Amazon Often Rejects Porn But Helps White Racists Publish Books
Fans of racist literature looking to get their hands on a copy of 2010 novel need look no further than Amazon.com. Thanks to the online retail giant鈥檚 print-on-demand (POD) service, the bloodthirsty white nationalist fantasy 鈥� which Bristow self-published through Amazon subsidiary CreateSpace 鈥� is available for sale on Amazon for just $17.58.
And it鈥檚 eligible for super-saver shipping.
Amazon will even help novice white nationalists get their library going. For $50.14 鈥� a slight discount 鈥� interested readers can buy Bristow鈥檚 book together with by , host of the unabashedly racist radio program 鈥�,鈥� and A Mighty Fortress by dedicated neo-Nazi , described by one enthusiastic reviewer as 鈥渦nabashedly pro-white and anti-jew [sic] and non-white.鈥�
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from Hatewatch.
When Amazon announced its new self-publishing and POD service in 2005, the press release boasted: "Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced. BookSurge [now called CreateSpace] makes it possible to print books that appeal to targeted audiences, whether it's one copy or one thousand. 鈥� Thanks to print-on-demand, 'out of print' is out of date."
Amazon鈥檚 forecast turned out to be correct: It is precisely this business model that makes it possible for extremists like Bristow to get their self-published screeds 鈥� 鈥渂ooks with low and uncertain demand鈥� which a decade ago would have been limited in quantity, difficult to find, poor in quality, and unknown to anyone but hard-core believers 鈥� to a broader audience than ever before. It may well be that no human being at Amazon or its POD service ever actually reads a book like White Apocalypse 鈥攖he book may be produced entirely by computer.
White Apocalypse is centered on the 鈥淪olutrean Hypothesis,鈥� a theory that has almost zero support among anthropologists but bravely insists that whites from Europe managed to cross the North Atlantic to North America 15,000 to 17,000 years ago, thus becoming the real 鈥淣ative Americans.鈥� Bristow claims that the crossing in fact happened, and that those early whites were massacred by the later-arriving Asiatic people who crossed the ancient land bridge across the present-day Bering Strait. The book鈥檚 hero is a white man on a mission to give the hypothesis a fair hearing 鈥� but in order to do so, he must vanquish his 鈥渆vil, anti-western鈥� opponents at the Atlanta-based 鈥淐enter for Diversity and Multiculturalism鈥� 鈥� 聽an organization that bears a striking resemblance to the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center. It even includes characters clearly based on Mark Potok, the director of 人兽性交鈥檚 Intelligence Project, and Heidi Beirich, its director of research. The book contains a graphic description of the Potok character鈥檚 assassination at the hands of the hero.
The 鈥淐ustomers Who Bought This Item Also Bought鈥� list for White Apocalypse runs 96 books long and includes Jean Raspail鈥檚 white nationalist, anti-immigration classic ; Holocaust denier and longtime Klan leader My Awakening: A Path to Racial Understanding; fiction by hard-core nativist ; and works by white nationalist , who edits the American Renaissance journal, and anti-Semitic California State University, Long Beach, psychology professor .
Also listed is The 21st Century Sniper: A Complete Practical Guide, described as 鈥渁 complete practical guide for any modern sniper, [including] tips and basic training necessary to become an efficient marksman.鈥� Amazon鈥檚 teaser for the book says, 鈥淭o the sniper, the battlefield is like a painter鈥檚 blank canvas. It is his job to simultaneously utilize tools, training, and creativity to deliver devastating psychological impact upon the battlefield. And it is he alone who is left with the intimacy of the kill.鈥�
On page 195 of White Apocalypse, the main character shoots the Potok character sniper-style from a parking lot roof.
Like any private business, Amazon is entitled to determine what books it wishes to promote. The bookseller seems quite clear on some matters 鈥� pornography and books that prove an embarrassment among them.
In 2010, for instance, Amazon got 3,000 negative comments in a single day from people incensed that it had made the self-published The Pedophile鈥檚 Guide to Love and Pleasure available on Kindle. (The author, Phillip R. Greaves, claimed the book was an 鈥渁ttempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles 鈥� by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow.鈥�) The day the comments came in, Amazon issued a statement claiming that it 鈥渂elieves it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.鈥� But according to the Los Angeles Times, the next day, links on Amazon to the listing were rerouted to a page that said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site.鈥�
Amazon鈥檚 Kindle service also has pulled incest-fantasy and other erotica and two books titled How to Rape a Straight Guy and Rape in Holding Cell 6, whose author posted on his blog a letter from Amazon stating that the books 鈥渃ontain content that is in violation of our content guidelines.鈥�
Amazon does sell The Turner Diaries, a race war fantasy novel that inspired crimes including Timothy McVeigh鈥檚 bombing of Oklahoma City鈥檚 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Written under a pseudonym by , founder of what was once the most dangerous neo-Nazi organization in America, the , The Turner Diaries鈥� plot includes a bomb attack on a federal building by white supremacist guerillas. It also features a bloody section on the 鈥淒ay of the Rope,鈥� when 鈥渞ace-mixers鈥� are hung from lampposts and trees.
