John Derbyshire has apparently decided to retire from public life, as he posted a satirical piece purportedly setting out the advice he gives to his half-white/half-Asian kids RE: dealing with black people:
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.
(10) Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense:
(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.
(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.
(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.
(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.
(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.
(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.
(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.
Derbyshire has already been publicly denounced by his colleagues at National Review and terminated from his regular gig there. He does not appear to have been terminated by the website that actually hosted his piece, a site which was receiving massive traffic yesterday, and which registered 1700+ comments on Derbyshire's little essay. As Charlie Sheen would say, "Winning!"
The word "indefensible" comes up in a lot of the commentary about the above. I'd say the only thing indefensible about it is the blanket categorization of "blacks" rather than what he really meant: violent black youths and corrupt black politicians. At the risk of having to fire myself from the lofty Free Will masthead, I have to ask: are we really going to argue against the idea that young black males commit a disproportionate number of crimes? (most of them against their fellow blacks, btw). Are we really going to argue against the record in cities like Detroit, Newark, or DC? It seems we are, which means we are arguing against facts and experience, rather than against irrational prejudice.
A few years ago, Bill Cosby tried to use his name and prestige as a barrier-breaker during the real civil rights era to advance the argument that the black community had to take the lead in cleaning up the streets and the culture. (I believe the phrase he used was "the poor folks are not holding up their end of the deal"). He was, of course, denounced with loudmouth Eric Dyson even writing a book in protest. What no one seemed to wonder was why Cosby was rebuked in such harsh terms over something that was demonstrably true.
Where does this rage against the truth come from? There are many in American public life who are desperate to avoid admitting to the pathologies in the black community, pathologies that are certainly not unique, but are universal. Certainly Derbyshire could have been a lot more artful in his writing, but there is a harsh truth lying in his piece.
Well said. Based on the title to your post, I was planning to give you heat, but after reading it, I see that we agree.
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