The FAIR Files: Is Race Destiny? Group鈥檚 TV Show Asks
In 1996, the (FAIR) undertook an experiment, creating its own TV talk show about immigration called 鈥淏orderline.鈥 The program ran for one year on NET, a satellite TV station put together by archconservative , an anti-gay bigot who has also been accused of anti-Semitism by the Anti-Defamation League for claiming the Jews killed Jesus. In all, 51 episodes of 鈥淏orderline,鈥 which was hosted by then-FAIR executive director and current president Dan Stein, were aired.
NET was created to push far-right ideas. The network鈥檚 mission statement 鈥渄eclared war鈥 on 鈥減olitical correctness,鈥 which it called 鈥渁 type of 鈥榗ultural tyranny,鈥欌 supposedly 鈥渞ampant鈥 in the television industry. NET was also adamantly opposed to 鈥渢he modern rules of by which, for example, homosexuals must be called 鈥榞ays鈥, bums and beggars must be termed 鈥榟omeless鈥, and violent criminals have been labeled 鈥榲ictims鈥 of society.鈥 No fan of immigration, the channel ran ads for The Social Contract, a xenophobic journal created by , the white nationalist founder of FAIR (who remains on its board today) and the architect of much of the modern nativist movement.
It has been reported before, (人兽性交) among others, that 鈥淏orderline鈥 featured prominent white nationalists, including the late , who later became the top editor of the white supremacist (CCC); and , who edits America Renaissance, a newsletter that claims blacks and Latinos are intellectually inferior to whites. What is new is the availability of the actual videotaped interviews on 鈥淏orderline,鈥 thanks to FAIR鈥檚 decision to store many of its materials, including the 鈥淏orderline鈥 episodes, at The George Washington University Gelman Library鈥檚 Special Collections. The 人兽性交 recently examined these interviews.
The program, which opened with footage of immigrants running across the border or arriving in the U.S. in broken-down flotillas, featured nearly all prominent contemporary nativist leaders, including Tanton; Mark Krikorian and Otis Graham of the nativist ; Roy Beck and Rosemary Jenks of , another nativist group; and several anti-immigration politicians. 鈥淏orderline鈥 repeatedly took up the topic of whether immigrants come to the U.S. to work or invade. For FAIR officials, invasion seemed to be the right answer.
On April 22, 1996, 鈥淏orderline鈥 was hosted by then-FAIR Deputy Director K.C. McAlpin and featured the CCC鈥檚 Sam Francis, who had recently been fired from his job at The Washington Times for making racist comments, along with Peter Skerry of the Brookings Institution. The topic of the day was, in McAlpin鈥檚 words, 鈥渢he relentless march against our border 鈥 is it immigration or colonization?鈥 The question was purely rhetorical for McAlpin, who later in the show asserted that Mexico has been 鈥渁cting very much like a colonial power.鈥 Francis very much agreed. 鈥淭his is actually a process of political warfare,鈥 Francis opined. 鈥淭hey encourage immigration to the North, get rid of who they don鈥檛 want and create a political lobby in this country as a kind of political bludgeon against the United States.鈥 Skerry, who repeatedly disagreed with these sentiments, was frequently cut off.
In a segment devoted to 鈥渆thnic separatists,鈥 McAlpin warned the audience that Mexicans want to take back the Southwest. 鈥淭his is a serious issue and serious threat,鈥 McAlpin said. 鈥淭his is not just a bunch of radicals and academics and intellectuals on campuses and if the population of the Southwest continues to change in this dramatic fashion, I think we do have a serious problem.鈥 Francis couldn鈥檛 have agreed more, saying, 鈥淚 think 鈥 that you are going to have more and more political and ethnic problems as this demographic shift occurs in the Southwest.鈥 Francis also said that Mexico was meddling in American affairs just as the Soviets and Nazis had in prior periods, 鈥渦sing ideological and ethnic loyalties to manipulate a political force within our own government.鈥
At other times, 鈥淏orderline鈥 advanced ideas popular in white nationalist circles 鈥攏ot surprising, given that white nationalists were often featured on the program. Particularly popular was the idea that immigrants are destroying American culture or displacing Western civilization with degenerate, Third World ways.
Lawrence Auster, a white nationalist who spoke in 1996 to a conference put on by the and whose website A View from the Right is listed as a hate site by the 人兽性交, was on the show on April 1, 1996, making the argument that if the U.S. loses its white majority, it will be destroyed. The topic that day, according to host Dan Stein, was to 鈥渢ake a politically incorrect look at American culture and Western Civilization.鈥 Stein added, 鈥淎merica, love it or lose it.鈥 (In more recent years, Stein has repeatedly insisted that neither he nor FAIR have any preference for any one race or nationality or ethnic group.) Auster argued that because of an 鈥渋nvasion,鈥 鈥淎merica is in the process of dissolving as a nation.鈥 Supposedly drawing on history, Auster warned that as demographic change occurs and 鈥渢he majority is threatened in its position鈥 the result could be 鈥渃ivil war.鈥
Auster鈥檚 particular concern that day was the loss of 鈥渢he historic European Anglo American culture.鈥 Stein certainly seemed to agree with his guest鈥檚 worries. 鈥淗ow can we preserve America if it becomes 50% Latin American?鈥 he asked. Stein also said that Anglos were leaving Los Angeles because it had become 鈥渁 foreign country to them.鈥
Another prominent white nationalist who appeared on 鈥淏orderline鈥 was naturalized English immigrant , who in 1999 would go on to found the and author of Alien Nation, a book that argued America should remain white-dominated.
In a discussion about Alien Nation on Aug. 5, 1996, Stein asked Brimelow whether 鈥淎merica鈥檚 social and economic elites seem to be writing off the whole idea of the nation-state.鈥 He added: 鈥淚f they shift their loyalty from the nation-state, what are they loyal to?鈥 Brimelow argued that these same elites are creating the 鈥済reatest transformation of any independent state in history鈥 by bringing in 鈥渘ew minority groups that did not exist before.鈥 Brimelow considered these elites to be 鈥渢reasonous,鈥 people who 鈥渉ate our traditional culture and they see immigration as a weapon to help destroy it.鈥 鈥淎re they really patriots?鈥 Brimelow asked.
On pro-immigration conservatives, Brimelow claimed that they had been traumatized by the civil rights movement in the 1960s and now support 鈥渢he idea of the current [non-racist] immigration policy鈥 mostly 鈥渟o they can demonstrate repeatedly to themselves that they are not really prejudiced.鈥 In another segment, Brimelow said, 鈥渢hey are constantly repressing deep racial feelings.鈥
Stein asked Brimelow to talk more about his statement 鈥渞ace is destiny in American politics.鈥 Brimelow did, saying, 鈥測ou really alter the texture of the country by bringing in different ethnic groups.鈥 Endorsing the invasion theory, Brimelow told one caller, 鈥測ou have areas of South Texas and so on that have essentially gone back to Mexico.鈥 Stein later asked Brimelow whether this all meant 鈥渢he end of the United States?鈥 Brimelow鈥檚 answer: 鈥淪ure.鈥
Sometimes, 鈥淏orderline鈥 took up the message of its network. On July 15, 1996, William Lind, a close ally of Weyrich鈥檚 who worked at his Free Congress Foundation, was interviewed by Stein. Arguing that education had turned into 鈥渋ndoctrination,鈥 Lind said that 鈥渃ultural Marxism鈥 was destroying American society. When prompted by Stein鈥檚 suggestion that American elites were against 鈥淎mericanization,鈥 Lind argued that 鈥渁 country [like the U.S.] that becomes multicultural breaks up and fights 鈥 [is] a prescription for Bosnia. It is extremely dangerous.鈥 Lind went on, saying, 鈥淭he first thing we need to re-Americanize is America. The problem is that our elites are hostile to our own American culture鈥 and see 鈥渋mmigration as a weapon to destroy it.鈥 He added: 鈥淎merica is turning more and more into a Third World country.鈥 (Lind has given similar speeches before, most notably in 2002 when he about cultural Marxism to a conference put on by the Holocaust denial publication, .)
Interestingly, the one videotape that seemed to be missing from the files aired on Sept. 30, 1996 and featured prominent white nationalist Jared Taylor, whom Tanton to start up American Renaissance, which throws occasional conferences that are important gatherings on the country鈥檚 white supremacist scene. The show鈥檚 topic was the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which overturned the Immigration Act of 1924 and allowed non-whites to emigrate to the U.S. without being subjected to a racist national origins quota system.
The Southern Poverty Law Center lists FAIR as a hate group for reasons including its accepting of funds from the racist Pioneer Fund. Other reasons include Stein鈥檚 bigoted views, the participation of some of its officials in white supremacist groups, bigots on the board, and some of its television programming. For a brief summation of this reasoning, please go .
