Thursday, February 28, 2008

Looking for empathy in the mirror
































On February 24, 2008, dreamacttexas published a post titled "The American Renaissance of White Racial Preservation." This post was based on a conference held in Washington DC that highlighted speakers noted for their right wing, anti-immigrant positions.

In a paradoxical way, the American Renaissance Conference reminds me of the new blog that has over 5 million hits in only six weeks. The name is stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com . Both the conference and the blog, albeit from different angles, are dealing with the same issue.

White people need to find their ethnicity too. Ever since they were forbidden to have their "white only" clubs - they have been culturally lost, spending their lives seeking the perfect coffee maker. Blacks have their clubs, so do Latinos, women too. But you hear about a white guys club and you automatically think RACIST! It might have been that way before, and probably still retains some of that need to keep out undesirables. But it is important to remember that there is another, very significant aspect of identity-making that takes place in these clubs that are limited to only one type of member. If you hang around people that look and think like you. - you usually find empathy (yes, even right wing evangelicals can be empathic with their own kind) -

Speaking of empathy; Obama is saying that the country has lost it's ability to be empathic. I agree. The American Renaissance Conferences and the stuffwhitepeoplelike blog are telling us that white people are desperate to find a solid coherent group so they can re-find their lost identity and connect with someone that "understands."


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Guardian Diary - London
Hugh Muir
Thursday, February 28, 2008

What a swell party it was. Those lucky enough to get to the American Renaissance conference in Washington at the weekend - a yearly meeting of the nastier thought champions of the far right - had much to enjoy.

There were hot tickets like J Philippe Rushton, "the world's foremost scholar of racial differences". Also Bruno Gollnisch, the second-ranked executive of the French National Front, and Sam G Dickson, a "longtime racial activist" and lawyer to white supremacist groups. Michael Walker, once a leading light in the British National Front, was also billed to appear...

...one of the speakers to gain most attention - the after-dinner speaker in fact - was our friend Ashley Mote, the MEP for the South-East, who having served his prison sentence for benefit fraud, is finding new ways to exploit his freedom. His theme was Britain's "immigration crisis", and though some had misgivings about listening to a convicted criminal, reports suggest he went down well. Despite a pending appeal to the House of Lords, he may never be taken seriously as a politician now, so if he is mining the rich seam that is redneck cabaret, good luck to him. He did wrong, it's true. But a man's gotta eat...


diary@guardian.co.uk

for link to complete Guardian article click the title of this post

image: http://www.world-mysteries.com/illusions/sci_ill_mirror.jpg

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