Andrew Sullivan attacks John Derbyshire’s take on the Kramer explosion (hopefully this is the last time I’ll blog about it), even though they have essentially the same view: This could have happened to anyone. We all harbor these sentiments, and the main problem here is that, in Derbyshire’s words, “[t]he inner Kramer…just broke out for a second.”

My own writing has covered studies indicating that the average white has at least a subconscious bias against blacks. Years of negative black images, statistics, facts, experiences and stereotypes build up over time.

And Derbyshire is right in suggesting that racism is a continuous variable, not a binary trait. People range from ultra-non-racists who can’t recognize statistical differences between races, to “race realists” (count me in this category) who aren’t afraid to explore and act on empirical trends, to outright bigots. And everything in between.

But it simply cannot explain this kind of behavior or even conscious thought pattern. Derbyshire correctly notes that these are epithets, outright denunciations of a person’s race. No rational, modern person thinks seriously in quite this way, even in moments of anger.

Are whites scared when a black male approaches them after dark? Yes, and rationally — and consciously. But do they hate that person, or even wish to express hatred they don’t quite feel? I don’t think so. In safer situations, like in the military, in classrooms and at casual get-togethers, blacks and whites pretty much get along fine. Usually at comedy clubs, too, where all different ethnicities come around to see Dave Chappelle or Carlos Mencia riff on every stereotype imaginable.

It really doesn’t, as Sullivan claims, “show what lies beneath the surface of so many minds and hearts,” at least to the degree that “[n]o one is immune.” “Immune” people are called “normal” in today’s society.

Conservatives and liberals alike must greet racial epithets with intolerance. Yes, that’s inconsistent with the dogma that all white people are racist animals at heart — then, it really would be an excusable slip of what we all feel — but it has to be done. Sullivan and Derbyshire both use their cynical view of human nature to give up on the fight against real racism.

The left has gone beyond decrying outright racism like this, to espousing affirmative action, etc. If conservatives make excuses for Richards — he’s just saying what we all think, right? Right? — they’re not only wrong, they’re giving liberals more ammo.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.