Strange Bedfellows: Nativists Sponsor, Tout New Black Anti-Immigrant Group
A mysterious anti-immigration group called Blacks for Equal Rights Coalition (BFERC) recently made its debut in Los Angeles with a July 6 鈥淐ommunity Outreach Summit鈥 on 鈥淭he Impact of Immigration on Black Communities.鈥
The summit, whose entirely unnamed lineup included 鈥渁dvisors, educators, politicians and activists from the community,鈥 generously offered a free lunch to the first 125 people to sign up.
Of course, there鈥檚 no such thing as a free lunch. Though 鈥減resented鈥 by BFERC, the summit was sponsored by the (FAIR), an anti-immigrant group whose founder, , wrote in a 1993 letter to controversial ecology professor Garrett Hardin, "I've come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that."
This is not the first 鈥渂lack鈥 anti-immigrant group FAIR has sponsored. That honor would go to the now-defunct (CBA), which was billed as a grassroots organization but was apparently a front group funded and founded by FAIR for the sole purpose of putting a black face on the mostly white anti-immigrant movement. FAIR also helped establish other groups that purportedly represented the victims of immigration 鈥 the Coalition for the Future of the American Worker, which claimed to be a coalition of blue-collar groups, and You Don't Speak for Me, the Latino version of CBA.
Like CBA, whose leaders appeared at events alongside white nationalists and border vigilante leaders, BFERC has patrons in the strangest of places.
Jeff Schwilk, head of the nativist extremist , recently announced that BFERC had joined his , whose other members include tax-protest groups, Minuteman factions and the .
鈥淟ook out La Raza, your days of playing the race & hate cards against real Americans are coming to an end,鈥 Schwilk wrote in an E-mail encouraging people to donate to BFERC. 鈥淭he sell-out black politicians and corrupt leaders (Maxine Waters, Al Sharpton, etc.) who have sold their souls to La Raza and the Marxist movement at the expense of their black constituents are being exposed, challenged, and will be defeated as black Americans rise up and claim their piece of the American dream.聽It's a new day.鈥
Inexplicably, the FAIR/BFERC summit was also promoted on the website of the , a white supremacist hate group that has referred to blacks as 鈥渁 retrograde species of humanity.鈥 Surreally, the notice appeared directly above a paid advertisement for an event sponsored by the racist , whose mission statement says it aims 鈥渢o elevate the consciousness of whites, ensure our biological and cultural continuity, and protect our civil rights.鈥
The sparse BFERC website offers no clue as to its provenance or leadership. Its oddly militant and ungrammatical content does not appear to be the product of FAIR鈥檚 professional staff of anti-immigrant spin doctors.
鈥淲e are against the devastating impact of Genocidal forces imposed on the Black communities by the taking away of jobs, housing, education and social benefits. It is inevitable that BFERC will work vigorously to maintain our Civil and Human Rights that our forefathers fought so diligently for in order for us to have 'Equal Rights,'鈥 says its mission statement. Elsewhere, the group refers to 鈥淭axation without Representation鈥 鈥 an issue in which FAIR has never shown the slightest interest.
In a particularly dismal section titled 鈥淓ducation,鈥 the website claims BFERC will 鈥 at unspecified future dates, times and locations 鈥 offer a book club, a workshop on 鈥淭he Black Family Foundation,鈥 and a writing clinic for 鈥淟egal Eagles鈥 seeking to learn how to 鈥淔ight Write.鈥 Its title? 鈥淭he Pen is more聽Mightier than the Sword.鈥