat that the demographic arguments Steyn is making are the same ones that Linda Chavez and the SPLC criticized Dr. John Tanton for making in 1986.