Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
My Michigan Messenger colleague Todd Heywood reports on a speech at MSU by Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party. Griffin was invited to speak at MSU by the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the university. YAF has been complaining for months about being listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and to be fair, I do think the SPLC tends to throw around that label a bit too casually at times. But not, it would seem, in this case.
If you don't want to be considered a racist hate group, you don't invite people like Griffin to speak. And you certainly don't put out press releases gushing over Griffin like this:
Kyle Bristow, the chairman of Michigan State University chapter of YAF, said, "It is an honor to host Nick Griffin at my university. Griffin is going to explain how multiculturalism, mass immigration, and Islam are destroying Western civilization."
Now, words like "multiculturalism" can mean many things, and I don't believe that being opposed to illegal immigration or being a fierce critic of Islam (as I am myself) makes one a racist; but one doesn't have to dig far to find out that what Griffin means by being opposed to "multiculturalism" and "mass immigration" is that he is opposed to whites mixing with other races at all. The constitution of the party he leads makes this quite clear:
The British National Party stands for the preservation of the national and ethnic character of the British people and is wholly opposed to any form of racial integration between British and non-European peoples. It is therefore committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent, the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948.
The BNP, unsurprisingly, limits their membership to those of white European descent. Griffin also preaches holocaust denial. He says that hundreds, "maybe thousands", of Jews were killed in Eastern Europe by the Nazis because they were communists, but that the existence of gas chambers were "nonsense" (see video here). And during his appearance at MSU, as Todd reported, he had similar things to say.
For instance, he said that would "shove homosexuals back in the closet and kill them." He also said, "We don't believe in integration. Integration is extermination." And, ""You seek to deny the white people of the world the right to collect in their own community and self determinations; then you are a racist." That's all standard white supremacist rhetoric.
He was accompanied at his appearance at MSU by Preston Wiginton, who was co-administrator with MSU YAF leader Bristow of a white supremacist Facebook group. Wiginton has long posted on the white supremacist website Stormfront.org. When confronted about that at MSU, he replied:
"I have not been to Stormfront in a year," said Preston Wiginton to questions about his ties to the white supremacy website.
Oh, well, I guess that settles it. "How dare you say I'm a white supremacist, I haven't been to a KKK cross burning in months." That was also a lie, by the way, as a search shows that he has been posting on the Stormfront forums under his usual nickname, True American Patriot, as recently as July 29th of this year. And some of what he has to say is quite interesting. Like in this post, where he talks about the need to commit violence against "muds" (meaning, of course, dark-skinned people):
Beating down a mud when they try to poisen one of our own or when they try to seduce one of our girls may not be God inspired, but rather a rightous act of collective preservation.
Love the predictable misspellings; why is it that white supremacists rarely have anything about which to genuinely feel superior? Or this post, where he brags about having put more than $50,000 into "White Nationalism" in 2006.
YAF may not like being called a hate group, but they're just ducking into the punch. You invite white supremacists to speak on campus and, as far as I'm concerned, it's game, set and match. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
Let me say one more thing: there were not only attempts by opposition groups at MSU to disrupt the speech, there were also threats of violence. Todd reports that a group of protesters chased some YAFers around campus. They also did the same thing they did last year when they pulled the fire alarms during Tancredo's speech. This kind of action I condemn without reservation; those who engaged in it should be arrested and charged and, if they are students, disciplined by the university. Whether they are racist or not, the same first amendment that protects our speech also protects theirs. And kudos to Todd Heywood for speaking out against those actions.
Comments
Hmmm...perhaps this post should've been titled "The Definition of Chutzpah"! What were these YAF people thinking?
It is sad, however, that yet again protesters concluded that they have the right to disrupt a speech if they don't happen to agree with it.
Posted by: Gretchen | October 28, 2007 10:25 AM
Griffin's been trying to remodel the BNP to become "electable" like the French NF (Le Pen's group of wackos). As such, he has, supposedly, tried to tone down the vicious hatred the BNP vomits.
So what is the YAF up to? My guess (ignoring the possibility of shady dealings on the part of Griffin and/or others) is simply that he isn't French. The NF had a good election in 2002 (when Le Pen came in second), making them a rather successful bunch of vomiters. The NF was admired by the vomiters all over Europe and, I assume, elsewhere. I suppose that success also influenced Griffin and the BNP; and/or listening to Le Pen, the NF, et al. for advice was, back then, perhaps the thing to do.
But the NF bombed, badly, in this year's election. So they may no longer be the vomiters' poster bullies. So listening to Le Pen, the NF, et al. for advice is, perhaps, no longer the thing to do.
Enter Griffin and the BNP. They want to emulate the NF's previous success. I presume they also dream of taking over from the NF the position of European poster bullies. Less successful groups like the YAF presumably want to emulate the "best". And the BNP isn't French. (We're dealing with xenophobes here, so that quite possibility matters.) So why not ask Griffin, as the leader of the vomiters who might become the cesspit champions, to speak?
Posted by: blf | October 28, 2007 11:43 AM
Surely there is enough about the man's ideas to criticize, rather than worrying about spelling in a blog post. I seem to recall, Ed, that you yourself managed the Freudian slip yesterday of writing "Whitewater" when you meant "Blackwater." And you know what? I missed that too when I read it, and was bemused when I came back through to see that several posters had caught it.
It appears that Mr. Griffin is on a speaking tour right now, as Google News lists appearances at Clemson and Texas A&M also. I didn't see any news stories of protests at either of those venues, although that would not be surprising.
The BNP at large is going to have a hard time growing electorally because it seems to hate everyone, not just immigrants. They are also opposed to homosexuals, labor union members, and women who work outside the home: They could probably hold their convention in the same phone booth Alan Keyes uses.
Posted by: kehrsam | October 28, 2007 1:28 PM
This highlights a growing split in the conservative anti-jihadist movement: Those who think ultranationalists i.e. fascists are beyond the pale, and those who do not.
Little Green Footballs: "If this was another case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," it couldn't possibly be more misguided."
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27710_BNP_Leader_Invited_to_MSU_by_Conservative_Students&only
LGF has also been criticized by usual allies for denouncing Vlaams Belang.
The MSU YAF appears to be a paleoconservative, pro-Ron Paul organization. Paleoconservatives are neo-isolationist and are opposed to the Iraq War (and so appeal to progressives in that regard), but have an ethnicist conception of national identity. While liberal interventionists and neoconservatives stress alliances with friendly Muslims (Kurds, Iranian democrats etc) and include some Muslims and Arabs in their ranks (most famously Zalmay Khalilzad), paleocons and their ethnic nationalist allies tend to be generically anti-Muslim.
I suspect this schism on the right will grow as more European fascist and ultranationalist groups get on the anti-jihadist bandwagon and attempt to create a popular front with mainstream conservatives.
Very recently, some neofascist groups professed sympathy for Islamic militants, emphasizing their shared anti-Zionism.
http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=416
Neofascists viewed the anti-globalization movement as an opportunity to promote their 'Third Positionist' ideology
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/role/globdem/credib/2002/0913fascist.htm
Posted by: Colugo | October 28, 2007 1:35 PM
Follow the money. Who is contributing to YAFers (which is what we referred to them as in the 1970s.
Stewie Griffin is more astute than Nick.
Posted by: raj | October 28, 2007 4:48 PM
OK Todd, I have posted little at SF this last year,,, very little. I consider SF to be a bunch of nutzies.
By the way Todd been arrested for going to the bathroom lately?
Posted by: Preston Wiginton | October 29, 2007 10:21 PM
Preston Wiginton wrote:
What a coincidence, so do I. The fact that you've posted little this year doesn't change the fact that you are one of the nutsies that posts there, nor does it change the fact that you're a white supremacist who openly talks about committing violence toward "muds" and spews hatred toward Jews.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | October 29, 2007 10:34 PM
Now that we have Mr. Wiginton's ear, I'd like to know how Tyler Whitney, being that he's gay, is getting on with everyone else in your group, in particular Mr. Bristow.
Whitney is in good company. Gay men built YAF. Bob Bauman, Terry Dolan, Marvin Leibman. It's a shame; YAF was far classier back then.
Posted by: Jon Rowe | October 29, 2007 11:18 PM
Now I know this may sound a bit wacky, but what really gets me about the BNP is their economic policy. I despise racism, really hate the anti-immigration lot, and a friend of a friend was killed by a BNP member in Southampton, in the south of England, a few years ago for being an Afghan immigrant. So I hate them, but mostly, I don't see why anyone - even hardened racists - would vote for them. They want to close the economy, which for a densely populated island like the UK is insane, beyond insane. It's insane for any nation, but for a developed, economically powerful and multicultural nation like the UK it's beyond that.
It just goes to show that if you believe in unscientific, illogical, hate-filled silly rubbish like British nationalism and racism, then you are probably prepared to accept any other illogical and batshit crazy premise or policy.
Posted by: Alex | June 11, 2008 2:46 AM