Dispatches from the Creation Wars

Now an activist organization that monitors hate groups has produced a photo of O'Keefe at a 2006 conference on "Race and Conservatism" that featured leading white nationalists. The photo, first published Jan. 30 on the Web site of the anti-racism group One People's Project, shows O'Keefe at the gathering, which was so controversial even the ultra-right Leadership Institute, which employed O'Keefe at the time, withdrew its backing. But O'Keefe and fellow young conservative provocateur Marcus Epstein soldiered on to give anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism an opportunity to share their grievances and plans to make inroads in the GOP.

According to One People's Project founder Daryle Jenkins, O'Keefe was manning the literature table at the gathering that brought together anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism. OPP covered the event at the time, sending a freelance photographer to document the gathering. Jenkins told me the table was filled with tracts from the white supremacist right, including two pseudo-academic publications that have called blacks and Latinos genetically inferior to whites: American Renaissance and the Occidental Quarterly. The leading speaker was Jared Taylor, founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance.

Is this all true? Well, maybe. Blumenthal is not averse to oversimplifying just a bit in his reports, so it's important to look at the details. The Washington Independent's Dave Weigel was at this event as well and he writes that while O'Keefe was definitely at the event, he did not see him selling racist literature:

Max Blumenthal's story about "James O'Keefe's race problem" leads with an account of an August 30, 2006 after-work event hosted by the Robert Taft Club in Arlington, Va., where John Derbyshire and Kevin Martin joined Jared Taylor -- the editor of the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance -- to discuss "race and conservatism." Earlier today, I posted my own account of that event and some context about the culture of see-what-we-can-get-away-with political correctness among young conservatives.

Apparently, the One People's Project is citing me as a corroborating source on the event -- but there are aspects of their story I can't confirm. While their photo of O'Keefe is definitely from the event, I took it on the photographer's word that O'Keefe was pictured "as he maintained a literature table near the panelists." I can personally confirm that he was there, but not that he was manning the table -- nor that O'Keefe "planned" the event (as Blumenthal put it) with Marcus Epstein, who was president of the Robert Taft Club.

Here's how I came across the story: On Jan. 27, the photographer (who goes by the name Isis) from the One People's Project called to ask me if I had any photos of the event. She remembered seeing me there -- it was one of several RTC events I attended, including one where Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) spoke. I explained that I didn't, but compared my version of the event with hers. She told me that she had photos of the event, but the full photos had been taken by the FBI in a raid. All she had on hand were cropped headshots of people who were at the event.

She emailed me the photo of O'Keefe, and I immediately recognized him from the event. And she told me that, unfortunately, the cropping had removed the table he was sitting at, which included copies of American Renaissance magazine. I remembered the table -- curious, I'd grabbed a copy of the magazine, which was, of course, incredibly racist -- and took her word that the photo showed O'Keefe sitting there. In the photo, after all, we can see a man walking out the door and O'Keefe's head is much lower than his. But could I personally confirm that O'Keefe was manning the table at an event I attended four years and several phones/cameras ago? Well, no. I suggested that the story didn't really have legs if O'Keefe wasn't selling literature or hadn't planned the event, as, well, people like me had shown up. It was a debate, after all, with two people -- one of them African-American -- ganging up on the truly ridiculous Taylor.

Fast forward to today and the Blumenthal article. Blumenthal writes that One People's Project founder Daryle Jenkins was the source for the "manning the table" claim. But I can't confirm that, because I don't remember who was at the table at any particular time. All I know is that O'Keefe was there and he was working for LI at the time.

If OPP is able to retrieve its original photo and clear this up, it should do so.

Merely being at the event is not evidence of anything because, as Weigel notes, this was actually a debate and Taylor was being heavily criticized. And of course, people like Weigel were there as well. There's no particular reason to doubt the account of OPP at this point, but it would be nice to have more than that account to make the case.

Blumenthal's article cites more evidence:

By O'Keefe's own account, his racial troubles became acute when he entered the multicultural atmosphere of Rutgers University's dormitory system. In an online diary that has since been scrubbed from the Web (but not before being captured on Daily Kos), he wrote that he was forced to live on an all-black dormitory floor after refusing to live with the gay roommate he was initially assigned. O'Keefe claimed his next roommate was "an Indian midget ... who smelled like shit." The roommate left, however, and was replaced by "a greek kid." The new roommate complained to a residential administrator that O'Keefe had called his neighbors "niggers," prompting the school to expel him from the dorm. He rejected the accusation as a "complete lie," writing, "I was lead out of the room crying and screaming at him and my situation, no friends, no one one [sic] to talk to, forced to go in front of a black man, Dean Tolbert, to defend myself and help explain that I did not call anyone any names."...

Meanwhile, O'Keefe lost his job at the Leadership Institute in 2008 for a prank call he made to an Ohio-based Planned Parenthood clinic. During the call, O'Keefe offered a donation to the clinic on the condition that it would be earmarked to pay for aborting African-American fetuses. "Because there's definitely way too many black people in Ohio," O'Keefe remarked to the receptionist. "So, I'm just trying to do my part."

Weigel has a more nuanced look at young conservative activists and the fringe of right wing racism.