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Samuel Jared Taylor (b. 1951) of Oakton, Virginia, is an American journalist known as an advocate of racialist theories to explain the sociological and economic problems associated with non-whites, particularly blacks, in Western countries. Taylor is the editor of American Renaissance, a journal that addresses issues of race, immigration and their impact on societies in which whites co-exist with non-whites. He is the president of the parent organization, New Century Foundation, and a former director of the National Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. He is a former member of the advisory board of Occidental Quarterly.
Born to missionary parents in Japan, Taylor lived in that country until he was 16 years old. He graduated from Yale University in 1973 with a BA in Philosophy, and graduated from Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in 1978 with a MA in International economics. Taylor speaks fluent English, Japanese and French. In the 1980s, Taylor was West Coast editor of PC Magazine and a consultant before founding the American Renaissance periodical in 1990. Taylor has taught Japanese to summer school students at Harvard University.
Works and views
He is the author of Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle (1983), which The Wall Street Journal called “a delightfully readable account of what makes the Japanese tick.” Taylor wrote that Japan was not an appropriate economic or social model for the United States, and criticized the Japanese for excessive preoccupation with their own uniqueness.
Taylor turned to race in Paved With Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America (1993), which National Review called “the most important book to be published on the subject in many years,” and was a main selection of The Conservative Book Club. Taylor argued that racism is no longer a convincing excuse for high black rates of crime, poverty, and school failure. He also edited The Real American Dilemma: Race, Immigration, and the Future of America. (1998)
Taylor supervised preparation of the New Century Foundation monograph, The Color of Crime (1998, 2005), which cites government statistics showing that blacks and Hispanics commit violent crimes at considerably higher rates than whites and Asians at lower rates than whites. He is the main contributor to a collection of articles from American Renaissance magazine called A Race Against Time: Racial Heresies for the 21st Century.
Taylor argues that race is not only a valid biological category but is an inevitable part of individual and group identity. He points to consistent racial self segregation—not only in America but around the world—as evidence that race is one of the most basic human fault lines, and a frequent source of conflict. Taylor argues that a preference for people like oneself is natural and even healthy, and that attempts to encourage or force racial integration are misguided. He believes it is impossible to build a society in which race can be made not to matter.
Taylor compares racial solidarity to family loyalty: “Our nation or race is, in effect, our extended family in the largest sense, and our feelings for our extended family are a dilute, but broader version of what we feel for close kin.” He adds that a preference for one’s own race in no way implies hostility to other races, just as the preference for one’s own children implies no hostility to the children of others. He says it is a dangerous double standard to encourage non-whites to show racial solidarity and to work openly for group interests while condemning whites who do the same thing.
Taylor writes that every race and nation has the fundamental right to survival as a distinct people: “We have a right—an absolute right—to be us, and only we can be us. We have a right to be left alone in our homelands, to take part in the unfolding of our national identities free of the unwanted embrace of people unlike ourselves. Every other race and nationality understands this.”
Taylor accepts the findings of such scholars as Arthur Jensen, J. Philippe Rushton, Linda Gottfredson, Charles Murray, Michael Levin, and Richard Lynn, who have concluded that there is convincing evidence for a substantial genetic contribution to average racial differences in intelligence and possibly other behavior. He has also published strong arguments supporting the view that backs have a genetic superiority to other races in certain athletic endeavors.
In response to charges of “white supremacy,” Taylor has written: “There is no scale on which racial differences can all be ranked so as to draw across-the-board conclusions about racial ‘superiority’ or ‘inferiority’ . . . . It is certainly true that in some important traits—intelligence, law-abidingness, sexual restraint, academic performance, resistance to disease—whites can be considered ‘superior’ to blacks. At the same time, in exactly these same traits, North Asians appear to be ‘superior’ to whites.”
Taylor has been called a “self-described white separatist” but he does not characterize himself this way. Instead, he advocates compete freedom of association. He argues that when people are free to choose – whether in school groups, church congregations, private gatherings, or neighborhoods – they almost invariably segregate voluntarily. Taylor describes his positions and those of his publications as “race realist.”
Taylor has consistently promoted only two concrete policies. The first is an end to mass immigration. He believes the United States is already overpopulated, and that the reduction of whites to a minority through Third-World immigration is transforming the country in ways that threaten its commitment to Western Civilization. At the same time, he believes increased “diversity” of race, religion and language results in serious frictions not found in homogenous societies. The second policy would be the abolition of all anti-discrimination laws. Taylor believes that liberty means free private choice of associates, employees, customers, etc., and that government has no more right to dictate these choices than it does to dictate choices of friends or spouses.
Taylor sees Jews as full participants in the work of “race realism:” “It should be clear to anyone that Jews have, from the outset, been welcome and equal participants in our efforts.”
Taylor has spoken on a score of college campuses, among them Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern, Clemson, and Howard University. He has been published in many magazines and newspapers, including National Review, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Baltimore Sun. Taylor has been a guest on hundreds of radio programs, and has been interviewed on television by Chris Matthews, Patrick Buchanan, Paula Zahn, Phil Donahue, and many others.
Taylor has addressed the National Association of Police Organizations on the subject of racial profiling, and has testified on two occasions in criminal trials as an expert witness on racial differences in violent crime rates.
Taylor has questioned the capacity of blacks to live successfully in a civilized society. In an article on the chaos in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Taylor wrote "when blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears. And in a crisis, civilization disappears overnight."
Taylor has often expressed great personal distaste over the presence of non-whites in Europe and America. On the greater number of non-whites in Holland compared with Denmark, Taylor has commented; "Europeans travel a lot within Europe, and they see dark-skinned bums sleeping on the streets on Rotterdam. In Denmark they don’t see dark-skinned bums sleeping on the streets, and they are not so stupid as to be unable to understand that immigration has something to do with this."
Praise and criticism
David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, has described Taylor as a "a man of immense ability and the courage commensurate and necessary for telling the long-suppressed truths of race."
In his July 15, 2002 blog entry, neo-conservative writer David Horowitz defended his decision to run an article from Taylor's American Renaissance magazine on his own website; praising Taylor as "a very smart and gutsy individualist" and "a very intelligent and principled man." He wrote: "There are many who would call Jared Taylor and his American Renaissance movement 'racist.' If the term is modified to 'racialist,' there is truth in the charge. But Taylor and his Renaissance movement are no more racist in this sense than Reverend Jesse Jackson and the NAACP." However, Horowitz criticized Taylor in his August 27, 2002 commentary, in which he refers to Taylor as advocating "Euro-racialism," which is "a fringe prejudice among conservatives", and argues that such racialism "would mean the death of the conservative movement."
Other critics have described Taylor as a racist and an advocate of white supremacy, and have accused him of sympathy to Holocaust denial. Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center'sIntelligence Report, said "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." Potok pointed to Taylor's close association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which he labels as racist. Potok says that The Color of Crime is "a booklet that tries to use crime statistics so as to 'prove' that blacks are far more criminally prone than whites."
Holocaust denial?
In April 2007, a correspondent asked Taylor, "the myth of the holocaust is a millstone around the neck of any nascent white nationalist movement. Where do you stand on this? Did the Nazis genocidally wipe out 6 million jews or did they not?" Taylor's one line reply: "I’m not an expert on the subject, and it is not one into which I have looked." Subsequent to this, the well-known paleoconservative Lawrence Auster learned of Taylor's statement on the issue and an Internet debate ensued. Taylor further posted on the Internet that he did not have an opinion on the six million figure, in the same way that he did not know how many people died in the Armenian massacres or how many American soldiers died during World War II. Auster (who has spoken at an American Renaissance conference sponsored by Taylor) and his supporters argued that such a stance was akin to Holocaust denial, and that this was not surprising given Taylor's close and longstanding friendship with Mark Weber, editor of the Holocaust-denial publication Journal of Historical Review and former editor of the neo-Nazi publication National Vanguard.
American Renaissance posted a response on the matter, with Taylor stating, "I understand that estimates of the death toll range from four to six million", and "to imply that I somehow doubted the Holocaust itself, is not only absurd but malicious."
Incident in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Taylor was assaulted, and otherwise prevented from delivering a speech on January 16, 2007 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He had expected to give his speech to a group of journalists and others at the Lord Nelson Hotel, after his invitation to participate in a debate over race relations at Dalhousie University was retracted when the university said that it had further investigated Taylor's works. After destroying Taylor's pamphlets and confronting him, a small crowd of masked demonstrators (publicly wearing a mask under such circumstances is illegal in Canada) pushed Taylor out of the hotel room. Further violence against Taylor was averted due to the intervention of Jon Goldberg, director of the Atlantic Jewish Council in Halifax. Although notified about the violent crowd, police officers and private security guards refused to protect Taylor, or arrest or stop the crowd.
Shortly after the attack, people who said that they had participated in it bragged about it at Web sites. Shortly thereafter, members of the white nationalist Internet forum, Stormfront, posted photos and personal information about several of the attackers.
Taylor returned to Halifax on March 6, 2007 to engage in a debate with St. Mary's University professor Peter March on the CJCH radio station. The on-campus debate was again cancelled, this time due to alleged security concerns and rumors of violent protest. Following the cancellation, the debate was moved to an undisclosed location and recorded for the American Renaissance website.
Footnotes
- Jamie Glazov (January 10, 2003). "White Nationalism: A Symposium" (HTML). FrontPageMagazine.com. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
- Urban C. Lehner, “Understanding the Japanese Character,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 9, 1983, p. 28.
- http://www.amren.com/newstore/cart.php?page=paved
- Peter Brimelow, “Invisible Men,” National Review, Jan. 18, 1993, p. 47.
- http://www.amren.com/newstore/cart.php?page=dilemma
- http://www.amren.com/newstore/cart.php?page=color_of_crime
- http://www.amren.com/newstore/cart.php?page=arat
- http://www.amren.com/0607issue/0607issue.html
- http://www.amren.com/939issue/939issue.html
- http://www.amren.com/0508issue/0508issue.html
- http://www.amren.com/0211issue/0211issue.html#cover
- http://www.amren.com/0508issue/0508issue.html#cover
- http://www.amren.com/989issue/989issue.html#article1
- http://www.amren.com/9210issue/9210issue.html
- http://www.amren.com/inthenews/timwise_reply.htm
- http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1346
- http://www.amren.com/0106issue/0106issue.htm
- http://www.amren.com/siteinfo/information.htm#what
- http://www.amren.com/0508issue/0508issue.html
- http://www.amren.com/933issue/933issue.html#article2 http://www.amren.com/999issue/999issue.html#article1
- http://www.amren.com/0605issue/0605issue.html#article2
- http://www.amren.com/siteinfo/taylor.html
- http://www.amren.com/interviews/interviews.html
- Michael Janofsky, “Police Association Sponsors Debate on Racial Profiling,” New York Times, Aug. 15, 1999, p. A19.
- Hugh Aynesworth, “Defense Ploy Wins Texas Mistrial,” Washington Times, April 21, 1994.
- http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/09/africa_in_our_m.php
- http://www.amren.com/news/news04/02/27/jtconf2004talk.html
- http://www.davidduke.com/?p=496
- http://mediamatters.org/items/200412020006?show=1
- http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=2551
- http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=644&printable=1
- http://inverted-world.com/index.php/news/news/another_eagle_eyed_white_nationalist_finds_me_out/
- http://www.amren.com/siteinfo/holocaust.html
- http://www.herald.ns.ca/Front/553140.html
- http://www.hfxnews.com/index.cfm?sid=7739&sc=89
External links
- American Renaissance Jared Taylor's website
- The Color of Crime by Taylor's New Century Foundation
- The Myth of Diversity an article by Taylor
- Jared Taylor, a Racist in the Guise of "Expert". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Dennis Roddy
- Profile on the Anti-Defamation League website