John Derbyshire will probably be fired no later than Monday from National Review Online (America’s Shittiest Website™). A lot of people are focusing on his (10a) to (10i) explanations for why his kids should avoid black people. Those are good, but I prefer (13).
(13) In that pool of forty million [black Americans], 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.
Not only does this establish a new awesome acronym (IWSB- Intelligent and well-socialized blacks), but it also explains that the best reason to make friends with a black person is so you can say, “I am not a racist, I have a friend named Jamaal.” And the best part is that this so does not protect Mr. Derbyshire from “career-destroying accusations of prejudice.”
If Mr. Derbyshire has followed the wise advice that he provided for his teenage boys, he presumably has a black friend. Will that black friend become an amulet now? I think not.
Mr. Derbyshire will surely ask that we not reflexively attack him for daring to say something controversial but supported by the evidence. He’ll say that blacks really do commit more crimes and they really do score worse on IQ tests and he will appeal to studies (some valid, some discredited) to argue that he’s justified in warning his kids off black folks. He might be able to launch a semi-plausible defense of his tirade. We might be reduced to arguing about the rigor and credibility of his sources. Except he rather explicitly advises his kids that they can get away with being huge racists if they just befriend one or two intelligent and well-socialized blacks.
I’d say that that rather gives away the game. Derbyshire showed his ass.
