www.thornwalker.com/ditch/nowicki_ar2011.htm


 Notes from Underground

 

The 2011 AR Conference

What "diversity" means in Charlotte
(and everywhere else)
 

By ANDY NOWICKI

 

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I'd planned to write a piece covering the American Renaissance conference that was to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, the weekend of February 4-6, 2011.

I had what I thought was a very clever and provocative lead for the story. I was all set to "out" myself as a regular attender of previous conferences, including one whose events I discussed in these virtual pages seven years ago.

In my official "outing," I planned to disavow any sort of adherence to "white nationalism" or hard-core racialism, and to express no sympathy whatever for Nazism of any flavor, including the "neo-" variety. But I also intended to predict that those demurrals would ultimately do me no good in the court of Zeitgeist-manipulated and -directed public opinion.

After all, we live in an age when indulging in even a casual flirtation with intellectual heresy renders you an effective nonperson, to be reviled and abandoned by all decent folk. If you question racial egalitarianism in the mildest way, or at the very least think that people who dispute the entrenched multicultural dogmas are interesting or refreshing, you might as well be a brutish, murderous concentration camp commandant darkening the screen of a lurid black-and-white Spielbergian cinematic nightmare. There is simply no middle ground in today's world: you are either a good person who believes exactly what you're told on racial matters, or you're a vile "hater" who deserves to go to Hell forever, a scarlet "R" for "racist" perpetually branded on your despicable, hatin' heart.
 

What happened in the days leading up to the Charlotte shindig of course only affirmed my standing assessment of how people of my mindset are regarded by our betters, and by their endless legions of useful, brainwashed lackeys and suck-ups.

For as every connoisseur of contemporary thoughtcrime now knows, the 2011 American Renaissance conference did not take place. It was doomed, in fact, the moment that two men of a melanin-rich complexion got wind that these "American Renaissance" people were ideological heretics, blasphemers of all that is good and decent in our brave, new America.

Those powerful men, a Charlotte city councilman with the additional title of "mayor pro-tem" and one of his colleagues, apparently put the squeeze on the conference venue, the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel, which in no time caved in like a good little boy and pulled the plug on hosting the conference, not minding, it seems, that this amounted to a highly dishonorable and perhaps illegal breach of contract — and entailed what AR founder Jared Taylor described as a "five-figure" cancellation penalty and the loss of "tens of thousands of dollars in revenues." No matter. Excluding the hated and marginalized, as we all know, is now the best way to display just how "inclusive" and "pluralistic" one is. The Sheraton management heard that message loud and clear, as did most other hotels in the area, apparently, for scramble as he might, the über-dapper, patrician-mannered, perpetually jacket-and-tie-wearing Taylor was unable to secure any other venues in Charlotte or its suburban environs.

On February 2, I received the doleful news by e-mail: CONFERENCE CANCELED. Needless to say, I was bummed, and (excuse my Urdu) pissed. I'd looked forward to another fascinating gathering, taking in several riveting talks, and getting to meet various people who'd been nothing but nice to me in our heretofore mainly electronic interactions. Granted, there had been an element present at AR conferences that had struck me as a mite unsavory. But those folks at least struck me as interestingly off-color, as opposed to the boring pervs and freaks one sees nightly on TV, who are freaky in all of the ways we're instructed to believe are harmless or even delightful. In any case, I didn't (and still don't) feel in the least "indicted" by the company I shared during previous conferences, just as I never even slightly wish to shun or ostracize anyone who reads and enjoys my articles here or elsewhere merely because our ideologies or aesthetics may not fully jibe.

What's more, I'm sure that, as in previous years, some of the themes explicated in certain speakers' talks would have struck me as troubling. But putting aside the — let's say — highly textured ideological and temperamental nature of the AR demographic, what is one to make of the fact that, for the second year in a row, the conference itself has been prevented from even getting off the ground? That during both the 2010 debacle in D.C. as well as this year's ordeal of getting shut-out in Charlotte, even having a clearly arranged contract with a hotel offered no guarantee? What has changed? Who or what is to blame for the ramped-up atmosphere of intimidation?
 

Those attempting to answer that question have posited many and varied notions. Some blame a higher degree of intolerance for people who challenge the glorious doctrines of multiculturalism in this enlightened era of the ascendant Mulatto Messiah (peace be upon him) occupying the half-White House. Others hold mainstream, "respectable" conservatives responsible for selling their more radical, unreconstructed, paleo brethren down the river for political expediency, a loathsome phenomenon we witnessed last month when Fox News falsely claimed that crazed spree killer Jared Lee Loughner was an AR supporter. Still others point to the ever-present racial double standards that commonly hold sway, whereby black, yellow, or brown pride is by nature good while pride in one's whiteness can only be sinister; and whereby the notoriously bigoted black supremacist Louis Farrakhan is awarded a key to the city of Charlotte, while the polite and straight-laced white race-realist Jared Taylor is absurdly castigated as a thuggish reprobate.

And certainly, all of those unfortunate cultural trends contributed to the AR conference members' inglorious banishment from their arranged accommodations in Charlotte. More than anything, though, it seems that the local Melanin Mafia got away with their heavy-handed, tyrannical schemes for one simple reason: Nobody stopped them.

It goes without saying that a gathering of activists of a different stripe — racially or ideologically — would never have faced such difficulty, however objectionable most people might find their views or behavior. Can you imagine, for example, what would have happened if the Sheraton had reneged on its contractual obligations with a homosexual-rights group after speaking with a couple of highly placed local pols who were homosexual-unfriendly? Much more than fur would be flying, and worldwide pressure would be brought to bear against the offenders until they caved in and let the queens have their way in the heart of the Queen City of the South. And resigned in disgrace, probably, after tearfully — and vainly — begging for forgiveness on bended knee. The same goes for every other ethnic or left-wing group, and possibly even a few mildly conservative ones. It would be considered gauche and offensive to prevent such groups from having their little bitch sessions in your hotel ballroom; but for some reason a couple hundred white guys in shirts and ties (and a smattering of white women in ballroom gowns) talking about issues relating to race aren't accorded the same courtesy. Go figure.

Perhaps Jared Taylor and his fellow AR-arbeiters could have done a better job preparing for contingencies, as some have quietly, or not so quietly, have alleged. It certainly is frustrating to get chopped off at the knees two years in a row like this, and in two different cities. But the fact is, the reason such things happen is mostly out of our control. We are all increasingly subject to the whims of a master class who rule us with arbitrary decrees that can be shifted or changed at the merest whim. They can find ways to stop us from meeting, to cancel our votes, to strike out the majority's mandates with the stroke of a pen, declaring them "unconstitutional," because, well, because they say so, THAT'S WHY! We have seen it happen time and again, on issue after issue. It's not going to change, and very few civil libertarians are going to stick their necks out for us. When the chips are down, most people are opportunistic, not principled. There is no upside in defending purported "white supremacists" or "Nazis." Most purported defenders of free speech haven't, and won't.

Of course it's all appallingly unfair. But the heartily freethinking man shouldn't become preoccupied with how his ideas are relentlessly misunderstood, misrepresented, and impugned. For him, the pursuit of truth is a worthy goal in itself. The examined life is the only life worth living, even if it means enduring a few bumps in the road, and some broken friendships and heartache, as well as the inevitable betrayal of cowards and sycophants.

In short, it's part of the romance of living with uncompromising intellectual integrity, dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to your beliefs and ideals. It comes with the territory, comrades. We should live it, love it, glory in it. Great is our reward.  Ω

February 22, 2011

Published in 2011 by WTM Enterprises.

Mr. Nowicki's earlier column on AR:
"Does white plus might make right? — Thoughts on a divide at the American Renaissance Conference"
(March 5, 2004)


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