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The Public Eye, Fall 2017 FALL 2017 The Public Eye In this issue: Hiding in Plain Sight: An American Renaissance of White Nationalism Will Corporations, the Christian Right, and the Tea Party Get to Rewrite the Constitution? Prenatal Diagnosis, Reproductive Rights, and the Specter of Eugenics Life’s Work: A Conversation with Dr. Willie Parker editor’s letter THE PUBLIC EYE QUARTERLY PUBLISHER In Charlottesville, Virginia, this August, Heather Heyer became the latest casualty of Tarso Luís Ramos White nationalism—one of nearly 450 people the U.S. Far Right has killed since 1990. EDITOR When President Trump condemned the violent neonazi marchers in Charlottesville only Kathryn Joyce reluctantly and temporarily, it wasn’t courageous; it was too little, too late. We require far COVER ART more from our elected officials. We call on them to uphold our common humanity as they Jennifer Luxton consider changes to immigration, healthcare, and education, and the need for just foreign policy, law enforcement, and distribution of taxes to fund vital public services. We have no LAYOUT Gabriel Joffe intention of stopping bigotry on the streets only to suffer its continued codification in the laws of our land. PRINTING Red Sun Press The Unite the Right rally Heyer was protesting didn’t arise overnight. Rather, it was de- signed, over months, to be the largest gathering of its kind in at least a decade. Several EDITORIAL BOARD weeks earlier, many of the same activists gathered in Tennessee, at the 27th American Frederick Clarkson • Alex DiBranco Gabriel Joffe • Kapya Kaoma Renaissance conference (pg. 3). Our reporter, Donna Minkowitz, was in attendance, and Greeley O’Connor • L. Cole Parke found at this “annual spectacle of ‘gentlemanly,’ ‘decorous’ White supremacy” a sort of Tarso Luís Ramos • Zeina Zaatari gateway drug for people new to White nationalism. Clad in business wear and pseudoscien- tific rationales, venues like American Renaissance help lay the groundwork for more overt The Public Eye is published by racist demonstrations elsewhere. Political Research Associates While the rise of naked bigotry has horrified many, these movements are not unstop- pable. In an online exclusive, writer Shane Burley delves into the fissures in the Alt Right/ Tarso Luís Ramos Alt Light coalition that predated and helped lead to the deadly rally in Charlottesville. The EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR two groups had come together as an uneasy but potent alliance, as the Alt Right viewed Sarah Burzillo the less ideologically-pure Alt Light as its path to mainstream political power: “a ‘stopover’ FINANCE MANAGER point on the road to authoritarianism.” But over the past year, and particularly since Char- Cloee Cooper lottesville, that coalition has strained, presenting an opportunity for progressives to break RESEARCH ANALYST their momentum. Gabriel Joffe In addition to resurgent White nationalism, an equally unsettling movement has been PROGRAM COORDINATOR building more quietly around the call for a Convention of States (pg. 9) that could radical- Kapya Kaoma ly rewrite the U.S. Constitution. As Peter Montgomery reports, the Right’s long-term vision RESEARCH ANALYST isn’t just to roll back individual rights, but to dismantle the federal government. One under- Greeley O’Connor reported means to that end is right-wing campaigns to trigger the constitutional mecha- COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR nism for a gathering of states to propose new amendments. That’s no pipedream; currently, L. Cole Parke one such effort has 28 of the 34 states necessary to call a “Constitutional Convention.” And RESEARCH ANALYST if it’s held, Montgomery notes, there’s almost no limit to what it could do. As one leader re- Shayna Parker OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR marked, at a preparatory conference simulation last year, a Convention of States can bypass Jennifer Worden the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court. “Anything is possible.” DEVELOpmeNT DIRECTOR Amid these broader battles, the Right continues to chip away at reproductive health care. Zeina Zaatari Scholar Diane Paul looks at the emergence of an anti-abortion “regulatory moment” RESEARCH DIRECTOR around pre-natal testing (pg. 15) that uses disability rights rhetoric to ban more abortions. As prenatal testing has become cheaper and safer, Paul writes, both anti-abortion and dis- FELLOWS ability rights advocates have worried that ubiquitous testing will lead to more “eugenic” Frederick Clarkson • Nia Evans • Tope Fadiran abortions to avoid the birth of children with disabilities or genetic abnormalities. While Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss this subject is emotionally fraught and morally complex, the Right’s proposed solutions are INTERNS as disingenuous as their earlier co-option of feminist and anti-racist rhetoric to ban race- Allison Puglisi • Ashrita Rau • Cam Haigh and sex-selective abortions. As one disability rights activist has noted, this latest right-wing BOARD OF DIRECTORS campaign is intended most of all “to divide and conquer.” Dania Rajendra, Chair While progressive values are under attack on myriad fronts, it’s important to remember Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez the positive values that motivate us. Patti Miller finds some of these in speaking with Ala- Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen bama abortion provider Dr. Willie Parker, about his new book Life’s Work: A Moral Argu- Hamid Khan • Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa ment for Choice (pg. 20). As Parker tells Miller, “I derive that sense of the sacred from my Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier calling to help women in need realize their God-given gifts and agency…To talk about my Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald life’s work in these terms is a counter-narrative to all the mischief that is being done in the FOUNdeR name of Christianity.” Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. In between issues, PRA will continue its coverage and analysis of the Right, with new blog posts, online-only features, and reports every week, so make sure to follow us at po- 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 liticalresearch.org. Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 Kathryn Joyce [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2017 All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 92 www.politicalresearch.org BY DONNA MINKOWITZ Hiding in Plain Sight An American Renaissance of White Nationalism rom July 28-30 in Burns, It’s no accident that Taylor uses TN, nearly 300 White men his Yale alumni email address for in suits and ties—and a American Renaissance commu- smattering of women—at- nications; that conference-goers Ftended a sold-out American Re- talk rapturously about the annual naissance conference, business after-party hosted by wealthy Klan consultant Jared Taylor’s annual lawyer Sam Dickson at an onsite spectacle of “gentlemanly,” “dec- bungalow conference-goers call orous” White supremacy. the “villa”; or that Taylor is one Many of the same individuals of the Alt Rightists most fiercely Tarso Luís Ramos and organizations who showed opposed to discussing economic EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR up at “AmRen” would also turn Sarah Burzillo out for the violent, openly Nazi- inequality. (In a 2014 speech, FINANCE MANAGER signaling march in Charlottes- Taylor called income inequality Cloee Cooper ville two weeks later. But at this a “phony debate,” and falsely im- RESEARCH ANALYST confab, intended to attract White plied that Whites are little rep- Gabriel Joffe resented among the poor.4 This PROGRAM COORDINATOR people just beginning to dabble in contrast with other White na- Kapya Kaoma in White nationalism, they hid RESEARCH ANALYST their ideology behind the benign- tionalist leaders, including Am- Greeley O’Connor sounding language of “White ad- Ren attendees Richard Spencer COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR vocacy” and “race realism.” and Greg Johnson, who express L. Cole Parke “Race realism” is vitally im- anger about exponentially rising RESEARCH ANALYST portant to understanding White income inequality but blame it on Shayna Parker nationalists’ attempts to recruit OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR “the Jews.”) beyond their base, based on two Jennifer Worden Taylor takes the aristocratic DEVELOpmeNT DIRECTOR supposedly scientific “realistic aura of his 27-year-old organiza- Zeina Zaatari facts.” First, that White people tion very seriously. When I asked RESEARCH DIRECTOR surpass people of color in intel- him what demands he thought ligence, as “proven” by racially- Image: www.amren.com White nationalists should make FELLOWS biased IQ tests, and second, that Frederick Clarkson • Nia Evans • Tope Fadiran men will wear jackets and ties—equiva- of the government, he demurred: “De- criminal justice statistics prove people Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss lent dress for ladies,” a dress code that mands are not gentlemanly.” of color’s supposed criminality. A third INTERNS gambit is that history proves “increasing Taylor told me was instituted because it Yet there is no actual evidence that Am- Allison Puglisi • Ashrita Rau • Cam Haigh hatred and violence”1 occur when differ- “encourages a certain deportment and Ren attendees have higher incomes than BOARD OF DIRECTORS ent races live together. With these pseu- demeanor” that bespeaks “civilization.” other White people as a group. The most Dania Rajendra, Chair The dress code, Taylor’s theatrically stern important reason for the AmRen dress Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez doscientific claims, White nationalists request that attendees not scuffle with code is the semblance—not the fact—of Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen strive to recruit White people resistant to 2 Hamid Khan • Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa explicit slurs. protesters, conference organizers’ po- ruling-class membership. Speakers and Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier AmRen, one of only two U.S. White- liteness with media, and AmRen’s un- attendees at the conference kept point- Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald supremacist conferences open to the spoken ban on antisemitic talk were all ing out the visual difference between press, does all it can to project an image intended to make the event seem legiti- themselves and the protesters outside. FOUNdeR palatable to the unconverted, who might Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. mate and respectable, a worthy entrant “We have the best people,” attendee be turned off by people wearing Nazi re- into mainstream political discourse.
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