Here’s wingnut blogger Dan Riehl again, with an incoherent post attacking me and defending John Derbyshire’s twisted racist article, while recounting a sad tale from his youth fighting in the streets against gangs of black kids: Riehl World View: The Left’s Misguided Attack on John Derbyshire.

However, I do remember standing next to Ray, who was one of my best friends in sixth grade. Ray was black and we were in the playground watching a fight start between a white kid and a black kid. We both knew both of them.

Ray looked over at me and, to paraphrase after all these years, said, Dan, you know if this gets bigger and we end up getting pulled in, I have to be with my people, right? I didn’t like it. I felt confused and even a bit hurt - but I didn’t question it, either. I think I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said something like, Yeah, I understand. Truthfully, I didn’t understand it. I just knew it was the reality in that situation and as true for me as it was for Ray.

What he was saying was, we’re still going to be friends, afterward, right? And I thought, well, sure. Why not? We all would be when we played black versus white football, or soccer, that weekend, depending on the season - unless another fight broke out, which rarely happened. We just had to do what we had to do here and both instinctively knew it, somehow. It wasn’t about us. In any event, it never came to that and Ray and I always remained friends until, when older, we both moved away and lost touch.

See? Dan has black friends! Even if he would have had to administer a beatdown to “Ray,” he knew somehow that it would all turn out fine.

Riehl then explains, with his inimitable total lack of style, that “the left” should really be thanking John Derbyshire instead of trying to “silence him,” and yes, they should also stop falsely accusing the right of racism:

My larger point is, the left is always screaming racism, often even when it hasn’t been proven to exist - as in the recent case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Even the media falsely screamed it. So, along comes Derbyshire and, I don’t know, confesses it, on his part? And all the left can do is scream, get him! Silence him! He must be fired!! What does that solve? It’s as if the left wants it to appear as though America doesn’t still struggle with racial issues … except when seizing upon an incident, or issue they think they can exploit for political gain. Frankly, they’re even trying to do that here, as with Johnson attacking me over it for no reason and with no clue.

I end up as, not hurt, but a bit confused, just as I was back in the schoolyard that day with Ray. The left should be thanking Derbyshire for being honest - for confirming so much of what they themselves always seem to be saying. Yes, America still has racial issues with which to struggle.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, good old tough guy Dan is engaging in that witty repartee for which he’s well-known:

@Lizardoid Chuckles, u wound me. U hurt me deeply. Keep it up and I may start calling you Cuddles and claim u as my bitch out here, dumbass

— DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) April 7, 2012

Related:
Dan Riehl’s Imaginary Black Kid Beatdown