Derbyshire was sacked from his job for his note on The Talk.
The Talk is a mythical Black father to son advice about the need to be careful in a dangerous world where the KKK would be waiting for him. Derby's Talk is something of a parody about a White father's advice to his son about the dangers of interacting with Black people. Derby's Talk was considered provocative and he was sacked.
The case shows the limits of public debate on race in America. Blacks are a protected group, not to be offended but flattered and their difficulties in coping with modern life explained away. They should be dealt with as if chance had trapped one in a stuck elevator with a large, drunk, aggressive moron looking for a pretext to start a fight. You cannot open the door and exit, and you are terrified of provoking the drunk. I personally have been in these situations.
Once White people did not fear Blacks. There was even affection between them, like in Huckleberry Finn. But relative power positions have changed.
I haven't met a Black American in five years, so for me the issue is theoretical. Local Blacks - Ethiopians and Erythrean refugees - are few, skinny and harmless.
11 comments:
Derbyshire's piece seems to have come as response to a sanctimonious article written by an African-American with reference to the Trayvon Miller case.
Africans in Israel aren't yet as numerous as African-Americans, and the government has no history of enslaving them. Perhaps that will preserve the mildness of the situation. But never underestimate the ability of the crazy leftists to manufacture a race crisis.
The HaAretz is working hard in doing exactly that. This morning they have an incendiary article about the gap between Ethiopian children in school and the rest of the population. Of course, they say, it is because of racism.
As you've made clear, Israel has no shortage of destructive crazy leftists.
I find the Derbyshire affair sad. For years, he has been the only NRO columnist whose work I read regularly. His personality is so benign and quintessentially English, even his "racism" is temperate. I hope his finances don't take too severe a hit.
I too wish him the best - good health and good finances. He is very civilized, the type of person who could not harm a fly. The Trayvon case was such a gross media attack on the average American that he felt compelled to answer back. The Talk vs The Talk.
Now we know there is no symmetry (nor equality). One should be careful to talk back to the master.
Mr Derbyshire is an intellectually honest man - he wrote two worthy popularisations on mathematics that unlike the guff that passes for most science writing actually tries to teach the subject. Thus it is almost inevitable that he would come up with an article like this. But the article is so far out, that the NRO editors had to act. I have some sympathy for them even though anyone with daughters in the US would have given the same advice that JD has been fired for.
Ivan
I found Derbyshire's "talk" on Taki's website. It was mostly a compilation of links to other sites that were largely factual in nature (IQ statistics, crime statistics, accounts of black violence in hard news sources such as the NYT). Apparently this only made things worse for Derb. Gromyko used to say that "the truth bites like a whip". The black versions of the "talk" are based largely on fantasy - America is still filled with racist lynch mobs (while in truth white on black crime is basically non-existent). If Derbyshire had merely given his opinion instead of compiling statistically verifiable facts, maybe he would still have a job. But since what he wrote is irrefutable, it is also unforgivable.
K
If a white goes into a black neighborhood where he is "out of place," he is fairly likely to be harassed. If a black goes into a white neighborhood where he is "out of place," he is also fairly likely to be harassed - by cops. "Driving while black" is not a myth - as leftists love to point out (and they actually have the stats to prove it).
Both "Talks" are justified. Derbyshire's struck me as unnecessarily bitter, and frankly, if I edited a popular magazine, I wouldn't want a writer with his attitude. Not because of the racism, but because of the bitterness.
I often frequent neighborhoods in Philadelphia that are almost all black. Because of food stamps (and contrary to the "food desert" myth) the variety and prices of produce and groceries are better there than in my chi-chi neighborhood where the skinny x-ray women eat only salad and non-fat yogurt. Sometimes I am the only shopper in the store who is white - I have never had the slightest problem.
In the real world, police operate on the basis of probability. Given that young black males are disproportionately involved in crime,it makes sense for the police to target them. When the famous bank robber was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, "because that's where the money is." For a policeman, young black men are "money". You could be like the TSA and randomly stop old white ladies instead, but you'd have to stop an awful lot of old white ladies before you found one carrying dope and stolen jewelry and burglar tools like Trayvon. Now maybe Zimmerman was just really lucky that he randomly happened to pick the one young black male in Florida who had a track record like that, but I'm guessing his odds were pretty good. If you are a totally law abiding young black male, this is unfortunate (but you would also be a minority within a minority since the majority of young black males have records of illegal activity).
K
I have to say, K - my experience matches yours. I've never actually had any trouble in a black neighborhood, beyond panhandling, despite, say, 200 times walking alone through them over the course of my life. Maybe "fairly likely" exaggerates the risk of being harassed -- how about, "more likely than in a white neighborhood, but still not likely." (Care to make an estimate for how often a white man walks alone through a black neighborhood in the USA in the course of a year? How about, 30 million white men who live reasonably close to black neighborhoods X 5 visits per year = 150 million visits? There's your denominator. I'm sure we could find statistics for black-on-white crimes somewhere.)
I'm not faulting cops for "targeting" young black men, but if you had a black son, wouldn't you talk to him about it?
I have a young white son and I have had the "talk" with him anyway. He knows that he should not dress like a thug or act in a way that would attract the attention of the police, and that if he is ever stopped by the police that he is to behave respectfully but not to reveal any incriminating information or to consent to any voluntary search. This is common sense for young men of all races. If I were black and had a son, I would not warn him against possible lynchings any more than I warn my son to watch out for pogroms. These are events that (for the time being at least) are part of history and no longer a part of our present day reality and there is no point in traumatizing our young people unnecessarily with such fantasies, which can only harden their hearts and breed hatred.
K
Derby explains in Takimag his "Talk".
He argues that we govern our behaviour by statistics, and his advice is reasonable generalization for young people. He doesnt go into the risk management argument, but obviously he is thinking on the same line.
Saletan in Slate counter-arguments that it is unfair to impose a general statistic rule in dealing with a whole category of human beings. That is prejudice. In many cases avoiding human contact, being a good samaritan, is unjustified at the individual level. The specific person we meet may be an excellent person and not a thug. He is right, but it is unwise to behave like that when there is no escape door near.
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