On Saturday, April 7, the conservative publication, the National Review, finally severed ties with controversial columnist John Derbyshire after his latest racist rant. Now the question remains as to whether they will maintain ties with another white nationalist they publish.
Condemnation of Derbyshire’s participation on a CPAC panel attacking multiculturalism alongside white nationalists Peter Brimelow and Robert Vandervoort wasn’t enough to get him fired. The racist screed he wrote for Taki‘s magazine entitled, “The Talk: Nonblack Version,” was finally enough to convince the editor to remove Derbyshire from his position at the National Review.
In announcing Derbyshire’s departure, National Review Editor Rich Lowry wrote, “His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. 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.”
Stripped of the last remaining veneer of mainstream conservative respectability, Derbyshire says he now plans to write for white nationalist websites, “I’ll probably try to write for other opposition-conservative outlets too, if they want me: VDARE, AltRight, American Renaissance, and so on. I know a lot of the proprietors there,” he told Gawker.
The move is reminiscent of when the late white nationalist Sam Francis was fired from the Washington Times then transitioned into working with several groups, including the Council of Conservative Citizens and American Renaissance. And like Derbyshire, Peter Brimelow, who runs VDARE, also used to write for National Review.
Turns out that Derbyshire isn’t the only racist writing for the National Review these days. As the website Little Green Footballs (LGF) first reported, since 2010 Robert Weissberg, a tenured professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has written for the National Review’s “Phi Beta Cons” blog. His columns have included “Academic Crimethink,” “Making Affirmative Action Profitable,” and “Dumb is the New Smart.”
As LGF noted, last week IREHR exposed Weissberg’s presentation to the 2012 American Renaissance conference, where he called for enclave-style white nationalism.
In fact, Weissberg has been active with American Renaissance going back to 1999, when he penned the cover-story for the publication’s March issue, “In Defense of the Racial Spoils System.”
At the 2000 American Renaissance conference, an event which included white nationalist luminaries including Samuel Francis and David Duke, Weissberg spoke about “The Relationship between Blacks and Jews.”
His talk began with his theories about why Jews support black causes, a practice which he termed “an affliction.” Weissberg went on to explain that it would be advantageous if Jews were on the side of white nationalists. Weissberg, who is Jewish, claimed that most Jews are actually racist, and that the right wing should be wary of anti-Semitism, lest it lose an “energetic” ally. “Certainly, if one were looking around for people about to do in the Jews, why do we worry about the white Christians? Why not concentrate on where the real enemy is, the blacks,” he told the crowd.
Singling out African Americans as the enemy, Weissberg added, “Jews cherish education, they are obsessed with it. Blacks, on the other hand, destroy it. Anybody who’s gone to schools in the inner city knows that not only do they hate the idea of learning, but they physically destroy the schools and assault their teachers. (Chuckle) I could go on forever on this point.”
As his presentations at American Renaissance conferences demonstrate, the positions taken by Robert Weissberg are as noxious as those of Derbyshire. It will be interesting to see if Rich Lowry and the National Review see it the same.
Update: Lowry has severed ties with Weissberg. In a statement, Lowry noted, “Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention.”
You’re welcome.
