Among the Living Again

February’s American Renaissance conference was a success by any measure: Its first-rate lineup of speakers attracted the largest-ever turnout and intensive press coverage, as well as the added entertainment of several dozen ragged demonstrators. With more than 300 people in attendance, there was a palpable feeling that we are part of a growing movement, and sustained media coverage added to the excitement. More than a dozen organizations, including the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and several local television stations reported on the meeting, and two different documentary film crews interviewed speakers and audience members. Even the Jewish weekly Forward wrote about the views of Jews who attended the conference.

The conference began on Friday evening, Feb. 24, with a cocktail reception followed by welcoming remarks from the AR staff. Stephen Webster, assistant editor, delighted the audience by reporting that he had met his wife at the previous conference, and introduced her and their six-month-old baby girl. Ian Jobling, the website editor, noted that amren.com is now one of the 20,000 most popular sites in the world and that the mainstream media are starting to quote its commentary on news stories. Jared Taylor summed up the unique atmosphere of the gathering by quoting a man who attended a previous conference: “It’s great to be among the living again.”

Nick Griffin, chairman of the British National Party, led off the conference Saturday morning with an account of his January trial for incitement of racial hatred for saying, among other things that Islam was a “wicked, vicious faith.” He was acquitted on two counts but will be tried again on two other counts on which the original jury could not reach a decision. He congratulated his associate, Mark Collett, who stood trial with him, for his cleverness in outwitting the prosecution; the two so overwhelmed the crowns lawyrs that by the end of the trial they were “preaching from the pulpit” in the courtroom. Mr. Collett joined Mr. Griffin on the podium to enthusiastic applause. Mr. Griffin noted that thousands of people had signed an online petition protesting the trial, and warmly thanked his supporters.

While Mr. Griffin and Mr. Collett were saved by “the common sense of an English jury,” Mr. Griffin mentioned several people who have not been so lucky. A Glaswegian named David Wilson, who distributed fliers about immigrant attacks in his city, was fined, and jailed for six months. Jail cost him his house and family, but he was vindicated in the most horrible way. A Muslim gang kidnapped a 15-year-old Glaswegian named Kriss Donald, and burned him to death. They mistook him for a member of a rival white gang.

Mr. Griffin noted that if he is found guilty on retrial, he could still face up to seven years in prison. “If they want to throw the cloak of martyrdom around me, that is their problem, not mine,” he said, adding that another trial was another opportunity to tell the British people the truth about what is happening to their country. He argued that in Europe it is necessary to risk prosecution because repressive laws and the fear of Muslim violence make it increasingly difficult to criticize Islam. He noted that Jews, who have often supported immigration, are beginning to rally to white nationalists who oppose Islam. He added that Britons need to fight the Islamic presence in their midst rather than wasting their efforts in Iraq. Young people, he said, are much more nationalist than their parents generation, and this suggests a bright future for the BNP.

Next to speak was Andrew Fraser, a former professor of public law who was suspended last summer from teaching at Macquarie University in Australia for defending the “White Australia” policy and for insisting on the reality of race differences. In his talk, “Reinventing a Responsible Ruling Class,” he argued that the West must return to the republican tradition in which governing elites are loyal to their people and to past and future generations. Todays rulers are an arrogant, exploitative class of managers who have no sense of ethnic ties, and are therefore willing to let in alien populations.

Prof. Fraser proposed specific policies to make citizenship more akin to family membership. He argued that the vote should be granted only to heads of households, and that each head of household cast a number of votes equal to the number of people in the household. This would give families with children greater power in elections, and force rulers to consider the interests of future generations. The law should give greater weight to precedent, thus enforcing respect for past generations. Whereas lawyers used to be a natural aristocracy of civic-minded statesmen, they are now motivated by profit. One way to give lawyers more civic spirit and make the profession more independent from corporate interests would be to let lawyers elect judges. Prof. Fraser added that the proper role of the churches and universities, which are now at the forefront of the multiracial revolution, is to give society a sense of ethnic identity and of ties between the past, present, and future. He concluded by hoping for the return of the “old-time civil religion that once fused the history and destiny of our people with the realm of the sacred.”

Afrikaner novelist and commentator Dan Roodt spoke of the plight of whites in South Africa, noting that their precarious position under ANC domination may presage what is in store for the West. He reported that 30,000 to 50,000 whites, including 1,600 farmers, have been killed in South Africa since 1994. Some blacks are clearly killing farmers out of pure race hatred — they torture them to death and steal nothing. There is a persistent rumor that upon Nelson Mandela’s death, blacks will slaughter whites in a Rwanda-style genocide. Such intentions are already manifest. Mr. Roodt showed a slide of a group of demonstrators in Pretoria chanting “Kill all whites — English and Afrikaans!”

Because of racial preferences, young whites cannot find jobs and are emigrating. This could lead to disaster, since whites make up the great majority of the educated workforce — for example, all but two percent of accountants are white. Anti-white legislation shows up in curious places; Dr. Roodt gave as an example a law that prevents whites from holding majority ownership in casinos.

Low birth rates will reduce whites to an even smaller minority while high taxes — whites pay 80 percent of all taxes — continue to crush them. Dr. Roodt fears that the anti-white South African revolution of 1994 will be exported to the rest of the world, just like the Communist revolution of 1917, pointing out that the UN has called for the end of “global Apartheid.” However, there is some hope for a white awakening. He cited the protests last year against changing Pretoria’s name to Tshwane.

South African whites must form a single political body, establish their own media, promote their own interests, and counter academic and media propaganda if they are to regain sovereignty. Above all, said Dr. Roodt, whites must assert their cultural identity, adding, “Hearing Beethoven in the bush may be more important than hearing it in Berlin.”

AR editor Jared Taylor described his thoughts on how to convince people of the reality and importance of racial differences. It is wrong to think liberals are motivated by ill will toward whites; Mr. Taylor said he himself was once a liberal. There are two key assumptions behind the liberal view on race, and if we successfully attack them, we can change peoples minds. The first assumption is that there are no racial differences in intelligence or personality, and the second is that all racial differences in crime rates, school achievement, income, etc. are due to “racism.” Mr. Taylor argued that whites cannot take the simplest measures to ensure their own survival unless they free themselves of “racist” guilt, and can free themselves of guilt only when it is widely understood that race differences rather than “racism” hold back blacks and Hispanics.

Mr. Taylor noted that many “conservatives” know the races are different but refuse to say so openly, adding that he has more respect for liberals who believe in equality than for conservatives who only pretend to. Some conservatives say they are afraid blacks would blow up and riot if race differences were widely discussed. Mr. Taylor said he has spoken to racially-mixed audiences about race and IQ, and found that blacks respect whites who are honest about race. Another argument for hiding the truth about race is that it would demoralize blacks. Mr. Taylor said blacks may have been happier in the 1950s, when racial differences were taken for granted. In any case, blaming the failures of blacks on racism keeps them from growing up and taking responsibility for their own actions.

A key to understanding liberals is that they place a high value on compassion and fairness. Democrats, for example, say they want to belong to the compassionate, charitable party. Racial arguments that appeal to fairness may therefore attract liberals. Just as other races and nationalities are encouraged to promote their own interests, whites should be allowed to promote theirs.

At the same time, liberals think they are superior to conservatives and certainly to “racists.” Mr. Taylor suggested that we can turn liberal vanity to our advantage. When they say whites are responsible for the failures of non-whites, liberals are saying that whites are autonomous but non-whites are puppets, for whom every failure has an excuse. “Liberals,” he said, “are what they most fear and despise — white supremacists!”

After Mr. Taylor’s talk, the conference paused to reflect on the passing of Samuel Francis, who died in February 2005. Dr. Francis was a mainstay of AR conferences and American Renaissance, having spoken at every conference from 1994 to 2004 and published many articles in the magazine. The audience watched video clips from three of his speeches at past AR conferences, including the 1994 talk that got him fired from the Washington Times. Sam Dickson, Paul Fromm, Frank Borzellieri, and Jared Taylor spoke of their admiration for his accomplishments, their gratitude for his friendship, and their sadness at his death. Perhaps the most moving tribute was that of Mr. Dickson, who dwelt on the price Dr. Francis had paid for following the dictates of conscience. He said Dr. Francis’s untimely death brought to mind the words of the Psalm: “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”

After the remembrance of Dr. Francis, Gordon Baum gave an update on the activities of the Council of Conservative Citizens and Lou Calabro described the pro-white efforts of his organization, the European/American Issues Forum.

The after-dinner speaker Saturday evening was University of Western Ontario psychology professor J. Phillippe Rushton, the world’s foremost scholar of race differences, who spoke on “New Research in Sociobiology.” Dr. Rushton began with an introduction to genetic similarity theory, which explains why people are attracted to people like themselves. Spouses and friends show considerable similarity in IQ scores, social attitudes, physical attributes, and personality characteristics. He brought the point home by showing slides of pairs of friends and married couples and inviting the audience to observe how much they looked like each other. He even speculated that physical similarity might determine how people choose their pets and showed several slides of astonishingly similar pets and owners, which provoked great hilarity.

Not only are people attracted to those like themselves, but the similarity is greatest in traits that are highly heritable. The attraction of like to like is what one would expect from contemporary evolutionary theory, which finds altruism among organisms that are genetically related; when you help a relative you help propagate the genes you share with him. If genetic similarity theory explains altruism among relatives, it helps explain ethnic fellow-feeling. It suggests ethnic nationalism is a natural sentiment, since fellow ethnics are genetically similar to each other, and have an interest in protecting and promoting the tribe and its unique genes.

Dr. Rushton concluded by pointing out that black/white intelligence differences are now widely recognized among behavior geneticists, and that articles analyzing these difference appear in top journals. He also briefly summarized the conclusions in Richard Lynn’s latest book Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis.

Derek Turner, editor of the British magazine Right Now!, opened Sunday’s presentations with “The Island Race Debate: Britain Since the London Bombings,” in which he concentrated on increasing resistance to multiculturalism in Britain. The Bradford riots of 2001 and the Sept. 11 attacks stirred many Britons to wonder whether Muslims and other non-whites can be assimilated. Prime Minister Tony Blair responded by promising to deport all bogus asylum-seekers by the end of 2001 — a promise he did not keep. Rising concerns about non-whites in Britain have led to a spate of books on immigration and the establishment of Migration Watch, an immigration-restrictionist think tank that has been quite influential.

The press has taken increased interest in these matters. For example, newspapers closely covered the investigation into the death Victoria Climbie, an eight-year-old African immigrant tortured to death by an aunt and her boyfriend. Although British social services were alerted several times to abuse, they did nothing because they wanted to respect African culture. Newspapers have covered non-white crime and school failure heavily, and the magazine Prospect even published an article called “Does Britain Need Immigration?” refuting the view that the economy requires immigrants.

After the Queen told the nation diversity was a strength in her 2004 Christmas message, Buckingham Palace was inundated by complaints, and popular columnist Mark Steyn crystallized the growing discontent by calling multiculturalism a “suicide cult.” With the London bus and subway bombings of July 7, Britain realized it had a full-scale Islamic insurgency on its hands, and several churchmen joined the opposition. A Catholic cardinal said he would not want Catholic children attending Muslim schools, and an Anglican bishop said multiculturalism was preventing the British from appreciating their own culture. Opinion polls of Muslims inspired further doubts about them: 40 percent would support sharia law in Britain and 20 percent sympathized with the London bombers.

Mr. Turner concluded by noting that until now, “even the best of our leaders have been outthought by taxi-drivers and plumbers” when it comes to immigration and multiculturalism, but that encouraging examples of resistance show that Britain may finally be “awakening very slowly from a long, drugged sleep.”

French author Guillaume Fayes’ speech, “The Threat to the West,” warned that catastrophe is near. Western nations are threatened by degradation of the environment, exhaustion of resources, and economies founded on short-term speculation rather than long-term progress. At the same time, Europe is suffering from a radical demographic transformation. The six million Muslims in France now make up 10 percent of the population, and one birth in every three is to a Muslim. Fifteen percent of the population is non-white, and by 2020, Islam could be the largest religion in the country.

Speaking in a strong French accent, but with humor and enthusiasm that charmed the audience, Mr. Faye called the fall in European birthrates “ethnic suicide” or “demographic winter.” At the same time, whites suffer from “ethnomasochism,” or the “cultivated sense of guilt regarding ones own roots, ones ethnic identity and ones history.” “Xenophilia,” or the preference for things that are foreign over those that are native, and “homophilia,” or the prevalence of homosexuality over heterosexuality are also widespread. As a political entity, Europe has “no foreign policy other than the limp-wristed cult of human rights.”

All these signs of “devirilization” presage a decline of civilization similar to that of the Roman Empire, but more rapid. Mr. Faye predicted that economic, cultural and demographic factors will combine to produce economic collapse in Europe between 2010 and 2020. Muslim separatism will increase, and parts of Europe could come under Islamic rule. Mr. Faye predicted civil wars in France and a general assault on the white world, most of the time under the banner of Islam. Although this catastrophe is inevitable, Mr. Faye hoped it would wake up whites to their common destiny. He looked forward to the day when European peoples put aside their differences and unite at the level of race rather than nation.

In “A Benediction for Heretics,” long-time racial activist Sam Dickson brought the conference to a close, in his usual eloquent manner. Racially conscious whites are a small group, he noted, but many major political efforts have been started by small groups. He gave the example of the movement for Greek independence, which was launched by a handful of expatriate Greeks living in Odessa in 1814. Like us, these patriots were few and marginal at the beginning — so much so that they thought of giving up. Like the censors of today, the Turks imposed restrictions on what Greeks could publish, and suppressed not only political but scientific works. Even so, the Greeks were able to liberate their homeland from the Ottomans in just 13 years. Today, race realists face persecution for their views, and science continues to be a threat to tyranny. Egalitarians are losing the fight in the laboratory, with findings that support race realism making the news almost every day.

Mr. Dickson mentioned another, somewhat grimmer reason for optimism. He said the average white American has given up his freedoms, his pride in his history, and his culture. All he has left is his money, and the standard of living of the average American has declined since the 1950s: “When that money is gone,” he said, “the average American will have nothing!” This will be our opportunity.

Mr. Dickson noted that whites still have healthy instincts: they move away when the neighborhood turns brown and don’t want their children to marry blacks. Whites must be taught that these are good, healthy instincts. In what was perhaps the best line of the conference, he said our job is to “put whites back in touch with their feelings.”

Although the idea of “tolerance” has been perverted into a weapon for white dispossession, a race realist movement must have a healthy tolerance in order to succeed. Mr. Dickson emphasized that our racial family is not limited to the middle-class or to people with college degrees or to heterosexuals: we are all part of one racial family and must treat each other accordingly. We must all work for the cause and for each other. He finished by reminding the audience there are far more race realists today than there were supporters of Greek independence in the early years, and that history can move with surprising speed.

Speeches were only one of the attractions at the conference, and for some, not even the main one. AR conferences are a unique opportunity for race realists to greet old friends and make new ones. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being in a room filled with hundreds of people who all understand. Everyone was clearly happy to “be among the living again.” Activists from all around the country and even the world mulled the global crisis over drinks in the lounge and cheeseburgers in the restaurant. They also took the opportunity to meet and speak to figures they had read about in the pages of American Renaissance and even the mainstream media like Nick Griffin and Andrew Fraser. The quality of the speakers and the conviviality of the company promise that the popularity of the conference will only grow.