In my experience, this was the most positive, and inspiring, American Renaissance conference to date. It’s my sixth one, if you count the “shadow conference” in Charlotte a few years ago and the mini-conference in Virginia (2010) before that.
I’m pretty sure that this conference had more attendees (close to 300) than any previous one. But it’s not the number of attendees that impressed me, rather it was the quality. In the past, our conferences would, inevitably, attract a few crazies. This time, I didn’t see any.
American Renaissance welcomes all who wish to attend, regardless of race or ideology. If you’re interested in attending, you pay the fee and show up. Nobody asks about your ethnicity, religion or ideology. Past conferences have always had a few non-whites, and this one was no exception. I saw a few south Asians and there was one black woman. They were treated just like everybody else. If anybody had a problem with it, they kept it to themselves.
There were also more women than in past conferences; it’s always a plus to have our conferences amid beautiful scenery.
While it takes a certain amount of courage to attend an Amren conference, it takes even more to actually speak at one – much more so if you come from a country where white lives are considered cheap, or where it’s illegal to express your opinion.
The first to speak, after Jared Taylor, was James Edwards of the Political Cesspool. He spoke of how he became involved in the pro-white movement. He’s a true patriot, and an inspiring man. I got to spend some time with him after the conference, when a few of us had lunch together in Dickson, and I enjoyed his company.
Edwards has no love for the mainstream media, having been burned by them countless times. He made this abundantly known, even as reporters were among the audience. After his talk, Sam Dixon pointed out that reporters are human beings just like us, with jobs to keep and imperfections. I was glad that Dixon said these things. I don’t like the media either, but there’s nothing to be gained by perpetuating the cycle of venom.
I have a lot of respect for Edwards, because the South has been trampled upon for too long. It’s refreshing to see somebody like him, unapologetically standing up for his country.
Next was Peter Brimelow, editor of the famous anti-immigration site VDare.com. Brimelow is originally from U.K. I had some trouble understanding him, and I wasn’t the only one. He spoke of the “Trump Tsunami” and the future of America. He enunciated what most of us already know: That Trump cannot be trusted. There’s no way to know what he’d do as president, and there’s a high probability that we’ll be disappointed. However, we do know what the other candidates would do, and it’s not good. He described the eruption of the Alt-Right as a potential volcano (he used the analogy of Mount Hood, which he confused with Mount St. Helens).
The third speaker, who apologized for his poor English, was Fernando Cortes from Mexico. His English turned out to be very good, and his message well-received. He claimed that mass immigration, from third-world countries into the North, is intentionally perpetuated by the wealthy elite (the one-percenters, if you will). This mass migration hurts average Mexicans, and only started happening after NAFTA was pushed through (by the Clintons). He said that Mexican nationalists and American white nationalists have a lot in common, and should be on the same side. He spoke of the absurdity of Mexicans rejecting their own European heritage – even as they dress in Western clothing, speak a European language, follow a Western religion and possess European genes.
I’m not sure if he mentioned it, but my take on this last point is that it’s politically expedient for Mexicans to focus on their Native American heritage, because this gives them (in their eyes) the right to claim portions of the US as their own. Regarding La Raza’s goal to reconquer the southwest United States, Cortes said only a small fringe element of Mexicans ascribe to this idea. He said it’s like Cinco de Mayo, celebrated in the US, but largely ignored in Mexico itself.
Some of my photos are poor quality. This is because, in contrast to previous conferences, this time I had a nice cell-phone. But it turns out that the Samsung Galaxy S6 doesn’t do very well in low-light conditions unless you’re right next to the subject. If you attend a conference, and want decent photos, bring a real camera! Fortunately, I did also bring a real camera; I used both.
Next up was Filip Dewinter, who has spoken at previous conferences. He’s from Belgium, and a member of Vlaams Belang, the Flemish nationalist party. He spoke of the Islamization of Europe. Among other things, he spoke of “no-go zones.” I’ve seen leftists criticize the concept of “no-go zones” by showing themselves sitting at a cafe’ happily enjoying lunch. They say, “how can you call this a ‘no-go zone’ when I visit it whenever I want?” So I asked Dewinter to expound upon this. I was hoping that he would specify that it’s not that non-Muslims can’t visit these places, it’s just that you can’t depend on the police to protect you while you’re there. I don’t think he was very clear about this.
Both Dewinter, and his female colleage Anke Van dermeersch (who also spoke), are very courageous people. There are probably hundreds of thousands of people in Belgium who would kill them given the chance. Not only that, but the government of Belgium, and the EU, scrutinize everything they do, and every word they speak. For any perceived thought-crime, they could face arrest, yet they continue to fearlessly fight for their people.
Up next was Jared Taylor on “Why They Lie.” It was a very entertaining speech, abundant with illustrations of blatant lies by the Left. He recounted the lies told by scientists , lies told by the media and lies told by politicians – either by omission blatantly. We were reminded of the lies told by the Black Lives Matter movement.
When Taylor quoted the verbiage used by the Left, (describing the truth as “incindiary” or “controversial” or in their attempts to justify their dishonesty, Taylor made it obvious that the powers that be fear the truth.
The most shocking part of Taylor’s speech was, and I’ll quote amren.com, when…
He said he began thinking about this after the police in Cologne, Germany, covered up the New Year’s Eve attacks by Middle-Easterners on German women for fear that they would reflect badly on Angela Merkel’s policy of welcoming illegal immigrants.
When the truth came out, Germans posted angry comments about Arabs on the Internet. The German interior minister then said that the comments were “at least as awful” as the attacks themselves. “I cannot imagine a non-white person saying anything so degenerate,” said Mr. Taylor, who likened the cover-ups to the unwillingness of the British police to prosecute Pakistani men who groom young white girls for sex. Police were afraid of accusations of “racism” when the predators all turned out to be immigrants, and did not want to reveal crimes that would encourage “racists” to oppose non-white immigration.
Toward the end, as he reflected on the sacrifices of our people, Taylor was on the verge of tears.
From South Africa, we had Dan Roodt. He spoke of the struggles of South Africa, and how it’s linked to the rest of the world. He described the remaining countries with large white populations as dominoes. Once one falls, the others fall in succession. This is why it’s so important to protect the interests of white South Africans, specifically the Afrikaners.
When I met Ruuben Kaalep, the previous night, I told him he can’t use the name “Ruuben” because it’s cultural appropriation (of course, I was kidding). He’s Estonian, and I guess that’s how they spell Reuben in Estonia – which is a “small white country.” And that was the name of his talk: “A Call to Action from a Small White Country.”
Mr. Kaalep didn’t show us statistics, studies or maps. His talk was a poetic message from the heart, about how his ancient people is intimately connected to its ancestral lands. He spoke of the atrocities and indignities inflicted upon Estonia by the Soviet Union and how his small people has persevered over the ages. He showed us slides illustrating how his movement had grown over the years, and how Estonian nationalists worked together with Polish nationalist (there had been historic friction between the two groups).
Mr. Kaalep is a member of the youth group of the Estonian nationalist party. The consensus was that his speech was a very moving one.
After that we had our banquet in the dining hall. The food was excellent. Better than previous conference banquets by far. I was sitting next to an expert on steaks, and he proclaimed it to be “good steak.” The Texan on my other side agreed.
The banquet speaker was RamZPaul, and it was a great speech even for him. He combined powerful messages with humor, and he incorporated two videos into his talk. The first one was a video of himself, made last year:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDbCGgN8Dv8&w=560&h=315]
That video earned a loud round of applause. Here’s the video he showed us at the end:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmiJV877edY&w=560&h=315]
We had two presentations on Sunday. The first was by Anke Van Dermeersch, the first woman ever to speak at an Amren conference. At 6’2″ or so, she’s imposing. At least one of the male attendees thought she was very attractive. Her talk was titled “Neither Whore nor Slave – Women Against Islam.”
She spoke of the special dangers facing women from Islam, and from Muslims. She spoke of the horrible things many Muslims do to women (even though they’re not actually part of Islam), such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), “honor-killings” and strict dress codes. Van Dermeersch is native Flemish, yet she cannot walk the streets of some Belgian cities safely without covering herself up like a Muslim. She has been fighting mightily for womens’ rights, against the onslaught of Islam, for years. She had a great set of slides to show us. I thought she went through them a bit too quickly.
As usual, Sam Dixon concluded the conference. This time, his talk was titled “A Benediction for Heretics.” He told us some of his own life-story, and asked who would be allowed to live in “white nation.” Though Dixon is a forgiving man, willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the likes of reporters, conservative Christians and libertarians (all of whom he has differences with), he said that Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel would not be allowed to live there. He said “Clinton has gone a bridge too far” and Merkel is the worst traitor since Ephialtes. He spoke of the price many of us, including himself, have had to pay for their patriotism. He said that though he won’t live to see a white homeland, he hoped that the younger generation in the audience would live to see the promised land.
I hope that Dixon is in good health, and that we can enjoy his presence for many years into the future.
After the conference, a few of us drove to Dickson (no connection to Sam Dixon) for lunch. As usual, we ate at the Front Porch restaurant, which serves traditional Southern cuisine. Being a Sunday, the place was busy with the church crowds, that had just finished their services. I got there a bit early, so I wandered about downtown Dickson.
Here’s Front Porch:
I shared a table with James Edwards, Richard Spencer and a man from Seattle. It was interesting listening to their conversations.
Incidentally, here’s Mr. Spencer getting interviewed by the media during one of our breaks:
Here’s Mr. Taylor getting interviewed:
You may be wondering about protesters. Apparently, they’ve been too busy with Trump rallies, for only three or four showed up. There was no drum-beating, horn-blowing or wild displays of insanity. Also missing were swastikas; apparently, they’d figured out we’re not neo-Nazis. Better late than never.
There were more reporters interviewing the protesters than there were protesters. One of the attendees claimed he saw a female protester try to stick Sanders stickers on some of the cars parked outside. When I heard that, I asked for security to watch the area, and they showed up quickly. I didn’t see any Sanders stickers on the cars.
