Dinesh D’Souza and Those Pesky Facts
Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, November 1995
As a writer during his college days, Dinesh D’Souza reportedly earned the nickname Distort D’Newsa because of his carelessness. Here are examples from his most recent book, The End of Racism.
Misquotation from American Renaissance: “An acceptance of racial inferiority might be good for blacks. The assumption of inferiority makes it easier to accept meager circumstances.”
Actual Text of AR (note “differences” rather than “inferiority” in first sentence): “If anything, an acceptance of racial differences might be good for blacks. The nineteenth century free person of color was certainly not ‘devastated’ by general assumptions about black inferiority. Not even slaves showed signs of the degeneracy that freedom subsequently brought to some of their descendants. Surely, the assumption of inferiority made it easier to accept meager circumstances. Surely, a great deal of today’s black hatred stems from the belief that blacks are being cheated out of success that should by rights be theirs.”
Misquotation from AR: “Nelson Mandela is now president of South Africa. The grisly gods of ‘democracy’ have now been satisfied.”
Actual Text of AR: “Nelson Mandela is now president of South Africa, and all liberals are rejoicing. No matter how much of a mess blacks make of the only properly functioning economy in Africa or how much cruelty they mete out to whites, the grisly gods of ‘democracy’ have now been satisfied.”
Misquotation attributed to me: “The alternative to slavery was Negro pandemonium, which is basically what we have now.”
In fact, I explained to Mr. D’Souza that I do not approve of slavery, and that even many antebellum slave-holders thought that slavery was immoral. However, they were not abolitionists because they feared that large numbers of suddenly-freed slaves would create, in their words, “Negro pandemonium.” I added that their fears may have been justified. By putting the words “Negro pandemonium” in my mouth, Mr. D’Souza tried to make me an advocate of slavery.
Mr. D’Souza also quoted from the speech by Lawrence Auster, author of The Path to National Suicide (Mr. D’Souza managed to get the title wrong): “Intermarriage, he [Mr. Auster] warned, would lead ‘not just to the dilution of white America but to its complete elimination.’”
In fact, Mr. Auster was making the point that a number of main-stream liberals have suggested that the only way to overcome racial conflict and inequality is to get rid of racial distinctions by merging all races into one — that they are proposing the complete elimination of white America.
