Authoritarians Remain True to Form
Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, February 1, 2010
Jeffrey Imm, who runs something called Responsibility for Equality and Liberty (REAL) has done his best to make it impossible for American Renaissance to hold its 2010 conference. His approach is the classic, authoritarian one of trying to silence those with whom he disagrees.
On January 4, he publicized on his web page the location of the 2010 conference–which he described in hysterical terms–no doubt in the expectation that his fellow zealots would organize a campaign to intimidate the hotel. They did. Groups such as One People’s Project and Antifa urged their supporters to inundate the hotel with calls and threats of demonstrations. One fanatic even sneaked in and pushed inflammatory flyers under hotel room doors. The hotel buckled under the pressure, explaining to us that it feared for the safety of its employees.
Mr. Imm is now making the hilarious claim that the hotel’s managers cancelled only because he opened their eyes to the true nature of American Renaissance, not because of the abuse he unleashed. He has even gone so far as to remove from his website the January 4 announcement of the location of the conference (cached version of the page is here) and now has only a page of the same date, in which he pretends still to be trying to figure out where the conference will be.
I should have known better than to make any proposal to Mr. Imm. However, he claims to be motivated by love and to be “uncompromising in the defense of universal human rights.” He also writes that he has organized many public events, including one at the National Press Club. I made the silly mistake of assuming he had some decency, and challenged him to organize an event at the press club where we could meet and he could defend his behavior.
He now appears actually to believe that he has accepted that challenge by inviting me to be in the audience when he holds a rally on February 19 to heap abuse on American Renaissance. Yet again, we have the clearest possible evidence that our opponents dare not face us in a proper debate, and, true to form, seek only to silence or shout down those whom they cannot refute. I shall waste no more time on Jeffrey Imm.
