Tag Archives: yaf

The Michigan State University (MSU) chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) has announced that it will be hosting a lecture by Jared Taylor in March. Taylor, who is not particularly well-known in the mainstream, is a prominent racist who’s New Century Foundation and American Renaissance publication are devoted to pursuing “scientific” justifications for racism.

If Jared Taylor’s speech happens as planned on March 19, 2008, it will be at least the second time that Taylor has spoken in Michigan. In August, Taylor spoke at a meeting organized by the Michigan chapter of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens. It is also the second time in recent months that MSU-YAF has booked an overtly racist speaker. In October, the group hosted British racist and fascist Nick Griffin whose speech was attended by at least three racist activists. In the past, MSU-YAF has brought speakers who hold what can ultimately be considered racist views–such as Chris Simcox of the Minutemen and Congressman Tom Tancredo–but it is only recently that they have begun to bring speakers that are overtly racist.

While Jared Taylor, and to a lesser extent Nick Griffin, can attempt-however unsuccessfully-to mask their racism by using academic language or casting themselves as “racialists” or “separatists,” MSU-YAF is no doubt aware of their views and the fact that they are racists. Instead of admitting this, in their description of the event YAF emphasizes that Taylor will speak on “multiculturalism” and how it “poses as a threat to Western civilization.” Like the racism of the Council of Conservative Citizens and other racist groups that attempt to work within the “mainstream,” these are just code words aimed at masking their racism.

While Taylor regularly attacks “multiculturalism” and espouses racist beliefs, he has shunned the more crass forms of white supremacy. He has rejected Nazism and anti-Semitism, arguing that there is room for Jewish people in the white nationalist movement. Despite this, Taylor has not shied away from associating with a broad cross-section of the racist movement. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Taylor’s writing was published in 1992 in a journal associated with the British National Party and has also been published by the Holocaust denial Journal of Historical Review. He also spoke at the 1995 conference of the Populist Party (which ran David Duke as its presidential candidate in 1988) along with Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis. The founder of the racist Stormfront online community Don Black has also reportedly visited Taylor’s home.

Taylor’s New Century Foundation was founded in 1994 “to study immigration and race relations so as to better understand the consequences of America’s increasing diversity.” It funds the publications of books and hosts an annual conference that has been attended by members of racist groups including the Council of Conservative Citizens and the National Alliance. It is also the principle force behind the American Renaissance a monthly newspaper and website maintained by Taylor. American Renaissance summarizes its beliefs:

“Race is an important aspect of individual and group identity. Of all the fault lines that divide society-language, religion, class, ideology-it is the most prominent and divisive. Race and racial conflict are at the heart of the most serious challenges the Western World faces in the 21st century.

The problems of race cannot be solved without adequate understanding. Attempts to gloss over the significance of race or even to deny its reality only make problems worse. Progress requires the study of all aspects of race, whether historical, cultural, or biological.”

In practical terms, this has meant white supremacy, albeit of a more “sophisticated” variety than that practiced by the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi groups. American Renaissance uses “facts” and so-called “scientific studies” to come to its racist conclusions, avoiding the more crass racial stereotypes founded elsewhere in the racist movement. In this way, Taylor’s racism appears more “credible,” although anyone giving more than a cursory thought to its publications can spot the undeniable racism. At any given time, their website features a number of articles reprinted–and often selectively excerpted–to allegedly prove that people of color have higher instances of crime and disease and that people should therefore be separated by race. For example, today there were reprinted articles asserting that Whites are better at surviving cancer than other races, that immigrants are ruining the Midwest, and that black students are suspended at a far greater rate than white students (thereby “supporting” the idea that blacks are inherently criminal). The website features-written by Taylor himself-denunciations of the “barbaric behavior” of New Orleans’ black population after Hurricane Katrina and culminating in the assertion that “When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization-any kind of civilization-disappears,” that Rosa Parks was an inconsequential figure and that “the adulation of Rosa Parks is just another chapter in the lemming-like rush to destruction whites everywhere appear to have joined,” and that the Jena 6 case is a “fraud.”

There are also “Reports” that claim to be impartial statistical evaluations of crime amongst populations of color. This includes a report titled “Hispanics: A Statistical Portrait” that claims that “Hispanics” are poorer than whites, commit more crimes, are less intelligent, and lack allegiance to the United States. The report cites a number of sources, including government sources, Wikipedia, and the far right anti-immigration group FAIR. The site also makes available for free “The Color of Crime: Race, Crime, and Justice” a report that concludes African-Americans are more likely to commit crimes than whites. While the report asserts that it “takes no position on causes of group differences in crime rates,” it asserts, “the ones that are most commonly proposed-poverty, unemployment, lack of education-are not satisfactory.” It gives little proof for this and completely ignores the existence of racism and institutional racism in the United States. The anti-racists One People’s Project criticizes Taylor for “selection bias,” arguing that he focused only on race. Also for sale are various other publications, including Taylor’s Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America which according to the Southern Poverty Law Center endorsing a biological conception of race and racial hierarchy. It has published authors active in the white supremacist movement, often those who are active in its more “mainstream” or “academic” wings. For example, American Renaissance has published items by Arthur Jensen, Michael Levin, and Philippe Rushton–all of whom have received funding from the racist Pioneer Fund. Residents of Michigan might be particularly interested in American Renaissance’s coverage of a few issues pertaining to Michigan, notably Proposal 2. In its January 2007 issue, American Renaissance supported eliminating affirmative action in Michigan but criticized the failure of whites to take their “survival” into “their own hands” by letting the movement be led by the African-American Ward Connerly. In 1991, American Renaissance ran a feature on Detroit declaring that “black rule has not been a success” for the city and blaming Detroit’s problems entirely on the percentage of African-Americans living in the city.

American Renaissance is a project of a registered non-profit organization headed by Jared Taylor called the New Century Foundation. In its IRS filing, the New Century Foundation’s trustees were listed as Samuel Francis (a now deceased former editor of the Council of Conservative Citizens’ newspaper), George Resch, Wayne Lutton of Petoskey, Michigan (runs The Social Contract Press a racist publishing house and is associated with the Council of Conservative Citizens), and C. Hubert Kennedy. Taylor’s New Century Foundation has $502,045 in assets according to its 2006. In that same filing, it says it spent $42,905 on a “newsletter read by approximately 6,000 people” along with the sale of educational books and tapes to 2,000 people, spent $40,000 on its website “visited by at least 100,000″ people each month, and spent $17,260 on its conference attended by 300 people. Additionally, it awarded a $5,000 grant to the Charles Martel Society for the publication of Race and the American Prospect by Samuel Francis, a former trustee of the Foundation and associate of the Council of Conservative Citizens. In 2005, its form said, “all recipients of grants must be personally known to the president and trustees of the New Century Foundation.”

Jared Taylor is on the board of the Charles Martel Society, along with others who are involved in the racist right including Sam G. Dickson (a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens), the Petoskey, Michigan-based Wayne Lutton who is involved with the Social Contract Press and the Council of Conservative Citizens, George McDaniel, and Kevin Lamb. The Charles Martel Society’s primary project is publishing The Occidental Quarterly; a journal that has published articles defending eugenics and devoted to the idea that “race informs culture.” Like American Renaissance, it attempts to articulate a scientific argument in support of racism. Its editorial board includes the Council of Conservative Citizens, the anti-Semitic author member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and advisor to the American Immigration Control Foundation.

In 2005, the Charles Martel Society gave $389,944 to the National Policy Institute of Augusta, Georgia, which is a prominent “academic” racist group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In the past, its board has overlapped with the Charles Martel Society and its board has included Jared Taylor according to a 2005 IRS filing. Taylor is also listed on the National Policy Institute’s website as a member of its board of directors. The National Policy Institute “promotes the American majority’s unique historical, cultural, and biological inheritance-and advances policies that, without prejudicing the legitimate rights of others, fearlessly defends our rights… our heritage” according to its website. The Institute has several publications available for download which attack affirmative action as giving “preference” to “under qualified” African-Americans over whites, advocating deportation of undocumented immigrants who are taking jobs from U.S. citizens, highlighting the “racial” differences in how African-Americans and White Americans responded to Hurricane Katrina (African-American behavior is made out to be barbaric, complete with a reference to the racist novel Camp of the Saints), and arguing that “White America” (and by extension “America”) has been under steady attack since the civil rights movement.

When Taylor comes to Lansing in March, there will no doubt be some–particularly from MSU-YAF–who will defend him and say that he is not a racist. However, his record and work is clear-Taylor is a part of the racist movement.

In advance of a speech at Michigan State University (MSU) by British National Party (BNP) member Nick Griffin, there was some discussion about how Griffin’s speech was being promoted on various websites associated with the racist right, including those of American Renaissance and the Council of Conservative Citizens. In addition, the event was promoted on Stormfront, a prominent racist message board used by the racist right and its sympathizers.

The discussion of Stormfront was largely used to bring further pressure on MSU’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), with an example being postings on a blog tracking Young Americans for Freedom called YAF Watch. Following the speech, there was a little discussion on both YAF Watch and Media Mouse about Griffin’s associate Preston Wiginton who is a contributor to Stormfront.

However, Media Mouse has learned that in addition to Wiginton, at least three Stormfront members from Michigan were in attendance at Griffin’s speech. Three individuals came from the east side of the state and boasted of eating dinner with Griffin and other Stormfront members in the following post by an individual using the name “Tactical Mastery” (his profile image contains a swastika):

Looking through video footage from the event and postings by “Tactical Mastery”, it is clear that the user was present:

The user known as “Tactical Mastery” has postings similar to what can typically be found on Stormfront, including complaints about African-Americans in the media:

Racist statements towards African-Americans living in his metro Detroit region:

Weighing in on important controversies like dating people that are not white:

and even expressing concerns over his own “whiteness:”

“Tactical Mastery” said that he attended with other Stormfront members, including those going by the names “David Starr Jordan” and “Ypsilanti NA”. Looking through posts, we were able to find conformation that “David Starr Jordan” was there, as shown in the following screen grab from the event and post from Stormfront:

Earlier discussion of Stormfront members attending the Griffin lecture has previously been used primarily to discount MSU’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter, rather than as a vehicle for discussing how YAF and Nick Griffin fit into a larger rightwing context. The presence of these individuals should not be used simply to discount YAF, but rather to show that Nick Griffin is firmly rooted in the racist right and that his speech would be of interest primarily to racists.

On Stormfront, a common topic of discussion is how many posters are not willing to be “active” in the racist movement, instead spending most of their time on the Internet rather than doing organizing or educational work. The Stormfront members who were present at the Griffin event are active participants in the racist right. In the picture above, “David Starr Jordan” and “Tactical Mastery” were shown preparing leaflets for distribution on Eastern Michigan University’s campus. The leaflets came from a group called “The Nationalist Coalition” a so-called “white activist organization” that calls for a “White living space… completely free of non-Whites” as one of its “goals.” The leaflets were distributed as part of an event organized by Stormfront members called “Night of the Flyer” in which members were encouraged to distribute “pro-White” material in their communities. In addition to Ypsilanti, flyers were also distributed in Muskegon by another Stormfront member.

Aside from the leafleting at Eastern Michigan University, it is worth noting that “David Starr Jordan”–who’s name appears to be “Evan Thomas” based on several posts and articles attributed to him on Stormfront–is an active member of the organized racist movement at the national level. This year, Thomas spoke at a gathering of white supremacists in New York, where he was described as one of the “up-and-coming leaders of a new wave of white supremacy” by the Village Voice.

Indeed, Thomas has a long history of involved in the racist movement and has organized several events in Michigan. He was involved with the European American Association, a group that has brought Canadian racist Paul Fromm and John de Nugent (who has been affiliated with the Holocaust denial organization known as The Institute for Historical Review) to Michigan. Moreover, Thomas has been involved in a number of racist groups including the European American Unity and Rights Organization, the National Alliance, the League of the South, the National Vanguard news website, and his own Soldiers of the Confederacy discussion board:

In addition, through his organizing in Michigan and involvement in organized racism, Thomas has connections with prominent racists, including David Duke and his self-proclaimed “friend and mentor” John de Nugent:

On Stormfront, Thomas has written fairly extensively and while a considerably more detailed post would be needed to fully explore his ideology, the following posts show that he is a “white nationalist” and a possible Holocaust denier:

Finally, another member identified as attending the event with Thomas and “Tactical Mastery” was “Ypsilanti NA”. That poster also has been involved with organized racism and has been active with the National Alliance and attended a recent meeting organized by the Council of Conservative Citizens that featured prominent racists Jared Taylor and J. Philippe Rushton:

By inviting Griffin to campus, these are exactly the type of people that Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) could have expected to attract. Griffin–more than any of YAF’s other speakers–has direct ties to the organized racist movement. It seems impossible that YAF could have been unaware of Griffin’s racism (even if they did perceive them to be “allegations” rather than specific examples) and now it is clear that their event brought not only a racist to speak, but members of the organized racist movement to Michigan State University’s campus.