Kyle Rogers a Rising Star in the Radical Right Movement

Kyle Rogers has been described as a white supremacist and one of the rising leaders of America’s radical right, but most of his neighbors in Summerville probably don’t even know he’s there.

The 35-year-old computer engineer has kept a relatively low profile in local circles since moving from Ohio to the Lowcountry in 2004.

But he’s been busy building a name for himself through racially provocative writings and as a key player in the Council of Conservative Citizens, a national group that opposes “all efforts to mix the races of mankind.”

{snip} Rogers serves on the group’s national board of directors, runs its website, is the editor-in-chief of its newspaper and heads its 200-member South Carolina chapter.

The Southern Poverty Law Center recently named Rogers one of the radical right’s “30 to watch,” saying he is part of a new crop of activist leaders bent on distorting democracy and fomenting racial, ethnic and religious strife.

Rogers said he has received nothing but congratulations from supporters. But he scoffs at the distinction, describing it as “childish name-calling” and an inconsequential scam to boost fundraising.

“It’s all about convincing little old ladies that there really is this army of skinheads and Nazis out there so they will donate money,” he said. “They are talking about stuff that only exists in Hollywood movies.”

Rogers said he is not a racist or a danger; he’s just voicing facts and opinions that are ignored by mainstream media.

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Poke a little deeper and Rogers also will share beliefs that black people ruin things for the rest of society and that “slaves who were taken to the United States hit the slave lottery” because they were brought to a country where they could thrive and prosper.

Black people here, he argues, “are the most privileged members of their race” and “benefit greatly from the generosity of American whites, as they always have.”

“I don’t see a legacy of oppression,” Rogers said. “Blacks have always benefited from being in the United States.”

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Rogers joined the Council of Conservative Citizens 12 years ago in Ohio after a friend shared the group’s literature with him. He went on to lead the Columbus chapter, and Rogers later wrote that he joined the group “not only to fight for conservative values, but also to preserve my European and Southern heritage.”

Rogers is single and without children. He lives alone, likes to play AC/DC and Guns ‘n’ Roses on his guitar and has taken Irish step-dancing lessons. Beyond that, he doesn’t reveal much about his personal life.

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Between 2006 and 2007, Rogers and his group staged demonstrations in Charleston, Columbia and other spots protesting illegal immigration and efforts to grant amnesty to undocumented workers.

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Rogers dabbled in local politics for a while and served as a delegate at the Charleston County Republican convention in 2007. County GOP Chairwoman Lin Bennett couldn’t recall much about him, and her counterparts in Dorchester County said Rogers hasn’t frequented their meetings since moving to Summerville.

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Rogers, however, has made quite a name for himself on the Internet. He writes for the Council of Conservative Citizens’ newspaper, the Citizens Informer, and for Examiner.com, opining on everything from black extremism to the Kennewick Man, an ancient skeleton found in Washington state.

Rogers and others claim the bones prove that whites arrived in America first, only to be slaughtered by Indians.

Last year Rogers also pushed a headline-grabbing campaign to boycott Marvel Studios’ “Thor” movie because black actor Idris Elba was cast in the role of the Norse God Heimdallr.

Most recently, Rogers has garnered attention for his writings about black-on-white crime and his condemnation of news outlets that do not identify the race of criminal suspects.

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Gordon Baum, chief executive officer of the Council of Conservative Citizens, described Rogers as “one of the smartest guys we’ve got,” a natural writer with a keen grasp of history. He predicted that Rogers will go far in the organization. “Kyle is a very bright guy.”

Rogers said he plans to keep writing and espousing alternative viewpoints, with the hope that someday he can make this his full-time occupation.

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