National Review's John Derbyshire Racist Or Honest?

National Review editor Rich Lowry announced on Saturday that John Derbyshire had been fired in the wake of his column.

A writer for the conservative National Review provoked outrage on Friday after penning a column that warned whites to "avoid large concentrations of blacks."

John Derbyshire's piece, published in Taki's Magazine, is startling from beginning to end. It takes as its inspiration the many articles about "the talk" about dealing with racism that black parents have been having with their children in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting. 

"There is a talk that nonblack Americans have with their kids, too," he writes, before listing some of the advice he gave his children about black people. They include:

(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.

Derbyshire also writes that "the mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites."

Naturally, the column caused a furor, even for longtime readers of Derbyshire, who has a history of controversial writings about race. National Review editor Rich Lowry denounced it on his website.

"Needless to say, no one at National Review shares Derb’s appalling view of what parents supposedly should tell their kids about blacks in this instantly notorious piece here," Lowry wrote. Calls for firing Derbyshire were swift.

As Atlantic blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out, though, people should really not have been all that shocked at Derbyshire's column, since he is a self-proclaimed racist.

"I am a homophobe, though a mild and tolerant one, and a racist, though an even more mild and tolerant one," he told an interviewer in 2003. (He later attempted to clarify the comments, but did not take back those descriptions of himself.)

--------------- My Take ---------------

So expressing one’s opinion on perceived ideas is not racist if the subject is minorities. I think we are getting way too politically correct and soft skin. Our freedom of speech is being chipped away little by little!