Matthew knows that for years my least favorite writer at National Review Online has been John Derbyshire. He was my least favorite not just because of his outspoken atheism, but because of his smug utilitarianism. What I and many others found in his writing was that he often spoke of people as things or in terms of statistics. In a world without God, that is what we are reduced to, statistics. I have always been frustrated by Derb because I found his worldview to be completely un-Conservative and out of place at a magazine founded by William F. Buckley.
So it was that Matthew called me and told me that Derb had just gotten the boot at NRO. Why? You have to see for your self. And boy did I.
Rich Lowry in his post announcing the canning referring to a piece Derb had written at another site said “Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. It’s a free country, and Derb can write whatever he wants, wherever he wants. Just not in the pages of NR or NRO, or as someone associated with NR any longer.”
What issues? At first you will say to yourself “He got fired for this?” but keep reading. You’ll know. For those of you without the time, a few snippets.
(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.
…
(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”
In reading it, I could not help but think that this is exactly what I never liked about Derb’s writing. The tendency to reduce people to statistics. In my view this is the direct result of a Godless world view. If people have no intrinsic value as individual persons endowed by their creator with certain unalienables, then they are merely statistics or worse.
While I am sure that Derb reviles the work of Stalin, Hitler, Mao et al, but it is this same line of thinking that leads to their solutions to these statistical problems.
It is noteworthy that Derb took so much time to link up “supporting” evidence for his, I don’t know even what to call it. I would say screed, but the detailed links show that this was no Mel Gibson like screed, but something much more deeply held, more cold and calculating. And it is so much the worse for it.
I am glad Derb got fired for it. But I can’t help wonder if he even understands what is wrong.
April 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Derbyshire didn't say anything wrong. Black violence toward other blacks and whites is now a major problem in the USA. In Peoria, Il., where I live, black on black violence gets someone shot or killed at least once a month. We have also had black mob violence too in Peoria. A firefight between two black gangs took place at a skating rink only a mile and a half from my house. And I live eight miles out in the country, but I'm still in the city limits. That firefight lead to the retaliation death of an eight year old black boy by one of the gangs.
You also moan and whine about Derbyshire seeing people as things and statistics. Paddy, do you want you and your children to wind up as a crime statistic or a thing on a coroners table? Derbyshrine was giving good advice on how to avoid becoming one. I never heard of him until I read his article on TakiMag. But guess what, I was already following most of his advice. When I go to Peoria to visit my wife's family or on business, I no longer take the most direct route in. Why? It goes through a neighbourhood with a high number of blacks.
You can call Derbyshire "cold, calculating" but you and your kids chances of ending up as a crime statistic are so much greater, because unlike you, he does understand what's wrong.
April 9, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I'd never heard of Derbyshire before this essay of his, but what he writes here makes sense to me and my personal experiences. I don't see the "asshatery" in this particular piece.
Many on the right have lambasted this piece as wrong/bad/worthy of exclusion from conservative politics, but I've not yet found a refutation of his points, only name calling.
What about this essay is incorrect? He very clearly calls for treating all individuals with dignity and respect, but advises certain specific ways to avoid danger to life and limb by avoiding certain situations.
When it comes to life & death issues of safety vs. hurting someone's feelings, I'll teach my children to be safe, thank you very much.
April 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm
One of your best headlines!
April 9, 2012 at 3:30 pm
A friend of mine was mugged and severely beaten in Houston after he stopped along a highway to help several blacks who apparently had car trouble.
One of the victims of the Wisconsin State Fair violence last year said that he didn't roll up his car windows when he saw a black mob coming his way because he didn't want to appear racist; a black man reached into his car and punched him in the face.
I've seen a lot of criticism of this piece, but I have yet to see a good fisking, showing point by point how Derbyshire was wrong. For myself, sad to say, I can't identify any points on which his essay is untrue.
It looks to me like advice to live by, especially when it comes to protecting myself and my family. Do you live differently, Pat?
April 9, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Have you ever been caught up in a mob of black youth? Scary stuff. I follow most of the points in the article just from experience.
April 9, 2012 at 3:40 pm
So…..When Derb wrote
"(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”
Are you guys saying you support this statement?
April 9, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Number 11 is not showing in the original post, only shows when you click on comments.
April 9, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Interesting comments on this one. It does show that race is still an issue in America even after our first Black President.
It is a great country when you can say/write anything you want but your job isn't necessarily secure if you exersise it. That truely is a free market.(this is not a snark).
Rover.
April 9, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Well, Patrick, he seems to cite sources that seem legit. If they are accurate, they're accurate. Statistics are statistics. The key thing is, intelligence doesn't equate to one's worth as a human, and atheist though he may be, Derbyshire doesn't seem to say otherwise in this piece.
Is the brain magically exempt from genetics Intelligence is, at least in part, another trait like hair color, skin color, height, etc… If these other traits are determined by genetics, is it bizarre to think that intelligence is also, at least in part, especially when the statistics seem to bear that out?
Many of these same sorts of studies also show that Asians consistently, as a group average, outscore people of European descent on intelligence tests and academic performance. Them's the stats. That doesn't make me (an American of European ancestry) worth any less in the eyes of God, or make me feel bad about myself any more so than the fact that I have freckles or flat feet.
April 9, 2012 at 3:58 pm
d'oh! First sentence of second paragraph is missing a question mark. It should read "Is the brain magically exempt from genetics?"
April 9, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Substitute "people from communities where 80% of the children grow up without their fathers present" for the word "black" everywhere in the article, including number 11, and then tell me where the controversy is.
Even without this substitution, number 11 is either accurate or it is not. If it is not accurate, then dispute the facts. If it is accurate, why hide the facts? It is no act of charity to anyone to ignore the reality of his or her situation. It is likewise no act of virtue to force anyone (by law or by shaming)to ignore reality.
April 9, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Andy
So when Derb says you should not help a black person in distress on the side of the road because of "statistics," that doesn't seem wrong to you?
April 9, 2012 at 4:40 pm
While his writing is sometimes clever and amusing, I have for years had the same complaint about him, but this….I never would have imagined him writing something like this.
Brings to mind something another NR writer (can't recall who at the moment) once said about how godless utilitarianism and racism are still alive and well amongst the upper tiers of the conservative movement, and how creeped out he was to discover how some of them speak at private get-togethers.
The ones amongst us are outing themselves today….
April 9, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Pat, if Derbyshire is so wrong about the mean intelligence of blacks, why do they do so poorly in school? Why is the drop out rate higher than Whites or Asians?
Also, here's another thing to consider. Why are all the nations and countries dominated by blacks in the West (such as Haiti) and all of the sub-Saharan African countries so poor? These countries have incrediable natural resorces, yet they are at the bottom of the totem pole ecomonically, spiritually, and morally. And this is in spite of years of aid from more advanced nations. The sad part about this situlation is when all this nations were colonies of the various European Contries, they were quite well off. When the Europeans left, all of these countries became hellholes within a few years. If Derbyshire is so wrong about intelligence, why can't these folks hold anything together? Why are they so plagued with violence. Why do they repeat the same dysfunctional, self-destructive behaviours year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation? Why do they follow race pimps like Jackson and Sharpton who pander to their worst base desires and emotions, instead of listening to wise leaders like Jesse Lee Peterson and David Manning? Sounds to me like there's a serious lack of brain power in the black community all around the world!
April 9, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Wow.
April 9, 2012 at 5:01 pm
From the CCC:
1935 The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it: Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.
The Church condemns racism. Period. "The Derb" may well be a perfectly nice man in his private life, and he currently suffers (from cancer) and deserves our prayers. But his writings have historically been as un-Catholic as anything you'll find on the political right. And the notorious piece that led to the current fracas is no exception.
April 9, 2012 at 5:06 pm
For all the "defense of statistics" going on around here no one has provided anything but personal experience, which is not very generalizable.
"The ones amongst us are outing themselves today…." very true
April 9, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Pat, your arguements are emotional, not rational. They are not based on reality. I, and the other realistic commentators, like Andy, base our statements on the way things are in the real world. No amount of the warm fuzzies you have in your heart and mind are going to mean a damm thing when you or your loved ones confront a violent black. Only the precautions mentioned by Derbyshire or the type of action taken by a George Zimmerman will save you.
April 9, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Steve "scotju" Dalton:
Wow indeed. Your comment is filled with the bitterest, nastiest, most un-Catholic racist thought I've run across in a good long while.
You wrote:
"If Derbyshire is so wrong about intelligence, why can't these folks hold anything together?"
So in the early middle ages, when white northern Europe was a mostly uncivilized backwater characterized by unstable political institutions, rampant warfare, widespread famine, extremely low literacy levels and barely post-stone age technological development, whereas Ethiopia and several other east African areas had stable, prosperous societies with advanced patterns of trade, centers of learning and other markers of civilizational development, I suppose "genetics" was different? Keep in mind that northern Europe couldn't "get its act together" for centuries before the combination of conquest by the Roman legions and evangalization by Christian missionaries led to a change in culture. Yet the genes in Mr. Derbyshire's cells are the same genes that were in the cells of the savages who raped and pillaged and sacrificed human beings to the various tribal harvest gods of the British Isles for hundreds of years.
Of course, Europe eventually Christianized and with the coming of the Faith came universities, respect for the rule of law and the inherent dignity of man, not to mention cross-ethnic dialog that facilitated the trade that led to the development of advanced economies. That plus the good fortune of having an exceptionally high ratio of coastline and navigable rivers to land area spurred the remarkably rapid development of advanced societies in Europe. Meanwhile development in Sub-Saharan Africa was delayed due to geographic bad luck (an extremely low ratio of coastline and navigable rivers to land area, a tropical climate that allowed malaria and other diseases to run rampant, etc.) and subsequent conquest of Middle-Eastern and European slave traders who killed and exported adult males in vast numbers. Kind of hard to crawl out of a hole like that. And keep in mind that colonial rule was pulled out of Africa just a few decades ago. Do you know what life in the Italian peninsula was like a few decades after the Roman imperial state collapsed? Not exactly a model of reason, safety and order.
But of course these days the white people of Europe (who Mr. Derbyshire assure us have such high IQs) are abandoning the Faith in Christ (and in its wake, faith in reason itself) with alarming speed while the black people of Africa are embracing the Church at stunning rates. If you could travel through time 500 years forward you shouldn't be surprised to see Africa thriving but unfortunately still populated by a few cranky old racists who rant about how you can't be safe when "The Whites" are around in large numbers.
April 9, 2012 at 5:37 pm
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
Let's remember who we are in Christ, not in the world. Jesus would never outcast a group of people because of statistics. We should treat each individual as if he/she is Christ himself. We follow Him, therefore, we love everyone. The same people that defiled Him and murdered Him in the most shameful ways are the same people He asked His Father to forgive. He loved them regardless of their "IQ" and did not avoid them.