الرئيسية
Reuters) - The National Review has fired columnist John Derbyshire over a web posting in which he wrote that black people are hostile to whites and that white people should stay out of black neighborhoods and away from black crowds.
The magazine on
Saturday night disavowed Derbyshire's "nasty and indefensible" posting -
which ran on a website unrelated to the National Review - and said it
amounted to a "letter of resignation" by the columnist.
"We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer," editor Rich Lowry said in a posting on the magazine's website.
"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," Lowry said.
Derbyshire's column
was written as a response to recent newspaper articles about "the talk"
that African American parents have with their children about being black
teenagers in a country in which young black men may be considered a
potential threat. The articles followed the shooting in Florida of
unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer.
The columnist asserted "there is a talk that nonblack
Americans have with their kids, too" about the differences between
themselves and black people.
He said that talk
included telling children that about 5 percent of black people were
"ferociously hostile" to whites and that a larger percentage would "go
along passively if the 5 percent take leadership in some event."
Derbyshire said
children were advised to "avoid concentrations of blacks not all known
to you personally," stay out of heavily black neighborhoods and avoid
events likely to attract a lot of black people.
The magazine on
Saturday night disavowed Derbyshire's "nasty and indefensible" posting -
which ran on a website unrelated to the National Review - and said it
amounted to a "letter of resignation" by the columnist.
"We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer," editor Rich Lowry said in a posting on the magazine's website.
"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," Lowry said.
Derbyshire's column
was written as a response to recent newspaper articles about "the talk"
that African American parents have with their children about being black
teenagers in a country in which young black men may be considered a
potential threat. The articles followed the shooting in Florida of
unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer.
The columnist asserted "there is a talk that nonblack
Americans have with their kids, too" about the differences between
themselves and black people.
He said that talk
included telling children that about 5 percent of black people were
"ferociously hostile" to whites and that a larger percentage would "go
along passively if the 5 percent take leadership in some event."
Derbyshire said
children were advised to "avoid concentrations of blacks not all known
to you personally," stay out of heavily black neighborhoods and avoid
events likely to attract a lot of black people.