[cross-posted at Liberty & Power]
Who (probably) said this, in 1957?
The central question that emerges … is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes – the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists. … [T]he South’s premises are correct … It is more important for the community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority.
Oh that is the late William F Buckley Jr. darling of Conservatism. And people wonder why the right was and is so reviled by the left.
For me what is most revolting about this passage is that he not just claim that coloured people are inferior to white, but that this supposed inferiority justify that political power may be used by the white community to supress the black demand for equality before the law.
Not that the majority rule is in any sense a standart for morality, but I think that the demands of black people back there in 1957 was simply for equal treatment by the law (maybe I’m just ignorant about american history, but isn’t that a far picture of the civil rights movement?).