I wrote "like a lot of conservatives."
When you make common cause with people who believe that black people are biologically or culturally inferior, that's the definition of racism.
Derbyshire is racist. That's beyond dispute.
The conservative movement has been stoking white racist resentment in modern times back to Nixon and Wallace. Under Buckley, its founder, The National Review took an editorial position in favor of denying Black people the vote and in full support of white supremacy and segregation. The only reason Derbyshire got fired is likely because he was a bit too upfront and embarrassed people like Lowry who would much prefer to maintain a plausible deniability on such issues. But Derbyshire and his countryman and fellow hate merchant Peter Brimelow have been quite upfront about their beliefs for a long time.
I guess it depends on what you mean by "a lot of conservatives." Total numbers? Maybe. But to say that most, or even a significant percentage, of conservatives are racist may be a stretch. Also, one can question the sincerity of some liberals on the race issue extending beyond winning the black vote and what not.
And I mean
truly racist, i.e. believing black people are biologically or culturally inferior. In my opinion, the racist accusations fly so easily nowadays, that the significance of really being a racist has lost much of it's meaning.
Maybe a good illustration of what I'm talking about is Mel Gibson. In his ranting phone conversations with his last girlfriend a while back, he was yelling at her for the way she dressed and said if she was "raped by a pack of n---ers, it was her fault." Now the immediate conclusion by many is that Mel's a racist. I disagree. He certainly said a mean thing, based on a race stereotype, but if he were
truly racist, he wouldn't have done the Lethal Weapon movies with Danny Glover, go over to Whoopi Goldberg's house, etc. In other words, do I think that, just because he dropped the N word, Mel believes blacks are biologically or culturally inferior? No.
