April 7, 2012: Conservative Magazine Fires Columnist for Blatantly Racist Screed

National Review editor Rich Lowry pens a brief blog post announcing that the magazine has “part[ed] ways” with John Derbyshire, a self-proclaimed “racist” (see November 11-18, 2003) who wrote for the magazine for 12 years. The reason is Derbyshire’s recent column for an obscure blog that asserted blacks are genetically inferior to whites and Asians, and advised white and Asian parents to teach their children to avoid blacks for their own safety (see April 5, 2012). The column met with a firestorm of criticism from both left and right, including from Lowry and other senior National Review officials (see April 5-6, 2012). However, Lowry is almost effusive in his praise of Derbyshire, whom he calls “Derb” throughout his post, characterizing him as “a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer.” Derbyshire can also be “maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative” on occasion, Lowry notes, and calls Derbyshire’s recent column “nasty and indefensible.” Because Derbyshire is identified so closely with National Review, Lowry writes, “Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues (see February 1, 2001, February 15, 2001, November 11-18, 2003, July 7, 2008, October 6, 2009, and April 5, 2010), but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. It’s a free country, and Derb can write whatever he wants, wherever he wants. Just not in the pages of NR or NRO [National Review Online], or as someone associated with NR any longer.” [National Review, 4/7/2012] The New York Daily News’s Alexander Nazaryan writes that “it has been thoroughly refreshing and, dare I say it, modestly uplifting to witness a surprisingly large swath of the right-wing blogosphere condemn Derbyshire’s comments.” Nazaryan writes that he fears Derbyshire’s firing is “merely a public relations move” by the National Review: “[N]o sane publication would want to be associated with this kind of rhetoric, especially in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing,” referring to the recent murder of an African-American teenager by a white conservative in Florida and the controversy that murder has engendered. But, Nazaryan continues, “[a] more hopeful part of me wants to—no, yearns to—believe that this will engender a serious conversation among the right wing about race, and will maybe even rein in some of the ideological excesses of the tea party movement. We shall see. For now, I am just glad that Derbyshire’s humor was met with outrage by both the right and the left.” [New York Daily News, 4/5/2012]