White Columnist: Be Smart, Avoid Black People

John Derbyshire's column triggers Internet outrage
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 7, 2012 2:34 PM CDT
White Columnist: Be Smart, Avoid Black People
Members of the audience hold signs of support for Trayvon Martin during a rally in Miami last week.   (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Conservative columnist John Derbyshire has unleashed a fury of criticism from both the left and right over advice he dispenses in Taki's Magazine to white and Asian parents. It's a list of things they should tell their kids to keep them safe from black people, or what he calls the "non-black version" of "the talk." Samples:

  • "A small cohort of blacks—in my experience, around five percent—is ferociously hostile to whites and will go to great lengths to inconvenience or harm us. A much larger cohort of blacks—around half—will go along passively if the five percent take leadership in some event. They will do this out of racial solidarity, the natural willingness of most human beings to be led, and a vague feeling that whites have it coming."
  • "Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally."
  • "Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks."
  • "The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than whites. ..."

Here's a quick sample of reaction:

  • Josh Barro, Forbes: Derbyshire also writes for National Review, and Barro thinks editor Rich Lowry should fire him immediately. "Why should black Americans take him seriously while he’s employing Derbyshire?"
  • Matt Lewis, Daily Caller: "In one fell swoop (actually, Derbyshire has a history of flirting with this sort of thing, but it has finally caught up with him), he has done more harm to the conservative cause than any liberal ever could."
  • Elspeth Reeve, Atlantic Wire: "To present himself as a cool social scientist, every single bullet point contains a link to some sort of source based in facts. ... This is how he's able to give the most dated racial stereotypes the veneer of respectability."
  • Jonah Goldberg, also of National Review, via tweet: “For the record, I find my colleague John Derbyshire’s piece fundamentally indefensible and offensive. I wish he hadn’t written it.”
(More John Derbyshire stories.)

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