Jared Taylor

For the rugby league player, see Jared Taylor (rugby league).

Jared Taylor
Taylor in 2008
Born	Samuel Jared Taylor (1951-09-15) September 15, 1951 (age 73) Kobe, Japan
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University (BA) Sciences Po (MA)
Occupation	Editor of American Renaissance
Known for	Belief in scientific racism Advocacy for voluntary racial segregation
Title	President of the New Century Foundation
Movement	White supremacy
Partner	Evelyn Rich [1]
Children	2 daughters

Samuel Jared Taylor (born September 15, 1951) is an American white supremacist ^[2] and editor of American Renaissance, an online magazine espousing such opinions, which was founded by Taylor in 1990.

He is also the president of American Renaissance's parent organization, New Century Foundation, through which many of his books have been published. He is a former member of the advisory board of The Occidental Quarterly and a former director of the National Policy Institute, a Virginia-based white nationalist think tank. ^[3] He is also a board member and spokesperson of the Council of Conservative Citizens. ^{[4] [5]}

Taylor and many of his affiliated organizations are accused of promoting racist ideologies by civil rights groups, news media, and academics studying racism in the United States. ^[10]

Early life and education

Taylor was born on September 15, 1951, to Christian missionary parents from Virginia in Kobe, Japan. ^{[11] [12]} He lived in Japan until he was 16 years old and attended Japanese schools up to the age of 12, becoming fluent in Japanese. ^[11]

He attended Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1973. ^[12] Taylor then spent three years in France and received a Master of Arts degree in international economics at Sciences Po in 1978. ^[13] During a period that interrupted his undergraduate and later graduate college years, he worked and traveled extensively in West Africa, improving his French in the Francophone regions of the continent. ^{[11] [12]} Taylor is fluent in French, Japanese, and English. ^[12]

Career

Taylor worked as an international lending officer for the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation from 1978 to 1981, and as West Coast editor of PC Magazine from 1983 to 1988. ^{[9] [12]} He has also taught Japanese at the Harvard Summer School, and worked as a courtroom translator. ^[14]

In the 1980s, at the time of the country's strong economic growth, Taylor was viewed as a "Japan expert" in the mainstream media. In 1983 he published a well-received book on Japanese culture and business customs entitled Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle. ^[15] While critical of certain aspects of Japanese culture, Taylor argued that Japanese society was more successful in solving social issues than the West, with lower crime rates and a similar or higher standard of living. ^[16]

Sometime in his early thirties, Taylor reassessed the liberal and cosmopolitan viewpoint commonly professed in his working environment, which he had himself shared until then. ^[12] He became deeply convinced that human beings are tribal in nature and feelings, and that they differ in talent, temperament and capacity. ^[17] In the mid-1980s, he developed an interest in the emerging fields of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, especially in the controversial works of Richard Lynn, J. Philippe Rushton and Helmuth Nyborg, ^[18] and came to believe that differences between human beings are largely of genetic origin, and therefore quasi-immutable. ^[17] All the social miracles of Japan, Taylor averred by 1991 under the pen name Steven Howell, were at least partly a result of Japan's racial and cultural homogeneity. ^[19]

In November 1990, he founded and published the first issue of American Renaissance , a white supremacist ^[2] subscription-based monthly newsletter. ^[17] He created the New Century Foundation in 1994 to assist with the running of American Renaissance. ^[20] Many of the early articles were written by Taylor himself and were intended to put white racial advocacy on a higher intellectual level than the traditional Klansman's or white skinhead's discourse that dominated the media at that time. ^[21] The journal ceased its print publication in 2012 to focus on a daily webzine format. ^[17]

In 1992, Taylor published a book titled Paved with Good Intentions in which he criticizes what he deems the unwise welfare politics that contributed to the economic situation of the African-American underclass. Unlike many of his American Renaissance articles, the work avoids genetic-based reasoning due to fears of not being able to get it published had he talked about IQ differences. ^[22] In 1994, he was called by the defense team in a Fort Worth, Texas black-on-black murder trial, to give expert testimony on the race-related aspects of the case. ^[23] Prior to testifying in the trial, Taylor, presented as a "race-relations expert and author" by the Washington Post , called young black men "the most dangerous people in America" and added "This must be taken into consideration in judging whether or not it was realistic for [the defendant] to think this was a kill-or-be-killed situation." ^[24]

Views

Taylor has been described as a white nationalist, ^[25] white supremacist, and racist by civil rights groups, news media, academics studying racism in the US, and others. ^{[6] [7] [8] [26] [27] [28]} Taylor has "strenuously rejected" ^[11] being called a racist, and maintains that he is instead a "racialist who believes in race-realism." ^{[29] [30]} He has also disputed the white supremacist label, preferring to describe himself as a "white advocate", ^[31] and contends that his views on nationality and race are "moderate, commonsensical, and fully consistent with the views of most of the great statesmen and presidents of America's past". ^[11]

News coverage of Taylor has associated him with the alt-right. ^{[32] [33]}

Race

Taylor is a proponent of scientific racism and voluntary racial segregation. ^{[8] [34] [35] [36]} Taylor also asserts that there are racial differences in intelligence among the various ethno-racial groups across the world. ^{[37] [38]} Taylor argues that Blacks are generally less intelligent than Hispanics, while Hispanics are generally less intelligent than whites, and whites are generally less intelligent than East Asians: "I think Asians are objectively superior to Whites by just about any measure that you can come up with in terms of what are the ingredients for a successful society. This doesn't mean that I want America to become Asian. I think every people has a right to be itself, and this becomes clear whether we're talking about Irian Jaya or Tibet, for that matter". ^{[39] [40] [41]}

Taylor describes himself as an advocate for white interests. ^[42] He states that his publication, American Renaissance, was founded to provide a voice for such concerns, and argues that its work is analogous to other groups that advocate for ethnic or racial interests. ^[43] American Renaissance, however, has been described as a white supremacist publication and a "forum for writers disparaging the abilities of minorities". ^[44] In the journal in 2005, he stated, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization – any kind of civilization – disappears." ^[45] A 2005 feature in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described Taylor as "a racist in the guise of expert". ^[6]

Taylor presents his segregationist project as based on civil liberties and freedom of association, and has described government-mandated segregation as morally unjust. He believes that all anti-discrimination laws "from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 onward" are an unacceptable expansion of federal power. Taylor also opposes anti-miscegenation laws as impinging on the freedom of association of private citizens. ^[46]

Taylor believes that the multi-racial American society is "doomed to failure", and that non-white groups should not constitute a significant part of the American population, especially Hispanics, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Middle Easterners, although he also includes Northern Asians, whom he holds in high regard. ^[47] He thus supports immigration policies that would favor white immigrants over other groups. Taylor has said: "Whites deserve a homeland," and when questioned about the US immigration laws passed in 1965, under the Hart-Celler Act, said that "Whites are making a terrible mistake by setting in motion forces that will reduce them to a minority." ^[48]

Taylor supports the white genocide conspiracy theory, ^[49] and has hosted the Suidlanders on his AmRen podcast to discuss the topic, ^[50] while encouraging donations to the South African organization. ^[51] He has recommended Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints to his followers. ^[52]

Attitude towards antisemitism

Taylor welcomes Jews to his organization and views American Jews as potential powerful allies. While several speakers of Jewish descent have participated in American Renaissance conventions, he has never sought to either welcome or expel anti-Semitic voices. This position has sparked tensions with far-right anti-Semitic organizations claiming that Jews are infiltrating their movements. ^[40] In 2006, a clash erupted at one convention between anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Duke and Michael H. Hart, a Jewish astrophysicist sharing many of Taylor's ideas. ^[53] The Forward reported that Taylor "has been trying to de-Nazify the movement and draw the white nationalist circle wider to include Jews of European descent. But to many on the far right, taking the Jew-hatred out of white nationalism is like taking the Christ out of Christmas—a sacrilege." ^[54]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) comments that Taylor is unusual among the radical right in "his lack of anti-Semitism." ^[55] Scholar Elizabeth Bryant Morgenstern states that "unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic, and in fact encourages Jews to join his fight. ... however many within the white supremacist/anti-immigration movement disagree with Taylor ... and he has been under tremendous pressure to break ties with the Jewish community." ^[56]

Donald Trump

Taylor supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and recorded robocalls to support Trump before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. ^{[57] [58]}

Taylor attended Trump's inauguration with front-row VIP tickets, ^[59] and he described the event as "a sign of rising white consciousness". ^[60]

A spokesperson told CNN that the candidate "disavows all super PACs offering their support and continues to do so." ^[61] When asked about the robocalls in an interview with CNN, Trump responded "I would disavow that, but I will tell you people are extremely angry." ^[62]

Influence

Madison Grant, the author of The Passing of the Great Race (1916), and Lothrop Stoddard, the author of The Rising Tide of Color (1920), each the object of celebratory articles in American Renaissance, seem to have influenced or reinforced Taylor's belief in separate racial homelands. ^[63] Southern conservatives Samuel Francis and Sam Dickson, who have been regular speakers at American Renaissance conferences, are also cited as influential on Taylor's views. According to scholar Russell Nieli, "the combination of southern regional conservatism and Taylor's experience of living in ... Japan has undoubtedly had a formative effect on his thinking about race." ^[64]

Hoping his ethnonationalist project will go global, Taylor has sought in recent years to establish relations with populist radical right parties in Europe such as France's National Rally, Britain's UKIP, Austria's Freedom Party, Germany's Alternative für Deutschland, and Flanders's Vlaams Belang. ^[64] Nieli notes that Taylor appears to have a special intellectual affinity for the French New Right author Guillaume Faye, whose books were favorably reviewed by Taylor in American Renaissance; both of them believe that white people need to join in a worldwide fight for their racial, cultural, and demographic survival. ^[65]

According to Nieli, Taylor "may well have been as central to structuring the fledgling [ America's radical Right] in the 1990s as the late William F. Buckley Jr. was in the 1950s and 1960s in structuring post-World War II American conservatism. The growing Alt Right movement in America today owes a great deal to Taylor's past efforts." ^[66]

Reception

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Taylor as "a courtly presenter of ideas that most would describe as crudely white supremacist—a kind of modern-day version of the refined but racist colonialist of old." ^[55]

Mark Potok and Heidi Beirich, writers for the Intelligence Report (a publication of the SPLC), have written that "Jared Taylor is the cultivated, cosmopolitan face of white supremacy. He is the guy who is providing the intellectual heft, in effect, to modern-day Klansmen." They have also stated that "American Renaissance has become increasingly important over the years, bringing a measure of intellectualism and seriousness to the typically thug-dominated world of white supremacy". ^[67]

On December 18, 2017, his account (as well as the account for American Renaissance) was suspended by Twitter, after Twitter adopted new rules prohibiting accounts affiliated with the promotion of violence. ^[68] In February 2018, Taylor filed a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the suspension violated his right to free speech. ^[69] Taylor's lawsuit was dismissed, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal, agreeing that services can control what is published on their sites. ^[70]

In March 2019, Taylor said on his website that he had been banned from the Schengen Area for two years at the instigation of Poland. ^[71]

Notable published works

• White Identity: Racial Consciousness for the 21st Century (New Century Books, 2011, 340 pp.), ISBN   978-0-9656383-9-5

See also

• Ethnopluralism

References

1. Rich, Evelyn (May 4, 2016). "Setting the Record Straight: Longtime Partner of Jared Taylor Addresses White Nationalist Criticism". Southern Poverty Law Center.
2. • Elizabeth Bryant Morgenstern, "White Supremacist Groups" in Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (ed. Kathleen R. Arnold: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011), p. 508: "Jared Taylor is the editor of the American Renaissance magazine, a publication that espouses the superiority of whites. ... Unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic..."
   • Michael Newton, White Robes and Burning Crosses: A History of the Ku Klux Klan from 1866 (McFarland, 2014), p. 216: "Virginia white supremacist Jared Taylor"
   • Jonathan Mahler, Donald Trump's Message Resonates With White Supremacists, New York Times (March 1, 2016), p. A15: "Jared Taylor, long one of the country's most prominent white supremacists."
     • Daniel Kreiss and Kelsey Mason, Here's what white supremacy looks and sounds like now, Washington Post (August 17, 2017): "the influential white supremacist Jared Taylor argues:"
   • Saini, Angela (2019). Superior: The Return of Race Science. Beacon Press. pp. 81–82. ISBN   9780008293833. Another contributor to Mankind Quarterly has become a key figure in the white supremacist movement. Yale-educated Jared Taylor, who belongs to a number of right-wing groups and think tanks, founded the magazine American Renassaince in 1990 ... His brand of white supremacy draws from race science to lend itself the illusion of intellectual backbone.
3. Doty, Roxanne Lynn (2009). The Law Into Their Own Hands: Immigration and the Politics of Exceptionalism. University of Arizona Press. p. 61. ISBN   978-0816527717.
4. "Inside the White Supremacist Group that Influenced Charleston Shooting Suspect". TIME .
5. Devine, Curt; Griffin, Drew; Bronstein, Scott (24 June 2015). "White supremacist group stands by racist ideology". CNN Investigations. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
6. "Jared Taylor, a Racist in the Guise of 'Expert'". Dennis Roddy. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 23, 2005.
7. American Renaissance Southern Poverty Law Center
8. Robert W. Sussman (6 October 2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press. p. 316. ISBN   978-0-674-41731-1.
9. Atkins 2011 , pp. 59–60
10. ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}
11. Swain & Nieli 2003 , p. 87
12. Nieli 2019, p. 137.
13. Nieli 2019 , p. 137. See the alumni directory of the institution for the date.
14. "Jared Taylor/American Renaissance". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
15. Nieli 2019 , p. 141: "In the 1980s, Jared Taylor became known as a "Japan expert" at a time when much of the world was focused on the extraordinary rise of Japan to economic dominance in Asia. Taylor published at this time Shadows of the Rising Sun, a widely acclaimed book on Japanese culture, business practices, and folkways."
16. Nieli 2019, p. 141.
17. Nieli 2019, p. 138.
18. Nieli 2019, p. 142.
19. Nieli 2019 , p. 141 See Howell, Steven (October 1991). "The Case of Japan (Part II)". American Renaissance: "Japanese society is a perfect example of the advantages of ethnic homogeneity."
20. Leonard Zeskind (May 12, 2009). Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream . Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p.  370. ISBN   978-1-4299-5933-9 . Retrieved November 28, 2015.
21. Nieli 2019, p. 139.
22. Nieli 2019 , p. 144; Swain & Nieli 2003 , pp. 94–95.
23. "Business - 'Urban Survival Syndrome' Gets Blame In Slayings -- Is Defense Realistic, Or Does It Reinforce A Racial Stereotype? - Seattle Times Newspaper". community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
24. Montgomery, Lori (26 October 1994). "'Urban Survival' Rules at Issue in Trial". Washington Post– via washingtonpost.com.
25. • Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (Farrar, Straud and Giroux, 2009), p. 370 & 427: "Taylor began his public foray into the white nationalist arena with a newsletter he edited called American Renaissance... Taylor, by eschewing conspiracy mongering and what they called 'paramilitary infantilism,' gave white nationalism greater potential access to the conservative mainstream."
    • Roxanne Lynn Doty, The Law Into Their Own Hands: Immigration and the Politics of Exceptionalism (University of Arizona Press, 2009), p. 61: "One of the more prominent members of the new white nationalism is Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance."
    • Carol M. Swain, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 121: "White nationalist Jared Taylor had this to say..."
    • Eric J. Sundquist, King's Dream (Yale University Press, 2009), p. 79: "the white nationalist Jared Taylor"
26. Peter Holley (2016-01-12). "Hear a white nationalist's robocall urging Iowa voters to back Trump". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
27. Carroll, Rory (2016-12-27). "'Alt-right' groups will 'revolt' if Trump shuns white supremacy, leaders say". The Guardian . Retrieved 2017-08-08.
28. Martin Gelin (2014-11-13). "White Flight". Slate.com. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
29. Atkins 2011 , p. 59
30. Cullison, Alan. "Far-Right Flocks to Russia to Berate the West". The Wall Street Journal .
31. Stephen E Atkins (2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 59. ISBN   978-1-59884-351-4. Taylor is the editor of the white supremacist journal American Renaissance. Taylor claims not to be a white supremacist ... Remarks by Taylor indicate his racist stance
32. "'Alt-right' movement makes mark on US presidential election". Financial Times . August 28, 2016.
33. "Alt-right exuberant after Trump victory". Yahoo News . November 12, 2016.
34. Wilson, Jason (26 August 2016). "'The races are not equal': meet the alt-right leader in Clinton's campaign ad". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
35. "What This White Separatist Expects From the Trump Administration". WNYC. On the Media. 2016-11-18. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
36. "Jared Taylor: Academic Racist". adl.org. The Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
37. "A Convocation of Bigots: The 1998 American Renaissance Conference". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (21). JBHE Foundation, Inc: 120–124. 1998. ISSN   1077-3711. JSTOR   2999023 . Retrieved August 12, 2024.
38. Sussman, Robert (October 14, 2014). "America's virulent racists: The sick ideas and perverted "science" of the American Renaissance Foundation". Salon.
39. Swain & Nieli 2003 , p. 102
40. Nieli 2019, p. 143.
41. "Jared Taylor - American Renaissance" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League. 2013.
42. Swain & Nieli 2003 , pp. 87–88.
43. Swain & Nieli 2003 , p. 88.
44. Atkins 2011 , p. 60
45. "Jared Taylor". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved 2017-06-17.
46. Nieli 2019 , pp. 145–146.
47. Nieli 2019, p. 148.
48. Jared Taylor, in an interview with ABC News' Amna Nawaz, on 26 March 2017; Jared Taylor, ABC Interview 2017.
49. Nieli 2019, p. 147: "The [civil rights movement], he holds, combine fantasy, wishful thinking, and in some cases the cold, self-interested logic of nonwhite groups seeking to replace whites as America's dominant population."
50. "White genocide: How the big lie spread to the US and beyond". Mail & Guardian . March 23, 2018.
51. "Far-right activists are teaming up with white supremacists to exploit South African politics". Media Matters. March 6, 2018.
52. "The Notorious Book that Ties the Right to the Far Right". The New Republic . February 2, 2018.
53. Nieli 2019 , p. 144; citing Smith 2009.
54. Tilove, Jonathan (3 March 2006). "White Nationalist Conference Ponders Whether Jews and Nazis Can Get Along". The Forward. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
55. "Profile of Jared Taylor". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved 2015-07-06.
56. Kathleen R. Arnold (2011). Anti-immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 508. ISBN   978-0-313-37521-7.
57. Piggott, Stephen (12 January 2016). "White Nationalists Continue to Support Trump Through Robocalls". Southern Poverty Law Center.
58. Reinhard, Beth. "White Nationalists See Advancement Through Donald Trump's Candidacy". Wall Street Journal .
59. Oltmann, Nick (10 February 2017). "Suits and Ties". The Baffler.
60. Valeri, Robin Maria; Borgeson, Kevin (2018). Terrorism in America. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-315-45599-0.
61. Bronstein, Scott; Griffin, Drew (6 February 2016). "Trump's unwelcome support: White supremacists". CNN.
62. Rappeport, Alan (14 January 2016). "Donald Trump Disavows Actions by White Nationalist Promoting His Bid". New York Times.
63. Nieli 2019, pp. 149–150.
64. Nieli 2019, p. 150.
65. Nieli 2019, pp. 150–151.
66. Nieli 2019, p. 151.
67. Mark Potok; Heidi Beirich (Summer 2006). "Schism Threatens White Nationalist Group". Intelligence Report. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
68. Timberg, Craig; Tsukayama, Hayley (December 18, 2017). "'Twitter purge' suspends account of far-right leader who was retweeted by Trump". Washington Post .
69. Shugerman, Emily (22 February 2018). "A white supremacist is suing Twitter for allegedly violating his right to free speech". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
70. Burnson, Robert (August 24, 2018). "Twitter Beats Censorship Lawsuit by Banned White Nationalist". Bloomberg.
71. Michel, Casey (March 31, 2019). "Europe bans one of America's most prominent white supremacists". ThinkProgress .

Bibliography

• Atkins, Stephen E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 59–61. ISBN   9781598843514.
• Nieli, Russell (2019). "Jared Taylor and White Identity". In Sedgwick, Mark (ed.). Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–154. ISBN   978-0-19-087760-6.
• Swain, Carol M.; Nieli, Russell, eds. (2003). Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-81673-1.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN