Salon.com > John Derbyshire

Another National Review contributor pals around with nativists

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:47:00 +0000

It's hard to expunge white nationalist racism from respectable conservatism when some of the most respectable of conservatives dabble in white nationalist racism. John Derbyshire, accomplished as he was, was just a contributor to the National Review. John O'Sullivan is a former editor of the National Review, a current "editor-at-large," a fellow at the Hudson Institute, a former speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher, and Commander of the British Empire. He's also on the board of directors at the foundation that publishes VDARE, the nativist site listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Gus from Little Green Footballs found documents showing O'Sullivan was on the board of the "Lexington Research Institute Limited," aka the VDARE Foundation, from 2006-2010. During that time, VDARE helped found nativist site "Alternative Right" with a $35,000 grant. Alternative Right is edited by Richard B. Spencer, yet another racist/racialist white nationalist.

Is the right really breaking up with its racists?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:45:00 +0000

The National Review this month is having one of its semi-regular "purges," in which formerly welcome members of the conservative establishment are declared distasteful and relegated to the "fringes." It began when self-declared racist and longtime National Review contributor John Derbyshire wrote a piece (not for the NR but for "Taki's Mag," an online magazine devoted to lighthearted racism) that went well beyond the bounds of "acceptable" race-baiting. He was canned. Shortly thereafter, another National Review contributor, Robert Weissberg, was fired for having given a presentation at a conference devoted to white supremacy last month.

These two were not fired for suddenly revealing some hitherto unknown and successfully buried racist attitude -- these were not out-of-left field outbursts, like Michael Richards' onstage meltdown -- but for beliefs they had always had and had always expressed. This is what makes it a purge -- a decision that this sort of modern "racialism" is no longer considered an acceptable mainstream Conservative attitude.

Racism and the National Review

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:36:00 +0000

National Review editor Rich Lowry finally did the right thing and fired John Derbyshire for an unbelievably racist and deeply stupid column (printed elsewhere) about the "advice" he gives his son about avoiding black people. Maybe it represents a ratcheting back of right-wing ugliness about the Trayvon Martin case. But if you want to understand how that tragedy went from being an occasion for bipartisan sorrow to another ugly battle in the culture wars, the National Review is a good place to start.

Although founder William F. Buckley is widely credited with driving John Birch Society extremists out of the conservative movement, he made his own contributions to the ugly coarsening of American politics on the issue of race. He and his magazine defended segregation and white supremacy in the South (though he later apologized), while in the North, he played a leading role in making the issue of rising crime both racial and political – with arguments and tactics still being used in the Trayvon Martin case today.

CPAC welcomes white nationalists

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:20:00 +0000

CPAC is here, so it's time for everyone's annual look at the psychos invited to the premier conservative event of the year, and those unfortunate enough to have been excluded.

GOProud, the gay Republican group that was founded because the Log Cabin Republicans were considered too concerned about gay civil rights and not sufficiently focused on "fiscal issues," is not invited this year, because they are too "aggressive" about being gay, which made Jim DeMint uncomfortable.

CPAC also uninvited the John Birch Society, which had made a triumphant return to mainstream conservative acceptance in 2010, when they co-sponsored the conference.

But! While the Birchers and the open homosexualists are no longer welcome, there is still room for multiple outspoken white nationalists!