In February, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the United States was “a nation of cowards” on matters of race, and that most Americans avoid discussions of racial issues. Holder said, “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”
Holder said after his speech, “If we’re going to ever make progress, we’re going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination, to be honest with each other. It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified.”
Holder’s speech reinforced President Barack Hussein Obama’s speech in 2008 on race relations. Obama urged the nation to break “a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years” and bemoaned the “chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”
Now John Derbyshire, after writing “The Talk: Nonblack Version at Taki’s Magazine, was fired from National Review for writing an article that Holder and Obama advocated. And National Review” has fired yet another contributor over the same issue: University of Illinois professor emeritus Robert Weissberg. Honesty or cowardice?
In “The Talk: Nonblack Version:”
In paragraph (7), Derbyshire says, “Of most importance to your personal safety are the very different means for antisocial behavior, which you will see reflected in, for instance, school disciplinary measures, political corruption, and criminal convictions.”
Regarding school disciplinary measures, this University of Kansas study reinforces his conclusion: Positive Behavior Support demonstrated significant reductions in disciplinary actions and suspensions.
Regarding political corruption, this University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee study also reinforces his conclusion: We find that corruption is associated with historical/cultural forces.
Regarding criminal convictions, The Sentencing Project reports that the national incarceration rate in 2005 the national rate is 5.6 blacks to one white.
In paragraph (10e), Derbyshire says, “If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.”
Here is what happened in August, 2011, at the Wisconsin State Fair: Norb Roffers, fairgoer, said, “It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people. They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.” “It was 100% racial,” said Eric, an Iraq war veteran. A group of anywhere from 30 to 100 young black men descended on the Wisconsin State Fair, beating fairgoers and looting carnival games, in what witnesses said were racially-motivated attacks.
In paragraph (10f), Derbyshire says, “Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.”
Detroit’s mayor is Dave Bing. And here is the Detroit city council. Let’s look at what has happened in Detroit: Deeper deficit, Overestimated revenues, Running in the red, Cash crunch, and Debt rating downgrades.
In paragraph (11), Derbyshire says, “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’.”
Derbyshire provide sources to support his contentions. Regarding his every test statement, consider this from his source: “There is a huge academic literature on the gaps in cognitive test results, practically all of it converging on the fact that African American mean scores on cognitive tests fall below the white means by a tad more than one white standard deviation.”
Regarding his IQ test remark, a study of home mortgage foreclosures supports him. (see the graph at the bottom of page 2 of this pdf)
In paragraph (12), Derbyshire says, “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.”
Research again supports his conclusion. From Jain, Sloan, and Horowicz, we learn that the “strict top down” method [choosing the highest test scorer] method offered the highest quality workforce, but also the greatest adverse impact against low-scoring designated groups. (see page 97 of this source)
Regarding John Derbyshie, a further examination of his attitude and thoughts are, in my opinion, warranted. At the University of Pennsylvania Law School, on April 5, 2010, speaking at a Black Law Students’ Association meeting, he said, “I am here not to take one side or the other on the topic under debate [can government eliminate disparities caused by race], but to say that the topic, as written, is based on a false premise, and therefore has no satisfactory answer. I don’t believe the disparities under discussion can be eliminated. Debate about whether government should play a greater or lesser role in eliminating them is therefore, in my opinion, otiose.”
He continued, “…racial disparities in education and employment have their origin in biological differences between the human races. Those differences are facts in the natural world, like the orbits of the planets. They can’t be legislated out of existence; nor can they be ‘eliminated’ by social or political action. That there are natural, intractable differences between the human races seems apparent to me on both rational and empirical grounds”
He concludes, “Even at the things we are good at, most of us are not very good. I make my living by writing; yet I can name, in my own small personal acquaintance, a dozen people who are better writers than I am. That’s not even to mention the Shakespeares and Tolstoys. Most of us are hopeless at most things, and mediocre at the rest.
And yet — look! We don’t lose sleep over this. We don’t sink into rage and frustration at our own individual differences, or agitate for politicians to put balm on our psychic wounds. We accept our individual shortcomings with remarkable equanimity, playing the cards we’ve been dealt as best we can. That is the attitude of a healthy human being.”
My intent here is not to show and/or confirm that blacks are inferior – far from it. All I am trying to do here is to (1) illustrate that John Derbyshire is not some hate-spewing racist crackpot, and (2) that Holder and Obama did not mean what they said.
When Derbyshire tried to follow Holder’s advice, he got fired. And a little research shows Derbyshire to be correct!
But that’s just my opinion.