Record Turnout for 2000 American Renaissance Conference

More than 200 people from all around the country gathered in northern Virginia over the weekend of March 31-April 2nd for the fourth American Renaissance conference. The mostly-American audience was joined by participants from Canada, England and France. A small protest by a far-left student group provided added entertainment to what all participants agreed was an entirely successful conference.

The meeting was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Reston, Virginia, and began with a Friday evening cocktail reception. The general session on Saturday opened with Richard Lynn of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, who discussed the history and impact of Third-World immigration on Britain. He noted that despite Enoch Powell’s famous warning that “we are building our own funeral pyre,” non-white immigration continues in the face of popular opposition. Arranged marriages, false documents, chain migration, and haphazard enforcement of immigration laws have resulted in an increase of non-whites from 300,000 to three million from 1961 to 1991 — a ten-fold increase.

Prof. Lynn says there is so much black-on-white violence and anti-police rioting in Britain that it can be likened to a low-level civil war. Blacks in England — particularly Caribbean blacks — resemble American blacks, with problems of unemployment, crime, illegitimacy, and low IQ, while Indians and Chinese are generally better adapted. He warned that unless current trends were reversed whites could become a minority in Europe by 2100.

Syndicated columnist Samuel Francis followed with a lecture on “Race and the American Right.” He agreed with a recent assertion by Weekly Standard editor William Kristol that “the conservative movement is finished.” In fact, said Dr. Francis, it has been finished ever since Republicans and conservatives refused “to stress issues such as immigration, affirmative action, multiculturalism and anti-white attacks.” While National Review was never centered around race, in the 1950s and 1960s it took positions similar to those of AR. Republican politicians right up to George Bush won elections by appealing, at least subliminally, to white interests.

Conservatives no longer do this, said Dr. Francis, and are even on the wrong side of some issues like immigration. He predicted that George W. Bush will not mention race at all in the 2000 campaign because the GOP has already ceded moral legitimacy and cultural domination to the left in the hope of gaining respectability. He said its hopes could be paraphrased as, “Maybe if we don’t talk about race, immigration or IQ, they will think we are O.K,” and urged the right to reclaim the moral authority to talk about race in realistic terms.

In a discussion of his latest research on race, Philippe Rushton spoke of a recent trip to South Africa. He tested the IQs of university blacks in the expectation that they would be approximately one standard deviation above the general population, as is the case with European students. The average score he found of 84 for African university students suggests a devastatingly low average of 70 for the population as a whole. If this figure is accurate, it would mean half the African population is retarded by European standards. Perhaps it is more fruitful to think of African IQs at this level as indicators of mental age rather than evidence of retardation.

In support of the view that racial differences in IQ have genetic origins, Prof. Rushton showed slides demonstrating that whites have brains six percent larger, and Asians eight percent larger than those of blacks. He also explained that brain size has a cascading effect on the body, influencing everything from the width of the birth canal to jaw structure and pelvis size. Biological differences affect many kinds of behavior, and world AIDS rates show a clear racial pattern. Over eight percent of black African adults have HIV compared to 0.2 percent of Europeans and 0.05 percent of Asians.

In the question-and-answer period Prof. Rushton discussed reasons why Asians appear to be less dynamic and creative than whites despite higher IQs. He mentioned several theories, including differences in temperament, a larger standard deviation in the distribution of white IQs, and the possibility that higher achievement by Westerners over Asians “may be only a temporary blip in history.”

After lunch, Jared Taylor discussed the prospects for whites in the coming century. Noting that “the twentieth century has been a disaster,” he pointed out that only 100 years ago whites had unchallenged global influence. Since then, two world wars, non-white immigration, and a dramatic loss of confidence have made whites unable to defend their own interests. Whites are now, he said, almost at the point of “reconciling themselves to oblivion.”

Mr. Taylor noted we have essentially made a “state religion” out of diversity and egalitarianism, and that no white can rise in the media, academia or politics without professing allegiance to this cult. Like communism, few people really believe the cult’s absurd dogmas, but most are afraid to speak out. Still, he saw evidence that more and more people are challenging orthodoxy and are starting to say publicly what most believe privately. He concluded that history, science, and ordinary Americans all give reason to expect a regeneration of white racial consciousness.

Bruno Gollnisch, a member of the European Parliament and the second-ranking officer in the French Front National, explained the nature and objectives of his political movement. He defined its members as patriots who are trying to preserve “Western civilization and French civilization.” The FN values historical tradition and is composed of “peaceful, civilized French people who do not want to be foreigners in their own land.” Nevertheless, front officials are routinely slandered by the media, and public debates about the FN are generally held without representatives from the party. As the left-wing press explains, there is “no freedom for the enemies of freedom.”

Dr. Gollnisch argued that the idea of nation, far from going out of fashion or losing its strength, is as vigorous as ever. Pointing out that the Soviet Union split into 15 different nations, he asked: “If so many people have dreamed to become nations, there must be something in human nature that makes it natural.”

Even so, the West faces a grave challenge. “Civilizations are mortal,” said Dr. Gollnisch, noting the possibility that ours may be beyond salvation. He urged the audience to consider it its duty either to keep it alive or to at least save as much of it as possible. Even if Western ideals are eventually replaced by something else, they might still offer an indispensable basis on which to build.

In brief remarks, Gordon Baum of the Council of Conservative Citizens described the successful activist work of his group and how it has attracted new members by standing up for European-Americans. With his usual good humor, Frank Borzellieri discussed his fight against the diversity cult as member of a New York City school board, columnist for a Queens newspaper chain, and host of a cable television program.

The after-dinner speaker was Frank Ellis who defied warnings from his university not to attend the conference. Prof. Ellis caused a controversy in England when the Guardian and other newspapers reported he was to speak to the AR conference on race relations in Britain. His employer Leeds University ordered Prof. Ellis to change his plans and travel only on Saturday and Sunday, thinking this would stop him from coming. They misread their man. He flew in on Saturday afternoon, delivered his speech that evening and flew back again early Sunday morning to be back in time for his Monday-morning classes — after a stay in the United States of a little over 12 hours.

Prof. Ellis, an expert on the Soviet Union, noted how today’s political correctness shows signs of the same intellectual tyranny that characterized Communism. He cited as an excellent example of this the recent “MacPherson Report” on alleged police mishandling of the 1993 murder of a black teenager in Britain. The report savaged the police as “institutionally racist” and insisted that the case was bungled because of “bigotry.” The report also took it for granted that whites killed the young man out of pure racial hatred. Prof. Ellis pointed out that this was by no means established, yet the government and media never wavered in their certainty.

He argued that the media rarely show an interest in possible racial motivation when blacks kill whites — something considerably more common than the reverse. Prof. Ellis argued that hysteria of the kind displayed by the MacPherson Report and the fantastic invasions of privacy it advocates in the name of anti-racism are natural outgrowths of multiculturalism. “The record of multicultural societies,” he said, “is not a good one but if you point this out you are a racist.” He sees signs that the British are fed up with racial orthodoxy and says the practice of multiculturalism in Britain is “shamelessly hypocritical.”

The conference resumed on Sunday with a speech by Robert Weissberg on the relationship between blacks and Jews. He said that despite their private fear and dislike of blacks, Jews have loyally supported black causes. He noted that Jews created the NAACP, provided lawyers to fight civil rights cases, and supplied more than half of the “Freedom Riders.” “Perhaps only Israel has drawn more fervent support in the pantheon of Jewish causes,” he remarked. The unsettling result has been an increase in sometimes violent black anti-Semitism, and unceasing attacks on Jews by black leaders.

Prof. Weissberg argued that despite public professions of solidarity, Jews fear black crime and violence, and loathe black ineptitude and sloth. Jewish academics resent the price they pay for affirmative action and are repelled by the Afrocentric “scholars” who are now their colleagues. Jews are the first to move away when a neighborhood changes, and do not socialize or intermarry with blacks.

Prof. Weissberg said this apparent schizophrenia is explained by the Jewish desire to use blacks as a potential ally against white gentile anti-Semitism. He said Jews fear the potential anti-Semitism of white gentiles far more than the day-to-day criminality of blacks, and that this fear is deeply ingrained. At the same time, he predicted a growing number of Jews will adopt a white nationalist view. Jews under the age of 40 remember the 1991 Crown Heights riots, not the 1960s “Freedom Marches.” Today’s “politically homeless” Jews are increasingly disenchanted with both liberalism and neutered conservatism, and are increasingly open to racial appeals so long as they are free of anti-Semitism.

Roger McGrath spoke about the reconquista or “reconquering” of California by Mexicans, a goal openly endorsed by Mexican and Mexican-American officials. He noted that 70 percent of the students in Los Angeles County public schools are Hispanic, and half of them are illegal. The county spends $10,500 per student — well above the national average of $6,000 — with most of the difference due to the expense of teaching children who cannot speak English. Even so more than half of the students cannot meet the requirements to proceed to the next grade, though any attempt to maintain standards is met with shouts of “racism.” The reconquista is claiming northern California as well. In 1965, 95 percent of the students in San Francisco were white. Now, only 12 percent are white.

California’s generous welfare attracts immigrants. Over 60 percent of births in Los Angeles County are to illegal aliens, because they can get free, First-World medical care and U.S. citizenship for their babies. Immigration also brings crime, with Mexican gangs now committing more murders in California than black gangs. Illegal gang members are rarely deported; instead they spend years in jail at public expense. Between the costs of crime, education, and social services, illegal immigrants cost the average California family about $1,200 a year.

It is not only whites who are bitter. Blacks in South-Central Los Angeles complain about ethnic cleansing and the loss to illegals of entry-level jobs. The reconquista is also responsible for overpopulation and the ensuing environmental degradation. Prof. McGrath noted that during his lifetime the population of California has gone from 7 million to 33 million.

Addressing his fourth AR conference, Sam Dickson discussed the demonization of whites who want to preserve their race and civilization. Because we do not have a voice in the media we are easily labeled as “racist,” and blamed for violence committed by whites in the past. Mr. Dickson noted that “lefties and anti-racists are never found ‘guilty-by-association’ the way we are.” He proposed that we call egalitarians “levelers” and tie them to the violence done by all levelers from the French Revolution to Stalin and Mao.

Mr. Dickson also decried the “tolerance” double standard, pointing out that it is contemptibly hypocritical of those who would banish any dissent from their program of egalitarianism and “diversity” to call us “intolerant.”

Jared Taylor closed the conference with the wish that “the spirit of the West” might go with the conferees as they returned to their homes.

There was reasonably good media attendance, with reporters from the Washington Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newhouse News Service, and Gannett News Service. Several lengthy articles have already appeared. A New Jersey cable station taped parts of the conference, but C-Span, which has covered AR conferences in the past, did not appear.

As it has done before, a group calling itself “Anti-Racist Action,” demonstrated against “Nazism” outside the hotel on Friday evening. The nearly 20 scruffy youngsters — all white — were invisible and inaudible from the hotel, and had no effect on the conference, as they shouted and waved signs at passing cars. Several had hair dyed in neon colors and others wore safety pins in their earlobes. Passers-by were sure to conclude that anything this lot were protesting had to be very worthy indeed.

With yet another very successful conference behind it, the American Renaissance staff is already looking ahead to the next one, likely to be held in the spring of 2002.