News conference drama as Mr. Taylor points out blatant hypocrisy.
Jared Taylor of American Renaissance booked his 2011 conference in Charlotte with the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel. However, days before the event was to take place, the hotel informed Mr. Taylor it was breaking its contract with him.
It turned out that Patrick Cannon, who is Charlotte’s mayor pro tem and also a city councilman, had contacted the hotel and pressured it to keep Taylor’s group from meeting. Cannon, a member of the powerful Mecklenburg Black Political Caucus and a life member of the NAACP, sent an email to a constituent that read: “I have all hotels, motels, and gotels [sic] on notice and they seem to be cooperating well still.”
Taylor held an outdoors news conference at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Governmental Center on January 31st, a raw, cold day. Despite the weather, all the major news organizations attended, including Mi Gente, a Spanish-language publication.In his opening remarks, Taylor recapped what the city of Charlotte had done to his group, and asked for an apology, as well as replacement facilities for his conference. He read the text of the email Cannon authored, and announced that another city councilman, Warren Turner, may have also worked behind the scenes to pressure area hotels to deny Taylor and his organization their right to free speech.
“We think better of Charlotte than this,” he told reporters. “We call on Patrick Cannon and Warren Turner to consider how their actions soil the reputation of their city. We believe they should support free speech. We believe they should take a stand for genuine tolerance of a genuine diversity of ideas.”
Taylor, who calls himself a “race realist,” said that his group openly advocates for “white interests.” No one in Charlotte objected, he said, when the Latino advocacy group La Raza, which he translated as “The Race,” met there, nor did local government take action when Louis Farrakhan visited, even though Farrakhan has made statements that Taylor characterized as “vile things” about Jews and whites, such as claiming the US government purposely flooded New Orleans to kill blacks.
The reporter for Mi Gente asked Taylor if his group was white supremacist. He responded that the people of Japan or Israel or Mexico could be called “supremacist” because of those nations’ strict enforcement of immigration laws. Then he asked the reporter a question. “Your paper is called ‘Mi Gente,’ which means ‘my people.’ Who are your people?”
“Everyone,” she said, raising her hands in the air.
“Everyone?” Taylor asked.
The reporter shrugged. “The entire Latino community.”
Taylor pounced on this. “And if you wanted to associate with your people, or hold a conference, do you think you would be allowed to do so here in Charlotte?”
The reporter busily scribbled notes.
One group that made no bones about their intention not to support free speech showed up as well. Five protestors who said they were members of Anti-Racist Action approached Taylor. With members of the Charlotte police poised at the edge of the courtyard, one of the protesters yelled obscenities at Taylor as he began to speak.
When Taylor concluded his Q&A, the reporters turned to the black-garbed protestors. One of them, Michael Behrle, boasted, “American Renaissance will not hold a convention in Charlotte. If they try, it’ll be just like Canada,” referring to the violent disruption of the American Renaissance conference in Halifax in January, 2007.
“That sounds hypocritical,” said one bystander.