Fight Racism: Oppose the American Renaissance Conference

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January 25, 2010 by Tariq Khan

Stand against racism; tell the Westin Hotel to say no to the American Renaissance Conference:
I thought this might be interesting to anyone out there interested in fighting against racism. February 19-21, the Dulles Airport Westin Hotel in Herndon, VA will be hosting some of the leading white supremacist “intellectuals” from around the world for the 9th American Renaissance Conference. American Renaissance is a racist website/newsletter edited by Reston, VA resident and infamous white supremacist, Jared Taylor. Every two years, Taylor organizes this conference which brings together many of the country’s most active racists, such as anti-immigration fanatics, neo-nazis, and ex-Klansmen to listen to talks given by leading white supremacists. For example, David Duke, former grand master of the KKK, has been involved in past American Renaissance Conferences. People connected to the neo-Nazi website stormfront.org (which has as a motto “white pride worldwide”) have been faithful supporters of the AR conference over the years. American Renaissance argues that racial integration and respect for racial and ethnic diversity are the main reasons for the country’s problems and that the solution is the “separation of the races” and a ban on non-white immigration. Jared Taylor uses long-debunked pseudo-science to claim that black people are genetically pre-disposed to have lower IQs than white people and that black people are naturally prone to violence and crime. 
American Renaissance is the new face of the white supremacist movement. When most people think of white power groups, the image of drunken, “trashy rednecks” who can barely produce coherent sentences, or idiotic, violent skinheads comes to mind. American Renaissance is trying to change all that in an attempt to bring white supremacist ideas into respectable, mainstream society. For example, it is a rule that all males who attend the conference (and it is almost all males who attend; not many women ever show up), must wear a jacket and tie. This, presumably is to hide all of the smelly confederate flag t-shirts and swastika tattoos that conference attendees, like the Keystone State Skinheads, would have showing otherwise. Also, they never use words like “racism”, or “white supremacy” to describe themselves. Hilariously, Jared Taylor refers to himself as a “race relations expert”. He also calls himself a “race realist”. The term “race realist” is just code for “white supremacist”. They also never publicly use terms like “nigger”. Instead, they use academic language to argue ideas that are just as racist as the word “nigger” is.
In recent years, anti-racist activists have worked to expose this new “jacket and tie” racism for what it is. As a result of their work, many hotels in the area will not agree to host the conference. Four years ago, the Dulles Hyatt Hotel hosted the conference, but refused to ever host it again after anti-racism activists told the media and guests in the hotel about the conference. Two years ago the Dulles Crowne Plaza Hotel hosted the conference, and they too, have decided to never host it again when they realized that having their brand associated with white power is bad for business. Anti-racists have told other hotels in the area the truth about what American Renaissance is, and it has become increasingly difficult for these white supremacists to find a hotel to host them. As a result, American Renaissance used a different name to deceive the Dulles Westin Hotel into hosting them. They used the name New Century Foundation to get the Westin to host this year’s conference.
I encourage anti-racists to call or email the Westin to let them know what the New Century Foundation Conference really is and to encourage hotel management to stand up for racial equality by refusing to host white supremacist gatherings. You can call them at 703-793-3366, or email them at info@westindulles.com.
Note that I am not arguing for anyone’s free speech rights to be violated. I’m not calling for any laws to force these trashy racists to keep quiet. I’m not calling for any laws to force the hotel to refuse to host racist conferences. I believe in free speech. White supremacists have the right to engage in whatever kind of stupid, racist speech they want to. The Westin Hotel has a right to host whoever they want to host. The Westin Hotel also has the right to refuse to host white supremacists and to stand up for racial equality instead. Anti-racists have the right to let the Westin know what we think of them hosting a racist conference, and we have the right to expose the American Renaissance Conference by calling the hotel and by letting the public know about it. We have the right to refuse to give our business to hotels that host white supremacists and to encourage others not to stay at such hotels. There is a saying, “the cure for hate-speech is not to limit free speech, but rather, the cure for hate speech is more speech.” Let’s engage in “more speech” by calling the hotel and encouraging them to cancel the American Renaissance Conference.
Dulles Westin Hotel: 703-793-3366 or email info@westindulles.com