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A Convocation of Bigots: The 1998 American Renaissance Conference
THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER American Renaissance bills itself as "a literate, undeceived journal of race, immigration, and the decline of civility." The American Renaissance World Wide Web page contains a dissertation entitled "What We Believe." The essay reads in part:
"Race matters. It is part of human biology. Policies based c the assumption that race can be made not to matter have failed. New policies must recognize the central roles of race and racial identity. If welfare keeps encouraging high birth rates among blacks and Hispanics, whites will soon become a minority in the United States. This would irreversibly change our nation. Our bedrock values, our entire way of life would be swept away. Unless the EuropeanAmerican majority defends its legitimate interests, Western civilization will slowly disappear from this continent. American Renaissance speaks for that majority and for the culture that the majority alone will cherish and preserve."
Pretty strong stuff. But this is not the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Brotherhood. American Renaissance, founded in 1990, appeals to the racial extremists in the academic far right. Its gums are the so-called scientific racists such as Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, J. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario, and Michael Levin of the City University of New York. In most instances, the scientific racists believe in and actively teach the biological inferiority of black people.
American Renaissance, published by the New Century Foundation, is funded in part by the New York City-based Pioneer Fund. Each year the Pioneer Fund dispenses about $1 million in grants to scholars and organizations involved in establishing a genetic basis for racial inequality. Recipients of Pioneer Fund grants have included William Shockley and Arthur Jensen, both of whom have made careers devoted in great part to teaching that black people have inferior IQs.(*)
The editor and founder of American Renaissance is Samuel Jared Taylor. He was born in Japan, the son of a liberal Presbyterian missionary. It is reported that his father is a gentle man who appears to be totally mystified by the racist activities of his son. After moving back to the United States at the age of 16, young Taylor flirted with socialism. He...