John Derbyshire's advice to 'nonblack' parents

[leftysergeant]

Which part do you have a problem with? Are you denying that the KKKrap used to kill people for pissing them off and disrespecting their warped idea of how the world was supposed to work? The part about a black woman finding a dashing young fire fighter and political dissident attractive?

 

[Foster Zygote]

Given that John Derbyshire's wife of several decades is Chinese, I suspect that this is probably satire along the lines of A Modest Proposal...

Sadly, no. Derbyshire is an admitted racist, but he thinks it's acceptable because he doesn't advocate violence against his "racial inferiors".

 

[Clayton Moore]

Which part do you have a problem with? Are you denying that the KKKrap used to kill people for pissing them off and disrespecting their warped idea of how the world was supposed to work? The part about a black woman finding a dashing young fire fighter and political dissident attractive?

Both are worthy.

 

[Weak Kitten]

Some of these "lessons" are liked warped versions of what normal parents teach their children. Yes, it is good to teach your child to leave an area if it starts to become crowded with people they are uncomfortable around. However their qualification for being uncomfortable should be something sensible, like drunkenness or violent behavior. It would be sad and silly to have your child run away because someone was having a family picnic!

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit and this is nothing like the lectures on staying safe my parents gave me. Most of my lessons involved watching clothing and body language and how to spot a bad neighborhood by the gang sign and burnt out buildings. I was taught early on that race has nothing to do with whether a person is good or bad, this is an important thing to teach a child when there is a goodly chance they may need to run to a black police officer from a white drunk.

 

[332nd]

I'm sure black parents give pretty much the same talk as the highlighted.

Really? I'm a son... & black. Never got that talk from my parents, nor do I see any reason to give it to my son.

Something along the lines of what Miss Kitt posted? Oh yeah.

It's really boring how people like yourself make it seem that blacks are just tickled pink with whites.

My wife is white & my black friends & family love her.

A social experiment is in order.

K.

Select a black and white muscle bound guy.

How about one guy who is of mixed race (could pass for black or white) that is devastatingly attractive?

Send the black guy into a bar in a white neighborhood with a gorgeous white woman hanging all over him for three hours.

Oh, I've done that many times. Only had a problem two or three times after they figured out I was black.

Send the white guy into a bar in a black neighborhood with a gorgeous black woman hanging all over him for 3 hours.

Done that many times too. Only trouble I had was about a football game from several years before. Oh, & they thought I was white.

Send the black guy into a bar in a white neighborhood with a gorgeous black woman hanging all over him for 3 hours.

Send the white guy into a bar in a black neighborhood with a gorgeous white woman hanging all over him for 3 hours.

Done both many times. Again, just a few problems that had to do with perceived race. The only one that was serious was a group of white guys trying to pull my card in front of my, then future, wife.

 

[Unabogie]

The fact that some people want to defend this racist tripe says all you need to know about modern "conservatism". "Post racial?" Indeed.

 

[SonOfLaertes]

None of the foregoing is limited to any racial or even economic group. It's just good sense.

It's the targeting of a specific group that makes this list racist. Unfortunately, though, in some areas race is a factor in advising your children.

This list is spot on if one substitutes warn your children against "blacks" with "people of race other than your own" for many inner city (not suburban) areas, unless one is going to a known drug-buy area which is protected by an organized gang. Frankly, in these areas, concentrated groups of Hispanics will set upon blacks, blacks will set upon Vietnamese, Vietnamese will set upon whites, and on and on.

In many inner-cities territoriality still reigns supreme. Most but not all is gang related.

This list is racist due to the author's tunnel vision, but the basic advice remains valid. Less valid than in years gone by as area's of concentrated race population are shrinking and America is mixing at an accelerating rate. But any parent who lives in areas of "border neighborhoods" would be foolish not to warn their children away from likely trouble.

 

[SonOfLaertes]

I'd like to add to my post above by saying that these areas are becoming isolated islands in a sea of mixed race. In American suburban areas at least, which make up a huge portion of Americas population. The fact is that many of today's kids in suburban America have left much of this behind and don't give a damn about any of it.

I don't know about racial integration elsewhere, but America is well on it's way to putting all this crap behind by sheer inertia.

 

[fuelair]

Given that John Derbyshire's wife of several decades is Chinese, I suspect that this is probably satire along the lines of A Modest Proposal... On the other hand, statistics don't lie--or do they? Maybe the problem is that we're tracking crimes by race in the first place?

Actually, all collected data should be classified by every group/personal designator it can be - or stored in a computer form that would allow that eventually. One of the problems of the accuracy of sociological research is that too many factors that could be modifying/controlling/affecting behavior are not included in collected data or are collected but not utilized in studies. Sociology is a semiscience waiting to become a real science. Interesting to watch and study it's development. (Note: Isaac Asimo.v realized this and it is not a new thought - but it still is underwhelmingly used)

 

[A'isha]

Given that John Derbyshire's wife of several decades is Chinese, I suspect that this is probably satire along the lines of A Modest Proposal...

What does Derbyshire's wife being Chinese have to do with the fact that he wrote an obviously racist article about blacks?

On the other hand, statistics don't lie--or do they? Maybe the problem is that we're tracking crimes by race in the first place?

So, this article is both exaggerated Swiftean satire and merely truthfully describing things accurately by telling it like it is?

 

[A'isha]

The fact that some people want to defend this racist tripe says all you need to know about modern "conservatism". "Post racial?" Indeed.

You're the real racist for pointing out how racist they are!

 

[fuelair]

Maybe, in the goblin-infested, hideously hostile alternate reality in which you live, it seems far-fetched.

Out here where the sky turns blue as the sun rises, not that strange.

Maybe you and that twit Derbyshire just can't keep your fear pheromones under control.

Name or not, Clayton has no functional relationship with the Lone Ranger!!!

 

[Cleon]

Both are worthy.

After all, in the 1960s the South was known internationally as a hotbed of racial integration and tolerance.

 

[Lamuella]

You mean this?
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

I'm sure black parents fear the above for their children.

so wait... you think black people are afraid of black people?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

After all, in the 1960s the South was known internationally as a hotbed of racial integration and tolerance.

ISTR that it was George Santayana who said, "A nation that forgets its history is condemned to relive it for ever".

This change took place in my lifetime.

How soon we forget.

 

[Tatyana]

Is the following article by National Review columnist John Derbyshire racist?

Several of his colleagues think it is, and are distancing themselves from it.

The Talk: Nonblack Version


He goes on to talk a lot about statistics and gives links to a lot of articles and studies about race and crime rates. Finally he arrives at this practical advice based on all of this statistical analysis:

That is seriously racist.

It still shocks me that people can think that way in this day and age.

 

[AlBell]

so wait... you think black people are afraid of black people?

Judging from the stats of black on black violence perhaps they should be.

Of course the advice to preteens "Stay out of gangs!" is basically useless. SFAIK, too many one parent families headed by a female in effectively unpoliced ghettos with substandard schools, few jobs or any good opportunities.

ymmv

Is Derbyshire racist? I'd say yes.

 

[leftysergeant]

Both are worthy.

Obviously, you were either not in North Carolina at any time in the 1960s or you were unaware of what went on there.

You are, naturally, unaware of how bloody handsome I was when I was twenty-two.

 

[Complexity]

John Derbyshire has problems with race. He wrote a decent book on the Riemann Hypothesis (though a few of his responses to questions in personal correspondence were off the mark), but I don't have much use for him apart from that.

Not someone I'd want to know.

I am truly astonished that Clayton has graced us with his opinions on the OP. What a rare pleasure!

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

To be serious, not even my racist grandmother, who wants me to have three children to "preserve the white race", ever gave me a talk like the one described in the OP.