The Real Racial Reckoning

This is adapted from remarks given at the 18th American Renaissance conference on November 13, 2021. Video of the speech is available here.

Before I begin, I’d like to quote what Regime Media has to say about us. This is from WPLN News, Nashville Public Radio. They accused us of promoting “racist ideas” under a “façade.” I quote: “American Renaissance wants complete segregation and believes an entire race’s value can be measured by statistics like crime rates and births out of wedlock.”

Well, given that I haven’t seen an American Renaissance conference that’s segregated, I think that’s a bit much. I also note in passing the implicit admission that race actually exists. I hope the reporter doesn’t get in trouble.

Still, let’s consider this idea that this is an academic “façade.” After all, in their words, “Taylor speaks like he’s giving a lecture at a university.”

What do professors at a university speak like? Well, I quote a Washington Post article from June 2021:

A psychiatrist [Aruna Khilanani] who told a Yale School of Medicine audience that she fantasized about killing White people defended her April comments this week and called them hyperbole that underlies a frustration about minority mental health and a desire to have more serious conversations about race.

I suppose I must agree that we need to have a serious conversation about minority mental health. But I digress. Aruna Khilanani’s fantasies included “unloading a revolver into the head of any White person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step.”

Perhaps we can be grateful that she is only “relatively” guiltless.

Well, that’s what passes for a lecture at a university these days. Mr. Taylor previously quoted from some of the penetrating insights of Professor Brittney Cooper of Rutgers University, including her call to “take those mother****ers out.” I would suggest that Mr. Taylor has more sophisticated rhetoric and arguments than “Professor Crunk.”

We laugh, but we shouldn’t. It’s not a matter for amusement that our university system produces so-called elites of such mediocrity. We can avoid certain universities perhaps, though the ideas from those places will sweep through American society. We can’t avoid the law.

Critical race theory is corrupting the legal system already. Some representatives seem to defend subjective law. Consider what Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says, or, at least what he said on June 29, 2020. He tweeted: “End. Mass. Incarceration. Defund The Prison Industrial Complex.” On November 10, 2021, he tweeted: “Lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key.”

Politics is a question of who, not what. Or, as Carl Schmitt would put it, it is centered on the question of friend and enemy. The other side has no compunctions about considering whites that don’t completely bend to their will as enemies. Their so-called principles don’t extend to basic constitutional rights. The Rittenhouse case must be the line for us — it is a case of truth versus falsehood, right versus wrong, and we demand he be freed. He did nothing wrong by defending Americans when their own government abandoned them.

Progressives also see this as “the line” in some sense. Consider what NBC’s Isaac Bailey has to say about Kyle Rittenhouse:

Rittenhouse’s story is a microcosm of what America is facing, a perilous journey toward becoming something the world has never known: a fully functioning multiracial, multiethnic democracy emerging from the blood of slaves, the genocide of Native Americans and the notion that all men are created equal. No matter what you’ve heard or what you’ve been told, we aren’t there yet. We weren’t there on July 4, 1776. We weren’t there in 1865 in the smoke, ashes and shadow of the Civil War, and not even in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act a half-century ago.

Why must we go on an admittedly perilous journey to a, quote, “fully functioning multiracial democracy?” Has such a chimera ever existed? How is South Africa doing these days?

Forget practicality for a minute. Let’s think about the theory of this supposed “multiracial, multiethnic democracy.” What will hold it together? Given the nationwide wave of iconoclasm, it seems that our new nation is going to be built on contempt for the old. Can you build a national identity around shame and self-hatred, or, more accurately, hatred of white people who created and sustain this country?

“Our Democracy,” as they speak of it, with a capital “O” and capital “D,” has its own mythos. It’s the overcoming of the historic American nation that once existed. Macaulay wrote: “To every man upon this earth Death cometh sooner or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?” Yet today, we are asked to dig up the ashes of our fathers, as has been done to General Nathan Bedford Forrest in America and Francisco Franco in Spain. More than that, we are told to spit upon our history, burn down the temples of our gods, and eke out a living in shame and disgrace.

Our rulers tell us that this is morally necessary if we are to overcome our supposed privilege. I can’t help but notice that those giving this command are among the most privileged people in the world. Indeed, they are the most privileged people to have ever existed, enjoying the fruits of power without any of the responsibilities. We have a ruling class systematically deconstructing the nation it claims to lead. Even those of us in this room have lived under it for so long that we lose sight of how bizarre it truly is. Take a step back and examine our situation. Why must we go along with this malevolent absurdity? What morality justifies it?

I grow tired of people saying that the Left has just “gone crazy” or has somehow “gone too far.” These are copes — desperate attempts to pretend that what is being done to us will somehow just stop without us having to do anything. Yet even as we sit in a room for a conference explicitly dedicated to white advocacy, consider the absolute fanaticism about race displayed by our opponents. I note some recent articles from “mainstream” publications:

• “Have the Democrats reached the limits of white appeasement politics?” by Perry Bacon, Jr., Washington Post, November 11, 2021
• “The whiteness of English cricket breeds racism,” by Aaron Sittig, The Financial Times, November 5, 2021
• “The White Women Who Just Elected Glenn Youngkin Are Killing America – You Damn Karens Are At It Again,” by Wajahat Ali, The Daily Beast, November 3, 2021
• “White women voters and the dismantling of democracy: When they vote for Republicans, white women generally are sustaining white supremacy,” by Renée Graham, Boston Globe, November 4, 2021
• “Latinos tend to put whiteness in the spotlight and it’s hurting them, writers argue in new anthology,” by Nicole Chavez, CNN, November 2, 2021
• “Why White Voters With Racist Views Often Still Support Black Republicans,” by Hakeem Jefferson and Michael Tesler, FiveThirtyEight, November 10, 2021

Or as one person put it after the recent Republican victory in Virginia — “White women vote to protect their white sons. That’s it.” Apparently, this is a problem.

Others were also very upset about what just happened in Virginia. Cheri Jacobs, who was supposedly a Republican until the evil Donald Trump came along, said Youngkin’s election will mean “racist parents dictating what kids are taught in public school based on their racism, not on what actual history is.” MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan declared that “Yes, Youngkin did run on straight up racism.” A professor of journalism informed us that “you can align yourself with ‘Whiteness’ as a world view and still be a non-White person.” Unfortunately for Rachel Dolezal and others like her, I don’t think you can be a White person and align yourself with “non-Whiteness” and still claim affirmative action.

Of course, the concrete benefits certain people derive from this system are what this is really all about. Affirmative action is just one small example. Yes, it’s important to point out the double standards, the hypocrisy, and the extremism of the other side. Yet we can’t forget that ultimately it’s the Regime Media that determine what is considered “extreme” and what’s not, and decades of pointing out double standards doesn’t seem to have shamed our opponents. They don’t care when they violate their own rules. It seems to me that we should care less about what those rules say and instead consider what interests they serve. Ideology, ultimately, is the mask power wears.

Who holds power in our society and what ideology do they propagate? Let’s just examine this at the most superficial level. In 2020, we saw celebrities, politicians, and supposedly hard-nosed CEOs shower billions of dollars on Black Lives Matter. This would suggest that BLM and allied movements hold power in this society. Yet we are constantly told that we are the ones who hold power. We have “privilege” that must be dismantled. Those who have taken it upon themselves to do the dismantling aren’t our rulers, but plucky activists confronting power — no matter how many billions of dollars they have in their bank account.

Some of our opponents may sincerely believe this. Some may be cynical. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter and I don’t care. What we’re seeing is what James Burnham would have called a political formula — the rationalization rulers give for remaining in power. It might be true or false, and you might find it convincing or not, but that’s not really the point. It’s conditional. It serves a purpose, and that’s keeping those in charge in their place – and those out of power in ours. The fact that people claim to be rebels even from their gilded perches in academia, media, Hollywood, or Congress doesn’t make it so.

Perhaps the best lesson in politics was also the first one I learned when I worked in northern Virginia. Whenever someone tells you something, you must ask yourself the following question: How does this person benefit if I believe what he is telling me? Our rulers tell us they are helpless victims and we are the ones with privilege, but we have no obligation to believe them, especially when the evidence is on our side.

To take just one example, we have had people screaming “Black Lives Matter” for years now. Do they? The huckster preachers, the NGO heads, the hysterical reporters, and the weepy politicians don’t seem terribly concerned about the record increase in the homicide rate, something which has mostly affected black people. No fewer than 2,164 more blacks died by homicide in 2020 than in 2019. This is a fact of no political significance and it’s doubtful that any local officials or bureaucrats will be forced out because of it. That’s probably because despite being just 13 percent of the population, blacks commit more than 56 percent of all homicides in the country.

There’s no Narrative there — no useful mythology for those in power. Black Lives Matter — when they can be used to seize wealth from whites. Otherwise, judging from its inaction, “the community” seems largely indifferent. Something like BLM fails on its own terms. They don’t care about what’s happening in “the community” so I don’t see why we must.

Instead, we need to recognize that this political formula — this myth that is used to justify our rulers’ position — is based on nothing less than a new moral code. For most of human history, we operated in an “honor” based morality, in which a man was expected to personally defend his reputation, property, and family with physical force. Later, the West, perhaps uniquely, developed a “rights-based” morality which allowed us to trust the state to handle disputes, leading to a far less violent and more orderly society. However, in a mere blink of historical time, we see the emergence of a moral code based on claims of victimhood. Power is exercised by claiming victim status and using state and media support to punish enemies and accumulate resources.

Most students who have attended universities in recent years are familiar with this. The American Enterprise Institute found that almost 20 percent of university jobs — including in STEM fields — required a pledge to work for “diversity, inclusion, and equity” (DIE). Many older Americans who suddenly wonder what happened to their country were wrong in thinking that this “craziness” would be limited to campus. It wasn’t. It’s the predominant way of thinking in media, in art, in government, and in an increasingly subjective legal system. There also isn’t anything “crazy” about it. It’s perfectly rational for our rulers to adopt a political myth to justify their position. They may even believe in it. That doesn’t mean we have to.

More than that, we have to push back aggressively against claims that America is run for the benefit of whites. I will go so far as to say that white Americans have no political representation in this country. There may be whites who hold office, but not one, to my knowledge, uses state power explicitly to defend white interests. The defense of their own racial interests by non-white politicians is taken for granted by everyone else. Who is it that this political, financial, and cultural system really serves?

Even our opponents accidentally tell the truth sometimes about the way this System represses us. Ibram Kendi, the recipient of a McArthur Genius Grant, is one of the nation’s leading speakers on the supposed evils of white supremacy and the necessity of anti-racism. Of course, the vast amount of institutional wealth and backing thrown at him seems to disprove his thesis instantly. Dr. Kendi also seems to let some things go over his head. For example, he recently tweeted out a study which claimed that 34 percent of whites fake their race when applying to college — and 77 percent of those students are accepted! Of course, at some point he either realized (or was told) that this undermined his argument and he deleted it, vaguely asserting that whites still have an advantage because they have higher SAT scores than brown and black students. As usual, Asians were simply left out of the discussion.

Obviously, some non-whites see the absurdity of this. Some are in this room and many more will be watching or reading this speech later. They roll their eyes when they hear basic standards being deconstructed because they are supposedly a product of “whiteness.” Who can forget the National Museum of African-American History and Culture telling us about the evils of whiteness, including the nuclear family, rational thinking, and delayed gratification. Of course, these traits are tied to white societies . . . and they are part of the reason why we create societies that the rest of the world wants to move to.

I can already hear the objection from white conservatives. Even if we implicitly agree that these things are tied to “whiteness,” non-whites can agree with them too. Therefore, can’t we just have a civic nationalism dedicated to these positive values that anyone can be a part of? Perhaps I’ve moderated in my old age, so I’ll give it a chance. However, two conditions must be met before we even begin this conversation. Those conditions are the complete enforcement of all existing immigration laws, including the deportation of all illegal immigrants, and the abolition of all racial preferences in jobs and education mandated by the government. Somehow, race becomes a biological truth instead of a social construct when affirmative action is in play.

Until those two conditions are met, there’s nothing even to discuss when it comes to “saving” an America united around vague ideals. There’s nothing to apologize for, because we are the ones who are owed apologies . . . and far, far more. It is we who have suffered at the hands of criminals, who have fled our cities only to see them be turned into embarrassing dumps, who shied away from glorious challenges like the conquest of space so we could waste trillions subsidizing people who despise us. If there are reparations to be paid, I say we are the ones who deserve it. If there is a racial reckoning that America must confront, it must be with us.

These aren’t requests, but demands. Let us be so blunt that even a journalist can understand what I’m saying. It is whites — and whites alone — that those in power attack because of our unchangeable, biological characteristics. Critical race theory holds that all white people are “racist” and that there is nothing we can do not to be racist. It is a cult without the promise of salvation.

To accept this morality reveals either the most profound cynicism or the most perverted sadomasochism. It is in the very nature of the system that the definition of “racism” must forever be expanding. There will never be a point at which “equality” will be declared. BET founder Robert Johnson, a wealthy man, has called for $14 trillion in reparations for slavery. I’ll call that bluff — let’s give him $28 trillion if it meant that would be the end of it. Of course, we know it won’t be.

Socioeconomic differences between the races have existed and will always exist, because egalitarianism is an obvious lie. Trust the science on this. Even if we undertook a massive transfer of wealth, five years later we’d be in much the same place and the demands would be even louder. It would just be the next step in this never-ending con. That con will continue until we summon the courage to say with one voice the single truth that blasts apart this entire racial system — you depend upon us, and we don’t need you.

Until we get even basic legal equality in this country, no one can justly gainsay our righteous demand. We want more than money — we want a country of our own. Whites in this country — and perhaps around the world — are a stateless people. If we are to be held guilty simply because of who and what we are, then basic justice demands that we have a place of safety. Though I hold American citizenship, I speak not as an American, whatever that means now, but as a European, when I say to my kinsmen around the globe that we will rise and fall together. We will unite, or we will be replaced.

There’s that word, the word we are not supposed to notice. “Replacement.” If you are celebrating it, you can notice it, but if you have questions about it, you are practically a terrorist. Indeed, to even mention the phrase “The Great Replacement” is to inspire terrorism. I could be clever and quote John F. Kennedy, who said that “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” However, I don’t have to do that. I simply must ask: Who is it that holds media power in this country?

Who controls access to the megaphone? What messages are they preaching to the country? When we look at crime statistics, particularly when it comes to interracial crime, who are the attackers and those under attack? We live in a society based on lies, and those who control it seem fanatically driven to shut down even the tiny outlets of truth in order to protect their increasingly absurd Narratives. It is they who wield almost all media power, and yet they are the ones who are afraid. Perhaps they should be. They bear a heavy guilt. If we are to say that those who preach certain ideas are morally responsible for those who act upon them, then the conclusion is clear: The blood of every single victim of murder, assault, rape, robbery and the countless other crimes in this collapsing civilization is on the hands of every “mainstream” journalist in this country.

I say again, until we get basic justice in what was intended to be our country, no one can refuse us anything. We’ve learned, after decades of pointless waste, that no matter how much we pay or grovel, it never gets us anywhere. This shouldn’t surprise us. Power in this system comes from claims of victimhood, so how can it even acknowledge or allow any kind of improvement. The rotten machine we are trapped within must cultivate victimhood and even go beyond attacking whites. We see it in small ways, like the newfound drive to abolish Advanced Placement classes or gifted programs. We see it in large ways, like the attempt to dismantle the Classics and deny us our own cultural birthright. Our foes must dismantle hierarchy, accomplishment, greatness, beauty, strength, and truth. They must forever drive humanity into the dirt. Their position depends on endless human degradation.

There is nothing within this system that can prevent it from driving us, and all of humanity, into an eternal degeneration. It would be cause enough to fight for the survival of our people and civilization, but somehow we are fighting for something even more important than that — the very possibility of human greatness itself. That possibility, and everything associated with it, is ultimately dependent upon our survival as a people. That is why the cause of the West is not just another political or cultural movement, but the hope of humanity itself. If we must call our non-white brethren people of color, then let us be called people of light, because our people, for countless generations, have carried the torch in the darkness, that fragile potential of human greatness. If we fail, and that torch goes out, it will never be rekindled.

What does this mean in practical terms? It’s one thing to speak of high ideals but quite another to work for them day-by-day. I’ve often thought it would be much easier to die for something than simply to work for something. More than that, the courage we need now is a kind that is rarer and more precious than even physical courage. It’s the courage needed to confront that cold, hateful beast with the million eyes and countless lying tongues of the Regime Media. It means accepting the prices that will be paid financially. It means knowing that you will face betrayal, slander, and possibly far worse. This is what holds so many people, including myself, back from simply speaking with our given names or worrying about being “doxxed.” Of course, the horrible truth is that if we were all doxed at once, we’d win instantly, because we’d see how numerous we are. Yet in terms of material gain, it rarely makes sense for people to step up one at a time.

Nonetheless, this is why I’m more optimistic than ever before. People are stepping forward. This isn’t the same thing as 2015 — no one has any illusions that this is some kind of computer game, or that some politician is going to descend from on high and save us. There’s no one coming to save you. It’s up to us. People know the costs, and they are stepping forward anyway. Each person who does that makes it that much easier for the next person who steps forward.

I am not telling you to doxx yourself, or metaphorically to charge the guns and get mowed down. Accomplishment is more valuable than effort. I’m not telling you exactly what to do, because different people have different things to contribute. I’m no leader and I’m not telling you to follow me, or anyone else for that matter.

What I am telling you is that you do have to act. You don’t have a choice about whether to act, but just in what way. It’s not just because there are high ideals at stake, but practical realities. The System we live under will never consume itself or become too extreme. I don’t know if those who ostensibly control it can even restrain it. It is coming for everything — your church, your children, your home, your heroes, your wealth, your life. You can hide from it only for so long. Many Americans thought it would just stay on the television and that they would never have to confront it — but they learned otherwise when it was in their schools, their streets, and their local papers all through 2020. Things will never go back to “normal.” This doesn’t stop unless we stop it.

It’s scary. I admit it, I’m scared. Yet I’m also joyful. What’s wonderful about this time is that you are blessed to be alive at the most important time in history. We are the descendants of heroes and martyrs, and I tell you that they envy us. We don’t need to waste time in theoretical debates about what specific cultural attributes “define” the West because I believe it is the struggle for civilization survival that will define us in the centuries to come.

What holds us back is fear, but what can defeat fear is faith. Have faith in the righteousness of our cause and in the inevitability of our victory. Have faith in your friends, brothers, and sisters. Build tribes and networks of unbreakable loyalty so that you can face this world physically, economically, and emotionally protected. Please donate to those you feel are doing productive work, subsidize businesses that share your worldview, and work with friends constantly to expand your resources and network. No other movement can accomplish so much with so little funding.

None of us are without flaws, but we must do all we can to remove those flaws, and help our friends do the same. None of us can take on this burden alone. Instead, tribe up, and sacrifice the worst aspects of yourself on the altar of your life. Fill your heart with righteous moral outrage for what is being done to us. Embrace the principle of struggle and take joy in it, because we are called to be the banner of hope in the face of despair. Laugh at the pathetic justification our so-called rulers offer to justify their position. I say, it’s time to build a new elite, one that takes joy in accomplishment, not resentment.

I look around this room and I see hundreds of people who glimpse, if only at a distance, what is possible. We have the resources, the manpower, the capabilities already. It’s just a question of organization and solidarity. We are on the brink of achieving everything we’ve ever dreamed, if we can just remain true to the best within us and loyal to each other and our cause. We are sons and daughters of Europe, and we are called to this moment at this time.

All of history had to happen exactly as it did for you to exist and be present at this time. I say rejoice as you embrace your fate. I’m proud to be in this room. I’m proud to work for a man like Jared Taylor. Most of all, I’m proud to speak before all of you, to enlist with all of you in this holy cause, and to take upon ourselves the responsibility of history. Thank you all for being here, thank you for all your support, and thank you in advance for all you will do for the cause of the West. When the day of final victory comes, let us remember it began here. Thank you.