February 11, 2008
The Southern Poverty Law Center Must Add Itself To Its List Of "Anti-Immigrant Hate Groups"
From
Peter Gadiel
The
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has grabbed a
very lucrative and seemingly permanent seat on the
fundraising gravy train by
smearing organizations it claims are
"anti-immigrant hate groups."
But recently the SPLC
itself attacked an immigrant ethnic minority using the
exact same language which, when used by other
organizations, it
denounces as hate speech and proof that they are
nativist
"hate groups."
The SPLC is going to have to add itself to its
list of hate groups!
SPLC’s modus operandi
for
fundraising based on smear is simple, dishonest and
vicious. It assumes for itself the authority to define
what is a "hate group." It broadens that
definition to include
political speech—any viewpoint that doesn’t strictly
adhere to the SPLC’s Politically-Correct party line. It
adds these groups to a list which already includes the
Klan,
neo-Nazis, etc in order make the list seem credible
and to affirm dissenters’ guilt by associating them with
those that legitimately qualify as “hate
groups”. Then it trumpets to its donors that
"hate groups" have so proliferated that America is
in imminent danger of becoming a fascist dictatorship
run by those hate groups —and that giving to SPLC is
essential if this rapid descent toward fascism is to be
stopped.
Of course, the readers
of VDARE.COM already know that, with SPLC’s highly
elastic standards, anyone and any group that dares speak
out against illegal immigration is eligible to be
condemned by these
witch hunters as "anti-immigrant, xenophobic,
fascist, racist, bigoted," etc., etc., etc.
But the SPLC has now
posted on its website a vicious anti anti-immigrant
screed directed at legal immigrants from Russia. (See it
at
The Latvian Connection West Coast Anti-Gay Movement
on the March By Casey Sanchez, SPLC Intelligence
Report, Fall 2007)
Some excerpts:
The SPLC diatribe even
quotes one young woman who says that, since these
Russians came here, "I get afraid now… I used to
consider Sacramento a safe place…to raise a family."
"Now,"
ominously intones the SPLC, she’s "not so sure.…"
Many of the standard
techniques that the SPLC deems, when used by others, as
"hate speech" are contained in this attack. For
example, identifying the targets as "Slav" and
"Slavic" would ordinarily result in an SPLC claim
that one is trying to isolate the minority and mark them
as being different.
Identifying the targets as "first or second
generation immigrants" would in any other
circumstance result in the SPLC claiming this
“proves” the speaker is a
xenophobe and
anti-immigrant.
The SPLC attack also
notes that the targeted minority are guilty of speaking
a foreign language. Let VDARE.COM criticize
someone
for not speaking English and SPLC will shout that
VDARE.COM is against
"diversity," is
"racist" and is inciting
fear and hatred because it is critical of people who
refuse to assimilate and implying that this makes them a
threat.
And how about that
phrase "Scarf-wrapped babushkas"? How is that for
stereotyping? Here’s a phrase that drips with contempt
for those whose habit of dress is “un-American.”
.Substitute "burkha-wrapped" and you have the
very term which the
SPLC would jump on as proof that others are "anti-Muslim,
anti-immigrant, xenophobic."
The SPLC even quotes a
person who appears to be of that most highly suspect
hate group, the native-born American: "I get afraid
now" because of these Slavic, foreign speaking,
scarf-wrapped, immigrants. You can hear the
hatred for people who are different!
To lend credibility to
its allegation that the targeted minority is dangerous,
the SPLC points out that two of them have been
"charged" with a crime. Hey, don’t La Raza, ACLU and
SPLC types always lecture us about how being charged
with a crime does not mean one is
necessarily guilty? And what ever happened to the
idea that just because a
few members of an immigrant minority are criminals,
that doesn’t mean the rest aren’t "just here to
do the work that Americans won’t do?"
It is indisputable that
the SPLC language is intended to encourage hatred of
Slavs, since it employs the exact phrases and
techniques which, when used by others, are denounced by
the SPLC as "hate speech." The SPLC’s entire
marketing plan and income stream are based on attacking
speech such as this, and yet here is the SPLC using the
very same language. No other conclusion is possible: the
Southern Poverty Law Center, according to its own
standards, must label itself a hate group.
Supporters of the
Southern Poverty Law Center need not read further; you
have read all the facts you want to know. Now you can
add the SPLC to your personal list of hate groups.
I will address the rest
of my commentary to those who don’t profiteer from
slander and half truths, which is to say those who
require all relevant facts before they make a character
judgment.
The relevant fact is
this: the "Slavic, foreign speaking, scarf-wrapped,
immigrants" that SPLC attacks have, it claims, used
violence at least once against members of Sacramento’s
homosexual and lesbian community, and have strongly
criticized homosexuality.
If those claims are
correct, then these Russian immigrants certainly deserve
to be criticized for their actions.
But, recall, the SPLC
standard for judging hate groups does not allow for
consideration of wrongful acts committed by the
immigrant minority; simply criticizing them is an act of
hate.
Using this simple
standard the SPLC has listed hundreds of groups on its
"Hate Watch" whose only crime is opposing illegal
immigration.
You say that citizens of
foreign nations who choose to immigrate to the United
States should do so in accordance with our law?
According to the SPLC you’re a hater. You dare to speak
of the prevalence of
gangs,
organized violence and
drunk driving among illegal aliens? You oppose
giving
driver's licenses to millions of people who
illegally come to the United States? You oppose
free education for illegal aliens? Oppose
rewarding illegals with citizenship or giving them
free medical care, the right to vote, a
government backed mortgage, the benefits of
affirmative action? Want employers of illegals
punished? Don’t want illegals
hanging out on your streets knocking on the windows
of passing motorists? Want
fences on our borders to
keep out illegal aliens?
Take any of those
positions and, according to the SPLC, you and yours
qualify as a hate group.
Picture in your mind
some
Uriah Heep/Joe
McCarthy characters combing the newspapers day after
day looking for some half truth that can be distorted to
fabricate a charge of hate against somebody whose sole
crime is holding an opposing opinion. These are the
people at the SPLC. The only way to expose them is to
confront them directly and aggressively. VDARE.COM has
dared to do so. And SPLC, in worst witch hunt fashion,
has added it to its list.
The problem for SPLC is
that too many Americans have awakened to the dangers of
illegal immigration and thus are in agreement with the
views that VDARE.COM presents. This overwhelming public
opposition to illegal immigration (over 80%) has
resulted in more federal and state legislators opposing
the SPLC’s pro-illegal agenda: more legislative defeats
for the open border lobby; increasing media coverage of
the damage caused by illegal immigration; and
ever-rising number of anti-illegal immigration groups
These factors have
forced the SPLC to attack so many individuals and groups
that its credibility is disappearing.
It isn’t pleasant to be
falsely labeled "racist, xenophobe, fascist" even
by the likes of the SPLC. But the best defense against
such lies is to keep doing what we’ve been
doing—demanding full and equal application of American
law
regardless of race and national origin.
This will pressure the
SPLC, the
ACLU, and LaRaza, to cry wolf even more frequently.
And remember, the little
boy who cried wolf wound up losing his flock.
Peter Gadiel (email
him) is president of
9/11 Families
for a Secure America.
His son, 9/11 World Trade Center victim James
Gadiel (North Tower, 103rd floor),
was 23 at the time of his murder.
