Breaking news: At the last minute, the American Renaissance 2010 conference has found its fourth location—this time far from the Dulles Airport exurbs: the Skyline Hotel in diverse Southwest DC. [Youcan still register here]
Before I get to my analysis, first let me give a Readers’ Digest version of the facts. Jared Taylor and his race realist American Renaissance have held eight biannual conferences since 1994, the last six taking place in the Dulles Corridor exurbs in Northern Virginia. There has not been a single incident of any violence by the attendees at the conference. I don’t believe there’s even been a hotel staff worker claiming they were called by a bad name.
But the event regularly attracts several to a couple dozen loony left wing protestors who will hold signs like “Nazis [VDARE.COM deleted expletive] off and Die” and will make complaints to the hotels hosting the conference.
Slightly more sophisticated opponents manage to sneak into the conference and try to harm those who attend. The most famous example: at the first AR conference, neoconservative Dinesh D’Souza’s smear got speaker Sam Francis fired from his job at the Washington Times.
In 2006, a prosecutor from Buffalo, NY was fired after he told a reporter covering the conference “You can see European Christian Americans are an endangered species” [Promoting ‘Preservation’ Of Whites in Suit and Tie, By Michael Laris, Washington Post, February 26, 2006] and the Anti-Defamation League complained to his employer.
That year, protesters also began targeting the Dulles Hyatt, which had held the conference since 2000, harassing patrons who were not even attending the conference and stuffing leaflets under the guest room doors.