Stay Out of Heavily Black Neighborhoods': National Review Writer Under Fire for Racial Column

National Review writer John Derbyshire is under fire for a column essentially urging white parents to talk to their children about staying away from black people they don't know.

"The Talk: Nonblack Version" is a breakdown of the lessons Derbyshire says he's taught his children about race, similar to "the talk" or "the code" many black parents have spoken of having with their children in the wake of Trayvon Martin's death.

Derbyshire's column, published Thursday in Taki's Magazine, states that "many traits are very different for black and white Americans," such as "school disciplinary measures, political corruption and criminal convictions."

There is "a small cohort of blacks" -- Derbyshire estimates 5 percent -- that is "ferociously hostile to whites" and a larger number that will "go along passively if the 5 percent take leadership in some event."

"They will do this out of racial solidarity, the natural willingness of most human beings to be led, and a vague feeling that whites have it coming," he wrote.

But the portion of his column that appears to have drawn most of the outrage are the following "common sense" items:

(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 told ThinkProgress the piece was not meant as satire but "social commentary." Calls are building for his firing from National Review, which has distanced itself from the piece. In a brief online post late Friday, National Review editor Rich Lowry described it as "appalling" but did not say whether Derbyshire would be fired.

"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.

National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote Friday evening on Twitter he found Derbyshire's column, "fundamentally indefensible and offensive. I wish he hadn't written it."

In a follow-up tweet, Goldberg said no one at National Review saw the piece before it was published in Taki's Magazine.

UPDATE:

National Review has since fired John Derbyshire.  See the full article here.