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 10, 2012 at 5:52 am
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell
April 10, 2012 at 11:49 am
"ideaism is not reality."
No Steve, the event I stated happened. Judging individuals based on race or creed, rather than on their actions, simply is not dealing with reality.
April 10, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Mr McClarey, I'm not disputing that the event happened; what I'm disargeeing with is your naive ideaism that you can only judge people as individuals, not by the group they belong to. In the real world, as Thursday and other folks here have pointed out, we can not do this. To ignore certain unpleasant facts about a group might be dangerous to your health and life. And your statement that we can't judge a person by his creed is not dealing with reality. Don, we Catholics have been doing that since day one! We pass judgement on groups of people wheather or not they are Christians by our understanding of our creeds. We boldly say Jews, Muslims, and other groups can not be heirs to eternal life unless they believe what's in the creeds. I have to shake my head that a person with so much education and who's an intellectual would be so naive. Then again, George Orwell, who was quoted by Blackrep said this about them: some ideas are so absurb that only an intellectual could believe them.
April 10, 2012 at 5:43 pm
I think this states the case rather well:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2012/04/09/johnny-they-hardly-knew-ye/
JOB
April 10, 2012 at 7:09 pm
This is a page from the Human Biodiversity playbook. If you haven't read anything about it, I suggest you look into it. This a real stream of conservative thought, and I can only imagine that it will grow.
There is an online publication called Alternative Right which covers these topics extensively.
There is a focus on statistics, IQ in particular, and how it figures in cultural issues. For example, years ago when I first discovered AR and was trying to figure out what it was about, I read something there about the low average IQ of the Mexican race, and how following multiple generations of living in the U.S., Mexican-descended Americans became more promiscuous, more prone to crime, etc., as they were severed from the Catholic culture of Mexico which worked as a countervailing force against these tendencies.
Is any of this true? I don't know, because I don't vet statistics. Is there value in making these correlations if they are true? Possibly, in a Freakonomics sort of way. There is a logic in assuming that low intelligence amongst a certain group combined with limited cultural restrictions would lead to certain types of behavior that aren't exactly civilization-building. But that never really seems to reveal the entire picture, and there is a sense I have whenever reading writings on these topics, that this way lies madness.
Cultural and racial aggregate data seems to show certain tendencies, particularly when those two vectors are combined. That's the basis behind a lot of Pat Buchanan's arguments, I think, which are not entirely unwarranted or without historical precedent – Belloc's analysis in Europe and the Faith of the slow takeover of Roman garrisons by barbarian peoples comes to mind.
It seems that because racial sensitivity has all the trappings of a virtue these days, we have to be very careful about how we approach these things. If we allow ourselves to be too outraged by them, we appear naive. If we put too much stock into them, we appear racist. But prudence is found, I think, somewhere in the middle.
Just don't talk about it publicly if you want to stay out of trouble.
April 10, 2012 at 7:23 pm
I think we can get some clarity on this subject by looking at a specific example of a group of people considered by many to be the most vile and evil of racists – so vile and evil that Mr. Archbold would gladly strip them of their livelihoods and impoverish their families and Mr. McClarey would consider them extremely out of touch with reality. These evil racists are New York cabbies.
It is well known that cab drivers in New York often pass up African Americans who are hailing a cab. One day the actor Danny Glover couldn’t get a taxi and got up in arms and New York City passed a law attempting to outlaw this practice.
Let’s think about these cabbies for a minute. Why do you suppose they refuse to pick up black people? Is it a skin color thing? I don’t think so. The vast majority of the cabs I have ever ridden in New York (and I’ve ridden my share) have been driven by “people of color,” predominantly fresh-off-the-boat Pakistanis, Afghanis, Indians, and others from those regions, as well as a few Hispanics and even fewer East Asians (and of those, a very small number of “white Asians” and “white Hispanics.”) – i.e., people whose skin is often as dark or darker than the average African American’s. Is it an ethnic thing? While it may simply be my ignorance, I am not aware of any traditional animus that people of the Middle East and South Asia have against Africans. So what is it? Statistics. Yes, those evil statistics. The cabbies all know that their odds of getting stiffed for the fare, mugged or killed are a lot higher if they pick up a black person. In the couple of seconds they have to assess the potential fare, they have no opportunity to do an in-depth interview or life review to fully assess the individual personality and character of the person. They have to make a quick decision based on the limited information they have at hand. Giving someone the ‘benefit of the doubt” could well prove fatal.
There’s another fact one should note. Taxi fares in New York are cheap relative to the local cost of living compared to most major cities in the world. Which is to say that New York cabbies are comparatively poor; so poor that, by and large, only recent immigrants will take the job. The cabbies do not have the luxury to refuse fares capriciously. Nevertheless, they pass up potential income that they can hardly afford to lose. Are we to presume they are acting on irrational prejudices? That they are out of touch with reality? No. I submit they are acting prudently, using their reason and exercising their God-given right to get back home safe and sound to their families with income, life and limb intact.
April 10, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Let me tell you a story about some of these “racist” cabbies. Not long after New York City passed its law targeting these cabbies there was a string of muggings of cab drivers. If memory serves me well, at least one and probably more of the cabbies were killed and a number were injured. In any event, the first victim survived and was able to give a description to the police, who published a sketch of the attacker in all the City papers, showing a fairly ordinary-looking African American man. After several of these attacks over several weeks, they finally caught the perp. It turned out that the original police sketch was dead-on. You could not have done any better if you had had a photo the attacker.
This puzzled me at first. How was it that this man could get away with attacking several cab drivers over several weeks when, after the very first attack, every cabbie in the City knew exactly what he looked like? The answer was not far away – Danny Glover’s law. New York City took this law very seriously, deploying under-cover policemen throughout the City hailing cabs (taking them away from trivial pursuits such as busting up drug operations, organized crime and gang banging) and imposing very large fines for any infraction – by very large I mean at least a couple of month’s rent for a poor person in New York. After the first mugging, the cabbies faced a real devil’s dilemma: when they saw someone hailing them who looked like the attacker, they had to choose between the risk of getting mugged and even killed or the risk of getting hit with (for them) a catastrophic fine. Several of them chose badly and paid dearly.
Let’s not forget the power dynamics here. You could bet your last dime that if African American cabbies were refusing rides to poor Pakistani immigrants there would have never been any such law. One group has clout at City Hall and the other does not.
The moral of the story is this. There can be real, negative consequences when professional race-baiters and naïve do-gooders attempt to stamp out “racism” with ill-conceived laws or, as is more popular these days, anti-Prop 8/Media Matters-style attacks on people’s livelihoods. Not the least of these consequences is a poisoned atmosphere that makes any fruitful conversation all but impossible.
Mr. Archbold, I am still calling you out. You have some ‘splainin’ to do. It appears, on the surface at least, you may have let your prejudice against an atheist get the better of you.
April 10, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Thursday, your remarks are on target. You, like Andy, pay attention to reality, and don't allow false pc sentimentality to hinder your insights. And Thursday, Andy, you, and myself are not racists, we are race realists.
April 10, 2012 at 8:37 pm
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April 10, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Pablo, I will certainly pray for this young man. I hope you can find some faithful Black Catholics he can associate with so he won't fall into the clutches of the Hoodie boys.
April 10, 2012 at 11:15 pm
my two cents:Abraham Lincoln gave every freed slave forty acres and a mule, if they wanted it. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents came from Poland where they had no slaves. The language of victimhood is ingrained in the language of the black people and may be heard often. In the City of Philadelphia as it is said, “Don’t stop for the red traffic lights at night.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal, aka Wesley Cook, as all Black Panthers, declared himself a sovereign nation of one individual with diplomatic immunity and thereby severed himself from citizenship in America. When William Cook, a brother, was stopped by traffic patrolman Daniel Faulkner, in the city of Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal assessed the police stop as an act of war against his and his brother’s sovereign diplomatic immunity and executed the peace keeping officer by a bullet first to Faulkner’s back then four more shots to the fallen police officer as he lay on the pavement, including one to his face. Faulkner had got off one shot and Abu-Jamal was captured.
Daniel Faulkner is a sovereign person, a sovereign nation of one individual who was attacked and killed for keeping the peace. As a peace-keeping officer, Daniel Faulkner represented the sovereign City of Philadelphia, in the sovereignty of the United States. It is one sovereign nation (Wesley Cook) disrespecting another sovereign nation (Daniel Faulkner) through an act of war and aggression against Daniel Faulkner and his sovereignty and diplomatic immunity. This case must be tried under the articles of war and aggression and perhaps even treason as this Abu-Jamal took advantage of this country and citizenship.
Today, Mumia Abu Jamal, is in prison trying his case through appeals to Superior Court and has many supporters. Abu Jamal’s case must go to be tried by the war tribunal and Jamal as an enemy combatant, by his own choosing.
At my last two jobs, I had black bosses who used the vicitmhood language. My best friends at both jobs were African American women, many, kind, gentle and intelligent. They too, used the victimhood language, because that is how they grew up in the South, yet Christianity made all the difference and common sense was their companion. Here in Maryland, I have black lady friends and again Christianity makes all the difference. "Christianity makes us human" (Fulton J. Sheen). Speaking of groupings, tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. If atheism had not taken away our civil rights, John Derbyshire might still have a job.
April 11, 2012 at 2:30 am
Undemiably, there is a correlation between criminal conduct and race. As there is with class, gender, etc. Statistics are worthless, if they mask scapegoating individuals in tne name of communities, and communities without reference to the underlying problems. My argument is not with white people who do not drive through black neighborhoods, but it is about such 'common sense' arguments masking abdication of christian responsibility.
It is to no one's benefit to deny statistics that are true, but such truths, if they do not move us to have a particular love of the black community, are Satanic. For, im sure Satan, like Lot and Abraham, was faced with human indecency. But the other angels chose to love God more for his mercy, the same mercy we are called to image.
May His mercy be upon us for the sorry state of our society.
April 11, 2012 at 8:39 am
I think if you're going to post these stats of another's, enjoying his firing, you should at least investigate whether those stats are true or not. They are shocking to me. Much of MSM news is shocking to me also, and I've learned not to believe.
Are the stats true – is the first amendment then gone officially?
Free speech, but can't offend? What's that? Keep your Catholic thoughts away from me!
April 11, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Mary DeVoe, Abe Lincoln didn't give the freemen 40 acres and a mule. That was just a line the Radical Republicans feed the Blacks to get them to vote for them.
Your statement about the blacks always speaking the langauge of victimhood is so true. The majority of them will always talk victimhood, because their corrupt leaders encourage it, so they can push for more entitlements, set-asides, welfare payments etc. The victimhood mentality will never end until the productive members of society bring it to a screeching halt or the government finds itself out of money to pay for these freebies.
April 11, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Patrick, I'm sorry so many of your commenters don't get it.
Great headline.
April 11, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Nicole, as one of your so-called "don't get it's", your comment shows you don't get it. I live in Peoria,Il, where Derbyshire's observations are all so true. I do not take the most direct route into Downtown Peoria anymore because it goes through the black zone. I do not go to the original mega-shopping mall anymore, because there are too many blacks kids who hang out there who are not shopping. No Nicky, I get it. Black is the color of crime, especially violent crime against their own kind and white folks. That's not prejudice, that's the headlines and titles of articles in my daily paper.
April 11, 2012 at 8:31 pm
BTW, Donald McClary's The American Catholic has a short article about Derbyshire's article and dismissial from National Review. Paul Zummo's piece shows he just as detached from reality as McClary is. McClary tries to demonize Derbyshire's opinion on race in the comboxes by yelling and screaming that he's and atheist and is somewhat Anti-Catholic. Well, I'm sorry he is both, but what does that have to do with his opinions on blacks? White people of all kinds of religious and secular opinions have come to the same conclusion about black misconduct and how to deal with it. I wonder why? Must be something they saw or hear, I guess. http://the-american-catholic.com/2012/04/10/the-derbyshire-kerfuffle
April 11, 2012 at 10:30 pm
The Federal Crime stats speak for themselves. Pat Buchanan and Steve Sailer are both Catholics and they've written about this extensively.
Here's an article by Thomas Fleming on the firing: http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2012/04/09/johnny-they-hardly-knew-ye/
Now, I'm no fan of Derb since he's a smug atheist, but what he said is true.
April 12, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Are you guys saying you support this statement?
Pat, are you criticizing the science, or the fact that this guy stated it? I don't really know if the science is correct. So I can't comment on the truth or falsehood of the statement.
I'm sure this is verifiable. Do you have any studies to the contrary?
April 12, 2012 at 3:38 pm
I'm sure that first century Jewish people in Palestine were wonderful as individuals, but we have to remember that a mob of them, whipped up by their selected leaders, caused our Lord to lose his life in the cross.