I am sure you know by now about the White Supremacist conference that was held in Washington, DC only mere blocks away from the White House. It was organized by a group called the National Policy Institute led by a 30-something Neanderthal named Richard Spencer, a guy who has spent more than enough time rubbing elbows with conservative elites within the Beltway over the past decade.
What has unnerved people more than anything is the image of attendees in the conference giving the Nazi salute as Spencer bellow out a speech declaring America a White nation and cheering the election of Donald Trump with these words:
"Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!"
Today, people are realizing what kind of threat these people pose. Politicians, pundits and media outlets are all trying to learn who they are, what they are about and where do we go from here. And truth be told, I am glad that they are finally coming around to taking this seriously. Because we have been on top of this for well over a decade, and long before they started to adopt cutesy terms to describe themselves like “alt-right”, we were telling people exactly who they were and how to fight back – at a time when they didn’t want anyone to pay attention to them.
White Supremacists like this thrived from a rather antiquated notion among some that if you ignore them they would go away. In truth, ignoring them is what they wanted. That way they would be able to work in stealth without anyone who would otherwise stop them in their tracks from causing them any problems. But when you have an organization like One People’s Project recording their every move, reporting on all the key players and basically shining a light on them when they thrive in darkness, that complicates things. And complicate things we did.
We called such attention to conferences sponsored the White Supremacist publication American Renaissance that venues in Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC shut their doors to them, forcing them to retreat to a Tennessee state park just outside Nashville to hold their events, where they have held them for the past five years.
We exposed the connections that conservative propagandist James O’Keefe and his onetime employer Andrew Breitbart had to the neo-Fascist right, years before Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon became the topic of controversy because of those ties his media outlet had and the positions he routinely taken.
We sounded the alarm against Richard Spencer and the National Policy Institute for years, all the while being told that they were irrelevant and should be ignored. Because of that, we ended up being the go to source of information about who and what makes up what is called the “alt-right”.
Our work is not done. It is very far from being done, especially now. There are new people coming to the forefront, and the ones that have been around for some time have been emboldened. Ironically, that in many ways makes it easier to expose them. They tend to forget that regardless of how much they rise, we are still a society that has rejected it to the point where it is unacceptable in one that considers itself free. And we will fight it until that element is diminished. Significantly.
We need your help. Many have donated to us over these past few months and we are very grateful, but we must ask to continue that support. We are going around the country teaching everyone how to deal with this threat and we are working on our online presence to make sure that the information we provide is easily accessible and updated. We are also doing more outreach with future events and conference workshops in an effort to encourage others to get on board with us. None of that is possible without the much-needed support you provide.
Will you be able to chip in $5 or more to help us continue our work? I can assure you, the return on whatever you give will be immeasurable!
Again, I would like to thank for all the support that everyone has given and we will always remain committed to this fight. We will most certainly keep the pressure on!
Sincerely,
Daryle Lamont Jenkins
Executive Director, One People’s Project