In the wake of John Derbyshire’s racist article at Taki’s magazine and subsequent dismissal from National Review, I have just learned (via @silviobreckman) that another National Review writer, Robert Weissberg, appeared at the annual American Renaissance gathering alongside white supremacist and Political Cesspool radio host, James Edwards.

Robert Weissberg (left) alongside white supremacist James Edwards and Jared Taylor on the right.

American Renaissance Conference Takes to the Woods
by Leonard Zeskind
April 5, 2012

• Robert Weissberg argued that white nationalism itself should be abandoned in favor of finding segregated white enclaves to live in—which is what many white people are already doing. — Leonard Zeskind

• In his 2010 Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, he claims that Hispanics and blacks have lower IQs than whites and Asians, a difference, he claims, that is genetically determined. — Wikipedia

That the American Renaissance 2012 conference took place at all was a cause for minor celebration by the participants. The scientific racists, academics, lawyers and assorted white nationalists who attend these events had been frustrated for the several years by the anti-racists who had successfully protested their events, rendering it nearly impossible for them to fool a private hotel in a big city into booking their confab. So, this time the so-called racial realists retreated to the Tennessee woods. Specifically, American Renaissancers had to drive almost an hour west of the Nashville airport before they got to Montgomery Bell State Park, where they parked over the 16-17 March weekend. They were all pleased with the results: A quiet affair amidst beautiful surroundings with little noise intruding from the outside.

Robert Weissberg

By all accounts, the anti-Semites in the mix kept quiet about the “real enemy,” while American Renaissance chief Jared Taylor tried to construct a viable white nationalism without open hatred of “the Jews.” David Duke did not attend and stand up and demand a discussion of the people he loves to hate. Michael Hart did not pull out, insulted that David Duke had been allowed to pull off his unseemly stunt. There was little snarky national socialist sideline banter like that which acolytes of William Pierce had produced in the past.

James Edwards

The main subject at hand is always the problems created by people of color and white liberals who want to live in a society of political and social equality among the races. And Jared Taylor spoke as if this crowd of racists was really a group of Copernicus-like seers into the workings of the universe. Unlike the first Renaissancer conference that took place in 1994 at an Atlanta airport hotel, however, this event focused less on the “problem,” and more on finding a solution. Various forms of eugenics were proposed. Sam Dickson once again proposed the “ethno state,” not mentioning, of course, the Yugo-like bloodshed and horror that would be necessary to institute such a thing. American Third Position (A3P) presidential candidate Merlin Miller, a Hollywood film industry insider turned white nationalist, told the crowd that his was the only party concerned with “white dispossession.” And Robert Weissberg argued that white nationalism itself should be abandoned in favor of finding segregated white enclaves to live in—which is what many white people are already doing.

Read the whole thing at IREHR.

Leonard Zeskind is an American human rights activist, and president of the Institute for Research & Education of Human Rights (IREHR).

He worked in industry for thirteen years. Since 1982, he has been a community activist and human rights advocate. He is known for his research into extreme right, racist, and anti-Semitic organizations in the United States.

He is a lifetime member of the NAACP, and has served on the board of directors of the Petra Foundation, and the Kansas City Jewish Community Relations Bureau.

American Renaissance at SPLCenter

Founded: 1990
Location: Oakton, Va.
Profiled Leadership: Jared Taylor

Ideology: White Nationalist

Founded by Jared Taylor in 1990, the New Century Foundation is a self-styled think tank that promotes pseudo-scientific studies and research that purport to show the inferiority of blacks to whites — although in hifalutin language that avoids open racial slurs and attempts to portray itself as serious scholarship. It is best known for its American Renaissance magazine and website, which regularly feature proponents of eugenics and blatant anti-black racists. The foundation also sponsors American Renaissance conferences every other year where racist “intellectuals” rub shoulders with Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.

AmRen Conference Held in Tennessee
by Henry Wolff, American Renaissance
March 19, 2012

The first speaker Saturday morning was the always stimulating Robert Weissberg, Emeritus professor of University of Illinois at Champagne, who proposed “A Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism.” He argued that any movement that is explicitly based on white racial identity is “dead on arrival,” and must be repackaged in order to win successful recognition. The reality—that racial nationalism “is intuitive and written in our genes” and that even children are conscious of race—is a huge advantage for those who want to build a racial movement, but any white movement today that takes an explicitly racial stand will fail: “We are considered just above child molesters.” Prof. Weissberg also noted that there is no economic advantage to promoting white racial consciousness, and that most people do not act without financial incentives.

In 1999, Robert Weissberg wrote the following for American Renaissance:

In Defense of the Racial Spoils System
Today’s corrupt racial system may be the best we can expect.
by Robert Weissberg

I would like to advance a thesis that all AR readers — myself included — will find loathsome: Namely, that the existing racial spoils system (affirmative action, the double standard in crime, “sensitivity” towards black deficiencies, and everything else) is the best possible deal we can get under today’s deplorable circumstances. Perhaps “real-politik” more accurately describes my argument. Black-white co-existence is a little like having an incurable medical condition. Nothing even faintly resembling a commendable fix is on the horizon, and present corruptions are the best obtainable. This is a truly disturbing view but, alas, harshly realistic.

Let me state the argument starkly. I suspect few readers will challenge the facts except for point 6.

1. The black-white difference in cognitive ability is, at least for the foreseeable future, both large and intractable. The gap’s source — whether genetic or environmental — is irrelevant for present purposes. Remaining differences in accomplishment cannot be eliminated by combating discrimination, racism or any other nefarious white scheme, regardless of what blacks and their white allies contend. Top-down, hugely expensive remedial efforts to equalize intelligence have failed, and effective eugenic solutions are not possible in today’s political and moral climate.

2. Economic rewards generally follow the contours of intelligence, regardless of race. This has been established empirically and is obvious in daily life. Moreover, unless there is an egalitarian revolution, this intelligence-income nexus will probably grow closer. Blacks themselves may be making matters worse by promoting Afrocentric education and insisting on lower competency standards. The tenacious attachment of most blacks to preferential treatment is a tacit admission of their inability to compete. Without government intervention blacks will secure substantially less wealth than whites.

3. Blacks want the material rewards of modern society, especially what can be consumed personally (clothing, electronic appliances, cars), as much as anyone. Without white generosity, blacks cannot satisfy this material quest, so, predictably, it now defines the black political agenda in the form of so-called “economic justice.”

4. Blacks generally have a well-deserved reputation for hair-triggered collective violence. Such mayhem is easily but unpredictably provoked — a routine traffic stop can destroy an entire neighborhood. While the actual turmoil may involve depraved underclass blacks, it is usually defended by middle-class black politicians and academics.

Continues.