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White Nationalism and Protect Arizona Now
by godless
Sunday, May. 16, 2004 at 6:50 AM
The Protect Arizona Now initiative is supported by several anti-immigration groups with ties to white nationalist organizations.
The Protect Arizona Now initiative is supported by a coalition of extremist anti-immigration groups and individuals. They use racist, inflammatory language and exaggeration to scare Arizonans into thinking that PAN will help keep immigrants from "invading" our state and destroying "our culture," (which means white Anglo culture, of course). Their ultimate goal is the militarization of our borders.
The Director of Protect Arizona Now is Kathy McKee of Glendale, a former PeTA activist. Here's what McKee has to say about the dangers of immigration:
"This is ridiculous to spend the money to make it [a] bilingual society. Part of the culture is dress, diet, though that means different things to different people. I like grits and collard greens, but I think that whatever is our culture, and I think that is debatable, what is the very essence of our culture, we should be allowed to keep it without having to finance second languages and other cultural influence from other countries."
(Horizonte, KAET TV, Dec. 18, 2003)
PAN Treasurer Rusty Childress, owner of Childress Auto Mall in Phoenix, agrees that we need to protect the United States from immigrants because "we need to be careful that we don't become the third world country that a lot of these illegal aliens are running from."
The leaders of the PAN initiative drive clearly do not share the opinions of the majority of Arizonans. We understand that Arizona's economy and culture benefit greatly from immigration.
Protect Arizona Now is also supported by a number of anti-immgration organizations with ties to racist "white nationalist" organizations. The main goal of white nationalists is the preservation of white European culture. While not as overtly racist as white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, many white nationalists fear that unchecked immigration will lead to the destruction of a separate white culture. For a brief analysis of the links between anti-immigration groups and white nationalism, read "White Nationalism and Immigration Today" by Loretta J. Ross.
This California-based white nationalist group is headed by Glenn Spencer, who believes that the Catholic Church and the Mexican government are conspiring to reconquer the Southwest for Mexico. His newsletter has published stories arguing that people of European descent have a right to protect their culture and bloodlines against the rising "alien tide" (Center for New Community Background Brief). Spencer is well-known for inflammatory, racist statements like this: "The Mexican culture is based on deceit. Chicanos and Mexicanos lie as a means of survival" (Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1996). According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, FAIR's executive director Dan Stein "has warned that certain immigrant groups are engaged in 'competitive breeding' aimed at diminishing white power."
This group is headed by Kathy McKee, the Director of Protect Arizona Now. They claim that illegal immigration leads to "the destruction of our language and our culture" and a "breakdown of law and order, and total absence of government accountability to taxpayers."
This group has contributed money to the PAN campaign. The President of United Patriots of America, Chris Simcox, is the founder of "Citizens Border Patrol Militia," a vigilante organization that patrols the Arizona/Mexico border in armed groups to keep immigrants from crossing. Simcox stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that it doesn't matter if he dies in a blaze of gunfire to protect the U.S. borders (HispanicVista.com).
NumbersUSA provides information attempting to link "mass illegal immigration" with environmental problems. The group's leader, Roy Beck, is the Washington editor of The Social Contract, a journal that has published articles by prominent white nationalists (SPLC Report).