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Parting Ways [National Review fires John Derbyshire!]
NRO ^ | 2012-04-07 | Rich Lowry

Posted on 04/07/2012 4:24:15 PM PDT by cartan

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream, or any one of his “Straggler” columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. 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.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: derb; derby; derbyshire; girlymen; johnderbyshire; nationalreview; nr; nro; racerealism; realism; richlowry; truth
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To: muawiyah
Just drop the black stuff ~ all of it applies to human beings you don't know, or maybe you do know them.

Well, Jesse Jackson said if he were out walking late at night and heard someone walking behind him and turned and saw it was a white person, he would feel relieved.
121 posted on 04/07/2012 7:51:57 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: cartan

Lowry has joined the ranks of Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farakhan. He’s joined the race baiters, apologists and anyone against open debate. The man is worthless and despicable. I used to subscribe to NRO years ago before joining FR. I dropped that subscription when I came here. This simply justifies my decision. They are nothing to me.

I don’t know how many here still subscribe to NRO. I’d suspect a fair number. I suggest those who do reconsider to send a message to Lowry and NRO. We don’t care for your bipartisan rhetoric. We don’t care for your juvenile opinion. We do care for the truth and John Derbyshire wrote the truth, regardless of how unseemly it may appear. Either be a man or go to Hell.


122 posted on 04/07/2012 7:53:43 PM PDT by bcsco
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To: cartan
So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation.

Rich Lowry, you're a moron. National Review has turned to crap since the death of Wm. F. Buckley, Jr..
123 posted on 04/07/2012 7:53:58 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: darrellmaurina

BTW, in what has to be a hilarious joke, when the Atlantic article pretended to find such pictures at FR, they provided a link to the offensive picture.

It was actually a link to Talking Points Memo, which is a left-wing site.


124 posted on 04/07/2012 7:54:32 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: madameguinot

I don’t think they’ve pulled it. I think they are getting so much traffic due to the Derbyshire article that it looks like a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) Internet attack on the Taki web site.


125 posted on 04/07/2012 7:57:30 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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Comment #126 Removed by Moderator

To: cartan; Travis McGee; Pelham; Twink; sauropod

Given you have only been here 8 years there was a time even here that Derbyshire’s article woulda been yanked pronto and a whole mess of Klown Posse/Goldberg type PC freepers woulda been calling for your head on a platter as a racist.

That is a fact. I have no idea how I survived those strange about race days.

there was a definite contingent of those types here then...not many anymore

the Rudy purge took many of them....those who didn’t go with the Klowns


127 posted on 04/07/2012 7:59:27 PM PDT by wardaddy (I am a social conservative. My political party left me(again). They can go to hell in a bucket.)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

>>Take Cincinnati.. please!

>>Whites driving home by their usual routes through Avondale were dragged from cars beaten some killed and some left with permanent damage. That was in the 1960s and happened multiple years.

There were significant riots in Cincy in April 2001 with notable black-on-white racist random violence on those unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, generally through no fault of their own. This was well-covered at FR at the time, though not in the MSM.


128 posted on 04/07/2012 8:00:37 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: AAABEST

lol...kumbaya pwned


129 posted on 04/07/2012 8:02:55 PM PDT by wardaddy (I am a social conservative. My political party left me(again). They can go to hell in a bucket.)
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To: tumblindice

Derbyshire compared ethnic groups. His analysis was on point. The fact that Blacks compare unfavorably to Whites in some areas is in may instances due to the inhibitions placed on them by their adopted political party. Had they been given a proper opportunity to improve themselves, I have no doubt they would be comparable to anyone. And I say this from familiarity; not statistics.


130 posted on 04/07/2012 8:02:55 PM PDT by bcsco
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To: CharlesWayneCT

“But it is a community effort — if you see something, ping the moderators, since they don’t read every last comment. We all have a part in keeping the good reputation of FR.”

That must have been exactly what they were sayin’ ‘round The National Review just before Mr. Derbyshire mussed things up!


131 posted on 04/07/2012 8:03:43 PM PDT by Road Glide
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To: wardaddy; cartan; Travis McGee; Pelham; Twink; sauropod

My impression of Clown Posse was that they were totally intolerant of white folks who had ‘colored’ friends ~


132 posted on 04/07/2012 8:04:45 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Mr Rogers

People are not statistics.

We should not shirk from understanding, explaining, and working on the problems that are pointed out by various statistics.

But I don’t believe you react to statistics by teaching a general distrust for an entire race of people.

Let’s look at just one statistic — I think it was that 1600 white people were killed by blacks each year.

It is offered as part of the argument that it is much more likely that a black will kill a white, than a random white would kill a black.

But the problem is that neither a random white or a random black are likely to kill anybody. You could live your whole life and never run into one of the “black killers” who would kill a white person.

Some of what Derb wrote is just common-sense, although it would apply equally to other circumstances. There’s no sense in putting yourself into a situation where you would be an obvious target, regardless of the race of the neighborhood. And it is certainly true that people of all races tend to react differently to people who are ‘like them’.

But other things he said take single incidents and pretend they are common occurances. I go to dozens of theme parks every year, and there have been minority events in those parks, and I’ve never felt endangered or otherwise made uncomfortable being there. Yes, there was an incident — but saying it’s common is like using Columbine to justify the wholesale repression of common actions high schoolers take, in the name of “stopping the violence” that is already lower in schools than other places.

Derb knows this — he is a math guy. I still think he was being satirical.


133 posted on 04/07/2012 8:05:19 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Tzar; rogue yam
It was pointless. Did you learn anything reading it?

Poor Tzar. The article was brilliant. Having lived in Jesse Jackson's vicinity since 1994 and only a block and a half from Louis Farrakhan's house these last few years, I saw nothing in the article that didn't ring true to my experience. People are treating this article like they treated The Bell Curve, with knee-jerk reaction and politically correct criticism.
134 posted on 04/07/2012 8:07:02 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: rogue yam

Stop the presses! Stop the presses! LOL


135 posted on 04/07/2012 8:07:21 PM PDT by turn_to
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To: bcsco

I don’t understand the “subscribe to NRO”. I do reed the web site, but i’ve never subscribed, and I don’t donate to them. I like a lot of what they write, or at least find it useful to read.


136 posted on 04/07/2012 8:09:30 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: darrellmaurina; AAABEST; Pelham; mrsmel; Salamander; stainlessbanner
Look at all the support here for Col. West and Herman Cain, for crying out loud!

when you free yourself from self indulgent white guilt and this kneejerk reaction to constantly show how much you love non white peoples more than life itself and simply cannot believe those nasty statistics and hate those evil white southerners who just don't suck up to it all like you do as you preen in your self righteous Yankee-ness oblivious to anything beyond your cornfield...you will be the better for it.

jackass

thank God there are so few of your ilk still here...illbay, sinkspur, bayourod, nonsequitur, whiskeypapa, trumandogz too now I hear...and so forth...gone..zot.

137 posted on 04/07/2012 8:11:59 PM PDT by wardaddy (I am a social conservative. My political party left me(again). They can go to hell in a bucket.)
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To: heartwood

I think your daughters first thought on you was right.


138 posted on 04/07/2012 8:15:52 PM PDT by hitchwolf
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To: Mr Rogers; Mad Dawgg; kristinn; onyx; Jim Robinson; reaganaut1; Flotsam_Jetsome; CharlesWayneCT; ...
@ wardaddy: I don't know who you are. Let's just say I don't use language like yours toward my worst enemies and fortunately I don't think comments like yours represent more than a tiny fraction of Free Republic.

108 posted on Sat Apr 07 2012 21:34:47 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Mad Dawgg: “My little league coach taught me to never swing at a pitch that is un the dirt.”

Yes, but we're playing big league politics, not little league baseball. In politics, responding to something **IN THE SAME NEWS CYCLE** is crucial if you're a candidate, and it's not a lot lower in the priority list for situations like this.

The big difference is a pitch in the dirt doesn't get the batter in trouble, and if there are enough of those pitches, the batter gets to walk to first base. Here, the “pitch,” if not responded to, can cause major damage to Free Republic for being racist. It's not a true accusation — look at all the support here for Herman Cain and Col. West — but an accusation with no response is an accusation which gets believed.

Let's be clear here — this is a high stakes game of hardball. The leftists are looking for ways to discredit conservatives. Free Republic is a major conservative website. Especially if Jim Robinson intends to lead a last-ditch fight to stop Mitt Romney — and he has made very clear that he's not going to support Romney no matter what the Republican Party does — Free Republic needs to avoid getting blasted as a website full of bigots.

We already know that the New York Times and reporters for other major media read Free Republic. Absolutely the last thing we need is for an article to show up in the major media tying Gingrich (or Santorum) to a few wacked-out crazy commenters here on Free Republic, and then have Mitt Romney resurrect the ghost of John McCain by saying he represents the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, not the party of Bob Jones University — but substituting the term “Free Republic” for “Bob Jones University.”

Anybody who knows the internet knows wackos put up wild comments. Some are trolls deliberately trying to get the website in trouble; others are the sort of extremists who attach themselves to any movement. The question is what the management does with those comments when called to their attention.

110 posted on Sat Apr 07 2012 21:35:40 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Mr Rogers: “What did he write that bothers you?”

My primary problem is not with National Review or with Derbyshire, but rather with the characterization of Free Republic as a place where “really obvious racist stuff” goes up.

Yes, I've seen some racist and secessionist crap here. When I've seen it, I've jumped on it. I think I could probably find wild-eyed crazy stuff on any website that doesn't reflect the views of management — I don't blame Daily Kos or Huffington Post or places like that for their local loony leftists in the comment section until it becomes obvious the commenters are being backed by management — and that's why Free Republic needs to officially respond to make clear that we are not racists.

@ Flotsam_Jetsome: We're on the same page about public displays of affection, and not just in Asia. My Korean niece attends the largest of several Christian schools outside Fort Leonard Wood, which is run by an independent fundamental Baptist church. The school has a large minority contingent of blacks, Hispanics, and several different Asian groups. They require school uniforms and their rules on public displays of affection are stricter than Korean schools.

112 posted on Sat Apr 07 2012 21:38:09 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by reaganaut1: “Define ‘racism’. Is doubting that all races are equally intelligent on average ‘racist’?”

As Flotsam_Jetsome reminded us, every time we post there is a statement saying this: “Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.”

I think it's important that Jim Robinson, not me, make the call on how to define “racism.” I have ideas but it's important that I defer to the site owners.

For now, the problem is what the Atlantic said about Free Republic with pictures of Obama with bones in his nose, not comparing racial performance on standardized tests.

124 posted on Sat Apr 07 2012 21:54:32 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by CharlesWayneCT: “BTW, in what has to be a hilarious joke, when the Atlantic article pretended to find such pictures at FR, they provided a link to the offensive picture. It was actually a link to Talking Points Memo, which is a left-wing site.”

Thank you!

Proving Atlantic doesn't have its own facts right is wonderful. Now let's go stick that into the Atlantic and see how they like it...

139 posted on 04/07/2012 8:20:39 PM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: CharlesWayneCT

“But the problem is that neither a random white or a random black are likely to kill anybody.”

Correct. NO ONE of any race is ‘likely’ to be a murderer. But blacks ARE much more likely to murder whites than whites are to murder blacks.

“But I don’t believe you react to statistics by teaching a general distrust for an entire race of people.”

And Derbyshire pointed that out in his article:

“As with any population of such a size, there is great variation among blacks in every human trait (except, obviously, the trait of identifying oneself as black). They come fat, thin, tall, short, dumb, smart, introverted, extroverted, honest, crooked, athletic, sedentary, fastidious, sloppy, amiable, and obnoxious. There are black geniuses and black morons. There are black saints and black psychopaths.”

However, eliminating race as one of the criteria for suspicion is foolish. A black man in a suit doesn’t bother me. A 60 year old black man doesn’t bother me. 6 black men around 20 years old...that might well bother me.

A black friend in the military told me two of his brothers would kill me for being white if they got the chance. One had recently gotten out of prison for doing just that.

In southern Arizona, there are places where one can substitute ‘Mexican’ for black, with the same results. Arizona state is withholding funds from Tucson’s school district because they concluded the district was actively teaching racism and racial hatred in the public schools. That is why I carry if I go into west Tucson at night...

Below is an example of black on black violence. The attack was caused by ‘looking’:

“Pearson said the altercation started when a female accused her of “looking at her.” That female went outside but returned with a group of about 15 males and 5 females.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2869446/posts


140 posted on 04/07/2012 8:24:56 PM PDT by Mr Rogers ("they found themselves made strangers in their own country")
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