Brian Rainey and Carlo Baca
Queertoday.com
Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Max Blumenthal and Edward Sebesta of the Southern
Providing a platform for ultra-right, anti-gay propaganda seems to have become an October tradition for the predominantly black
Last October,
This year, on Oct. 15,
Outrageously, both of these October events, which the historically abolitionist church agreed to host, have ties to organizations or individuals explicitly connected to racism.
NARTH’s Slavery Apologist
Last year, one of the “Love Won Out” conference’s featured speakers was Joseph Nicolosi, President of the anti-gay “professional” organization, the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH). Over the past few weeks, NARTH has been fiercely (and rightly) criticized for posting an extremely racist essay on their website.[1]
This essay, written by Dr. Gerard Schönewolf, a member of NARTH’s advisory board, said that slavery was a good thing because it rescued slaves from their “savage,” “uncivilized,” and “unindustrialized” lives in
Schönewolf’s racist tantrum was harshly condemned by the Exgaywatch.com blog, the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Truth Wins Out,” ex-HRC staffer Wayne Besen’s organization dedicated to fighting “ex-gay” ministries, the National Black Justice Coalition, a black LGBT organization and QueerToday.com.
The controversy over the essay prompted NARTH’s site-administrators to quietly take it down and post a disclaimer saying that what is said on NARTH’s site does not reflect the official position of NARTH—basically saying that they are not responsible for the racism expressed by a member of its advisory board. To this day, NARTH has offered no explanation, let alone an apology for Schönewolf’s essay.
Tony Perkins and White Supremacy
When it comes to
According to the Federal Elections Commission’s Conciliation Agreement, which was signed by ex-Sen. Jenkins himself, “After the 1996 primary election in Louisiana, David Duke contacted Woody Jenkins and recommended that he use the services of a computerized phone bank system run by Impact Mail.”[2]
Though Duke intiated the transaction between the Jenkins campaign and Impact Mail, both Perkins and Jenkins claim they had no idea the phone bank was connected with Duke when they bought it.[3] According to them, they thought they were innocently doing business with Impact Mail and were oblivious to the fact that Duke, the one who contacted Jenkins about the phone bank in the first place, had anything to do with it.
This is highly unlikely for a couple of reasons. First, we know that at least one Republican knew Duke was connected with Impact Mail. As Max Blumenthal, author of the widely cited “Liberty Sunday Preachers” article in The Nation pointed out on his blog,
Foster was later accused of buying the list in order to keep Duke out of the gubernatorial election. As a result, Foster was investigated by the Louisiana Board of Ethics, who found that Foster illegally failed to publicly disclose the money spent on Duke’s list:
In 1995, Foster met with all other potential gubernatorial candidates, including David Duke, to discuss views relative to the campaign. When meeting with Duke, he was informed by Duke that Duke did not intend to seek the governorship. At that meeting, Duke offered to sell Foster the use of his computerized list of conservative voters. It was agreed by Duke and Foster that Foster would pay Duke $100,000 for the one-time use of the list during the 1995 campaign and that if Foster was elected, he would pay Duke an additional $50,000 for the right to use the list in 1999 should Foster seek reelection. Duke advised Foster that he had arranged for the transfer of the computerized list to be made through Impact Mail & Printing, Inc. (Impact Mail), a firm in
We really do invite people to read all of the findings of the Louisiana State Board of Ethics because there are some striking parallels between Foster’s and Jenkins’ dealings with Duke—namely that both campaigns were reproached for failing to disclose financial transactions with Duke and both campaigns funneled money through other sources.
The important thing to keep in mind is that Duke was up front about his connections with Impact Mail when he dealt with Foster, and when Foster bought the list from Duke, he knew exactly who he was buying the list from. Jenkins and Perkins would have us believe that they were duped into buying a phone list connected with Duke—even though Duke felt no need to trick Foster a year earlier.
Believing in Perkins’ innocence would also force us to accept that he would blindly sign an $82,000 contract for a phone list that he knew very little about. $82,000 is an exorbitant amount of money for a phone list. It’s so exorbitant that according to the Times-Picayune (
If someone is going to spend astronomically high sums of money for a phone list, they are going to want to know why it’s so expensive and justify the investment.[8] The only way someone would know that the phone list was a good investment is if they had pretty good knowledge about its effectiveness. And who would be the only person that would have knowledge about the effectiveness of the list? The former KKK Imperial Wizard himself, David Duke.
Duke’s lists were effective and special precisely because they were associated with Duke. According to an AP article, Duke “said his lists boast strong fund-raising potential.” Duke suggested other lists that go for 7 to 10 cents a name “are general mail lists that are used by 100 people.” Conversely, according to Duke, the list the Jenkins campaign received was “very intensive” and when the Jenkins campaign bought the list, they bought “an exclusive use of the list; no other candidate, no other person could use it during a specified time period” (emphasis added).[9] In other words, Duke’s list was so expensive because it was exclusive. The exclusive, special nature of Duke’s list is even more evidence that Jenkins and Perkins knew Duke was involved. Why else would they invest a large amount of money in it?
Perkins’ version of the story would have him comfortably signing an $82,000 contract without having a very good reason to invest that amount of money in a phone list. That would make him an incompetent campaign manager for dumping so much money on a list without knowing anything about it. More likely, he did have a good reason to invest so much money—the special and exclusive nature of David Duke’s phone list.
Perkins protested that “Woody [Jenkins] didn’t even tell me that this was the same company Duke had used…I would have been totally opposed.” These pleas to ignorance and claims of revulsion at white supremacists are especially spurious when considered in the context of Perkins’ other interactions with racists.
Were the Duke incident the only instance in which Perkins found himself tied up with a racist, we could, perhaps, give him the benefit of the doubt. But Perkins also spoke in front of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) not once, but twice—once in 1997 and again on
However, since Perkins spoke to the CCC for a second time in 2001, he would be hard pressed to resort to this lame excuse. In 1998, nearly three years before Perkins spoke to the CCC a second time, both Sen. Trent Lott and Rep. Bob Barr received widespread national media attention (and outrage) for speaking in front of the CCC—and both politicians used the “I-didn’t-know-their-politics” copout. The national tumult over Lott and Barr that year even prompted US Rep. Thomas Wexler to sponsor a House Resolution condemning the racism of the CCC.[11]
Leaving aside the obvious question of why someone would not investigate a group before speaking in front of them twice, for Perkins to be unaware of the CCC’s views three years after a scandal erupted because of politicians’ ties to the group, is beyond belief.
Even more disturbingly, a picture of Perkins featured in the Summer 1997 issue of Citizens Informer shows that he addressed the CCC in front of a humungous flag with an all-white field and a Southern Cross (the Confederate battle flag) in the corner. This particular flag was the second official flag of the Confederacy, adopted in 1863, and was explicitly designed to represent white supremacy. William Thompson, editor of the Savannah Morning News, and the one who proposed the design of the flag, said:
Our idea is simply to combine the present battle-flag with a pure white standard sheet; our Southern Cross, blue on a red field, to take the place on the white flag that is occupied by the blue union in the old -United States flag, or the St. George's cross in the British flag. As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.[12]
The Confederate Congress was disturbed that a flag with so much white could be easily mistaken for a flag of surrender, so they suggested adding a blue stripe in the middle. But Thompson was dissatisfied and said:
If for no other reason they should discard the bars, and every thing that resembles or is suggestive of the old stripes. While we consider the flag which has by the Senate as a very decided improvement of the old
After hearing Thompson’s suggestion, the Confederate Congress adopted Thompson’s racist flag on
First of all, it is absolutely inexcusable that Perkins would ever be comfortable speaking with any symbol of the Southern slaveocracy as his background. We don’t care what the revisionist historians and Confederate apologists say, the literature of Civil War period, the statements by political leaders of the Confederacy, as well as good sociological analysis shows that the war was actually about slavery. Also, the ties between the Confederate battle flag (not Thompson’s flag) and white supremacy are well documented, and the Confederate battle flag was undeniably a symbol of resistance to Civil Rights during the 1950s and 60s.
Secondly, we cannot believe that Perkins would speak in front of a group that displayed a Confederate flag (incidentally one specifically representing white supremacy) so prominently and not wonder about the group’s political views. Even if one were delusional enough to believe that the Confederate battle flag does not represent slavery or resistance to Civil Rights, it is frequently used by Neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other racist groups. For Perkins to speak in front of a group that used this particular flag, without asking any questions or without being prompted to further investigate the group is recklessly irresponsible. Or, more probably, he was well aware of what the CCC’s politics were, but did not care.
Perkins’ three connections with white supremacists raise the question of why he would associate with these despicable people. Is Perkins a racist? We think it is unlikely that Perkins agrees with the particular articulation of racism espoused by the Council of Conservative Citizens or David Duke. We do, however, believe that he spoke in front of the CCC knowing full well their racist views, and probably bought Duke’s list on purpose. No one just accidentally stumbles into not one, not two, but three associations with white supremacists.
If you are an ultra-reactionary politician in the
A statement at the end of a Times-Picayune article cited above provides good insight into the thinking of right-wing politicians in the
Earlier this year Duke ran for Congress when Bob Livingston resigned. In the May 1 primary, Duke came in third with 19 percent of the vote. [Ex-Gov.] Foster refused to get involved in the campaign, drawing criticism from anti-Duke activists who demanded that he repudiate Duke as a racist. Foster refused, just as he refused to repudiate Duke's support in the 1995 governor's race. [14]
An open racist got 20 percent of the vote in his district (and earlier got as high as 32 percent of the Republican vote in the 1991 gubernatorial race). The white supremacist message obviously has a large following among Louisiana Republicans. Later, a gubernatorial candidate, Mike Foster, knew this and refused to distance himself from a white supremacist’s support. This shows that the right-wing machine in the South is clearly dependent on racism for power—despite their public denunciations of racism. Perkins and Jenkins are no different. Apparently, Foster, the only one willing to openly embrace Duke, was also the only one willing to be honest about it.
Charles Pickering, Sr.
The other “
While we believe in continuing our Southern way of life and realize that outside agitators have cause [sic] much turmoil and racial hatred, let there be no misunderstanding, we oppose such activities, but law and order must prevail (emphasis added).[17]
More recently,
Of course,
Two of the three defendants in the cross-burning case agreed to a plea bargain, in which the Justice Department took part, that put the two men in home detention on a misdemeanor, but avoided jail time.
On the basis of the evidence,
It did not make sense, Pickering reasoned, that the actual ringleader — who had previously shot a rifle into the window of the interracial couple's home and had a history of fighting with blacks in school — should get no jail time while Swan would be imprisoned for 7-1/2 years.[19]
“And There Was No One Left to Speak for Me…”
The Rev. Ray Pendleton, pastor of
Many leaders of predominantly black churches are so blinded by irrational homophobia that they are willing to deal with far-right politicians to support their own prejudices. But these deals with the devil will bring a torrent of Faustian consequences on the black community. Over the past few decades, LGBT people have not been the only targets of the Right’s offensive. They have also been gunning for affirmative action and, more terrifyingly, they have been working overtime to promote the idea that institutional racism is nonexistent and that blacks should simply “get over” the historic legacy of discrimination in
As the racist essay posted by NARTH and Tony Perkins’ interactions with white supremacists show, the anti-gay Right is a political coalition that includes open racists and people who want to turn back the clock on Civil Rights. That’s a reality that black churches and church leaders have to account for when they flirt with the Right.
[1] Gerard Schönewolf, “Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History.” Internet.
[2] Federal Elections Commission.
[3] Jenkins denies knowing the list was connected with Duke in “Duke Unsure About His Taxes; He Can’t Recall Telling IRS about List Income.” Times-Picayune. 28 May, 1999 and in a letter to the editor in the
[4] Blumenthal.
[5]
[6] “Foster Paid Duke $150,000 for Voter List; Ex-Klansman Takes Fifth in Testimony before Grand Jury.” Times-Picayune.
[7] According to an AP article about the Foster scandal, “
[8] One political consultant said, “The main reason for buying a political mailing list is to get a return on your money, as well as a possible profit.” See Rita, “Price.”
[9] Rita, “Price.”
[10] Citizens Informer 28. Summer 1997, p. 7; Citizens Informer 32. March-April 2001, p. 13. Very special thanks to Edward Sebesta of the Southern Poverty Law Center for taking time out of his busy schedule and digging through his files of Citizens Informer.
[11]
[12] George Henry Preble, The Origin and History of the American Flag, 2nd Edition. (Philadelphia: Nicholas Brown, 1917 [1876]): p. 526.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Sayre, “Governor, Duke.”
[15] Ralph Neas, “Ralph Neas Responds to the Wall Street Journal Editorial” Internet.
[16] Dan T. Carter (et. al.), “Historians’ Petition Against the Nomination of Charles Pickering.” Internet.
[17] Ibid.
[18] People for the
[19] Nat Hentoff, “Justice Denied a Good Judge” Jewish World Review.
[20] Carter, “Historians’ Petition”
[21] PFAW, “Editorial Memorandum,” p.5.
[22] Ray Pendleton, “A Note from Our Pastor” Online.
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