It's Easy to Call John Derbyshire a Racist

Guest Post from Renee of Womanist Musings

John Derbyshire, a former writer for the conservative magazine The National Review was fired after he published a piece in Taki's Magazine entitled: The Talk: NonBlack Version.  Derbyshire was inspired to write this article because of the conversations that Black parents are having with their sons in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin. I am going to share with a small portion of Derbyshire's advice to his children:

(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.”
(12) There is a magnifying effect here, too, caused by affirmative action. In a pure meritocracy there would be very low proportions of blacks in cognitively demanding jobs. Because of affirmative action, the proportions are higher. In government work, they are very high. Thus, in those encounters with strangers that involve cognitive engagement, ceteris paribus the black stranger will be less intelligent than the white. In such encounters, therefore—for example, at a government office—you will, on average, be dealt with more competently by a white than by a black. If that hostility-based magnifying effect (paragraph 8) is also in play, you will be dealt with more politely, too. “The DMV lady“ is a statistical truth, not a myth.
(13) In that pool of forty million, there are nonetheless many intelligent and well-socialized blacks. (I’ll use IWSB as an ad hoc abbreviation.) You should consciously seek opportunities to make friends with IWSBs. In addition to the ordinary pleasures of friendship, you will gain an amulet against potentially career-destroying accusations of prejudice.

At first The National Review simply tried to separate itself from Derbyshire's article, but decided to fire him after public outrage was evident. There have been several articles in major news outlets like The Guardian and Huffpo, as well as commentary at CNN, declaring Derbyshire's piece to be racist. Anger at this piece is the quintessential White liberal response, and comes with the added bonus of being able to separate oneself from Derbyshire and declare that since you would never dare to express these kinds of idea publicly that you are not a racist.


It is absolutely impossible to read even a small section of The Talk: NonBlack Version, without declaring it racist. Socially there is very rarely difficulty calling out the extreme overt examples of racism, in large part because racism has come to mean to many: A noose, a burning cross, brilliant White sheets and in some cases the N word [note: I say some cases, as there are plenty of White people who actively believe that they are oppressed, because of an inability to use that word without facing some form of social censure].  What gets ignored is the systemic ways in which racism works and the everyday acts of covert racism that negatively impact the lives of people of colour.

Challenging racism as an institution is beyond the understanding and desire of many, because it would mean the eradication of White privilege. They would rather live in a world in which they can co-opt pre 1963 Dr. King, and wax poetically about a colour blind society, while our children are being undereducated in broken down schools, and shot for daring to wear a hoodie at night. This is the world as it really is, and why I simply cannot take comfort in any kind of discipline that Derbyshire is facing.

Reading his article, what I felt was not outrage, because this is exactly the kind of thought pattern and behaviour that Whiteness has normalized.  People are simply upset that Derbyshire had the nerve to air his dirty laundry in public, rather than internalizing his racist ideas.  The world is still very much segregated, with Sunday being the most segregated day in North America.  If you doubt that, walk into a Black church and then a White church.  Blacks and Whites who supposedly worship the same God don't even pray together, and yet we are told that racism is a thing of the past and that we are all equal now, with exception of course, of a few isolated incidents.  White on Black violence, even when it is continually perpetrated by the police, is always constructed as isolated, [Oscar Grant and Sean Bell] because White people are individuals, but the moment a Black person behaves in a manner which we have deemed socially unacceptable, ze is suddenly a representative of their race.

To bring up the systemic ways in which racism effects the lives of people of colour is deemed racist because interjects the much taboo subject of race into a conversation.  We cannot even talk about racism, except to view it as a thing of the past, and yet we have White liberal after White liberal decrying the language Derbyshire used, while not holding themselves accountable for the multitude of ways in which they uphold and maintain White supremacy.  Today, racism is seen as a card that Blacks employ to achieve an unfair advantage over decent God fearing White folks. The conversation has been so twisted that we now have White people claiming that they are victims of racism, when people of colour react with righteous rage to the ongoing assault against their persons.

It's easy to call Derbyshire a racist, and that is why it is happening.  If it meant a true assault on White supremacy, what you would be hearing right now is crickets and not outrage.  Nothing this man wrote in his column is in the least bit surprising.  I found that I could not even drum up outrage, because I am so accustomed to living with this sort of racism day after day.  Whether it is the White person who seeks to turn me into their very own Black BFF [yes we're collectors items], or commentary on how "articulate" I am -- racism is a part of my lived experience -- and has been since I was a very young girl. No amount of liberal hand wringing is going to change that and so I will just nod at the commentary and accept that there will be no substantive change in my lifetime. Today it's not the Derbyshire's of the world that we have to fear, but those who declare themselves to be decidedly not racist, even as they do everything in their power to ensure that yet another generation of Black children grows up with the stigma of being "othered" in a White supremacist world.

UT SucKKKs...

More like the Daily Texan and its 'cartoonist'  Stephanie Eisner who drew this full of racist fail cartoon with their vanillacentric take on the ongoing Trayvon Martin case.

Yes TransGriot readers, they are nominated for this week's TransGriot Shut Up Fool award. 

Yo Stephanie, don't you have a UT College Republicans meeting you should be attending with Lauren Pierce and the rest of those burnt orange pointed hood wearing Longhorns?

Oh yeah, if you're going to conservasmear somebody, spell their name correctly. It's T-R-A-Y-V-O-N.

And check out the vanillacentric privilege permeating the comment threads of this Houston Press story on the offensive cartoon.

Teenager Gets Suspended, After Reacting Violently to Ongoing Racist Attacks

Another guest post from my fave north of the border Timmy's Icecap chugging blogger

I have written many times about the struggles my oldest has had negotiating the racism in our small town.  I know that despite the mantra about childhood being a protected class, this definition only applies to White, able bodied, class privileged, cis gendered children.  If you are a child from a historically marginalized group, by the time you get out of diapers, you will have negotiate a discourse which 'others' and erases your humanity.

A Buffalo girls basketball team was suspended after the players allegedly used a racial slur as part of their pregame cheer.

Tyra Batts, the sole African-American on the Kenmore East High School’s squad, told the Buffalo News that her teammates would hold hands before the game, say a prayer and then shout "One, two, three (n------)."

The practice came to light when Tyra was suspended for getting into a fight about the use of racial slurs during practice, according to the newspaper.

She said that she was alarmed by the cheer, but had been outnumbered and told that the use of the slur was just a team tradition.

"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word,'" she told the newspaper. "They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label.' I was outnumbered."

The 15-year-old eventually exploded after a practice when a teammate called her a 'black piece of (expletive).’ She says she got into a fight with the girl later in school.

"It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team," she told the newspaper.

Tyra’s suspension was shortened after the principal learned of the racial allegations. At least a dozen girls were suspended. (source)

Gee, wasn't it nice of school officials to shorten her suspension.  Certainly, such magnanimous behaviour must be noted and celebrated.  They even went as far as to suspend the girls who were taunting Tyra Batts, and so I suppose all's well that ends well right?  What I want to know is where were the adults while the girls where screaming, "one, two, three nigger"?  I find it hard to believe that each and every single one of these chants happened in isolation. If these girls felt comfortable saying what they did, it can only be because there is a culture of racism alive and well in that school.  The girls who were suspended will serve their time, and life will go on for them, but it is Batts who will have to have to live with lasting effects of their racist assault. Unfortunately, Batts will join the ranks of Black children who have learned at the hands of Whitness that the colour of their skin determines their worth in a White supremacist world.


It enrages me that these girls could use a word like nigger and then claim not to be racist.  Nigger is not now, or ever will be just a word.  There is a long history of dehumanization and oppression that is attached to the word nigger.  The very fact that they felt that they could hold a vote to over rule the feelings of the only African American player speaks volumes.  Today, Whiteness acts as though being called a racist, is worse than living with the hatred of racism.  The word racist has become ugly, even as Whiteness acts in racist ways everyday, without ever acknowledging their behaviour for what it is. The following are but a few of the excuses that I hear on a regular basis:

• I didn't mean to be racist
• you're reading too much into things
• you're being too sensitive
• my best friend was Black in high school
• I don't see race/colour
• You're the one that's racist for interjecting race in the conversation
• I didn't know that was racist
• Why does it always have to be about race?

The bottom line always comes down to the fact that the average White person does not what to confront the ways in which they both live in privilege and support White supremacy. This school did nothing to protect this young girl, and then to have the nerve to punish her for acting in self defense is inexcusable. I have yet to read a call for accountability for the school.   It is inconceivable to me that hearing the chant of nigger and being called a Black piece of shit, could be construed as anything less than verbal violence.  How many times was the young girl assaulted before she finally lost her temper?

Over the years, Whiteness has co-opted much of the  Dr. King's pre 1963 message (note: post 1963 Dr. King was far more radical) because it makes them comfortable, and they love the idea that people of colour will peacefully turn the other cheek.  Not everyone can, or will turn the other cheek.  If we examine the history of violence between Whites and Blacks, Whiteness has by far exceeded us with it barbarity and desire to express power corrosively.  It is this knowledge that causes so many to fear a reckoning and it is this fear that is the basis for Batts continued suspension.  In short, Whiteness fears accountability, and that is why Batts is being punished for her act self defense.