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courtesy of ‘hellomarkers!’
Twitter user @nikki_d brought this article from the Southern Poverty Law Center to our attention, about the Capitol Skyline Hotel and the multiple events by racist or anti-Semitic groups hosted there in recent months. This weekend, the American Renaissance (a white nationalist publication) conference was to be held there, but according to AR’s site, Capitol Skyline just cancelled their event. (Feel free to not click that link and give them pageviews, but I wanted to cite my sources.)
Meanwhile, the American Free Press, a publication that can most generously be described as “conspiracy enthusiasts,” but more correctly described as anti-Semitic, actually did hold two recent events at Capitol Skyline, including one last weekend.
Our concerned reader describes this as a “pattern,” but I’m not sure that’s fair. Let me be clear: I find these groups completely repugnant and would be just as happy if they couldn’t find anyone willing to rent them a meeting room and a microphone. But I have to at least raise the question: With the economy in the state it’s in, and with groups who can’t get anyone else to host them basically throwing money at any venue who will put up with their bullshit, is it fair to fault a business for selling their services where they can? I mean, racists’ money spends just as easily as anyone else’s, and contributes to the continued employment of hotel employees, no doubt a non-trivial percentage of whom have a skin color other than white. I wouldn’t personally do business with any of these groups, but no one is depending on me for the paycheck that feeds their children, either.
I guess I just have mixed feelings about Capitol Skyline’s role in the whole thing, but if you feel strongly, I encourage you to tell the Capitol Skyline management how you feel. Accepting business from known hate groups is a business decision, and weighing the money gained by hosting racist conferences against the money lost from outraged potential customers is a business calculation they have to make.
Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar.
Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC.
I think Voltaire said it best:
“I hate what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Last time I checked, the first amendment hadn’t been nullified.
I agree with you, Addison, but the First Amendment is not at issue here. The question is whether or not Capitol Skyline should engage in commerce with hate groups. It’s not a violation of anyone’s rights to refuse to do business with a group because you find their ideas repulsive. But similarly, it’s not a violation of anyone’s rights to then refuse to do business with Capitol Skyline as long as they continue to do business with hate groups. It’s not about rights, it’s about how much outrage and social/business approbation Capitol Skyline does or does not deserve.
Actually, Voltaire never said that; it was a paraphrase of his general beliefs on freedom of expression by other writers, often misattributed as though coming straight from him.
And the first amendment prohibits Congress from infringing on free speech; it doesn’t stipulate that hotels can’t be told people disapprove of racist conferences.
In the Skyline’s defense, the hotel plays host to a wide range of people, and has a long history of hosting LGBT-themed and LGBT-organized events. I would presume that these anti-Semites and other ultra-conservative wackos are a step above the rest if they’re willing to sleep in a room that was, at some point, likely used as the scene of some gay “fun.”
@Addison – While I agree passionately about defending the right to free speech, this has nothing to do with that right. The first amendment states that you have the right to say what you want without facing government persecution. It does not mean that a hotel manager has the obligation to do business with you if you’re (for example) a racist anti-Semitic jerkoff.
@Bobby: exactly. What I meant was that maybe we should be praising Skyline for welcoming all groups, no matter how repugnant they may be to us personally.
All I’m saying is to look at the other side of the coin. Hypothetical: would you be encouraging your readers to protest the Skyline’s decision to host a pro-life or atheist group? (just an example, I picked two groups that I don’t have a problem with that many other people do)
@brownpau: I didn’t know that about Voltaire, thanks for enlightening me! Learn something new every day :)
Meh, still Better than the Hipsters who hang out at the pool
Since you asked, yes, I WOULD encourage our readers to vote with their dollars for or against ANY business that makes ANY decisions that they feel strongly about. But just to reiterate since you seem to have missed this part of the post- *I* do not strongly feel that Capitol Skyline is in the wrong. They have a business to run, and I don’t blame ’em for taking the bookings where they can find them.
Thank you for publishing this. I agree with their right to engage in commerce with whomever they choose. However, I also believe consumers should be educated. I am a neighbor of theirs and loved having them as a bar option down the street (for those familiar with SW you know we don’t have many). I do not love the fact that they decided to take money from conferences from anti-Semitic groups that feature speakers like David Duke.
Is two a pattern? Maybe not. I think if they had not canceled the American Renaissance event they would have been on their way to one. As someone that lives in this neighborhood, I do not want to make it welcome and hospitable for people that are actively monitored as hate groups. Because of this I have chosen to put the word out about the information I found and will be writing a letter (by hand even not internet) to let the hotel know I do not condone the activities of the groups they are hosting and they are losing my business because of this. I don’t know how much of a difference it will make since I don’t bring them as much revenue but it is a moral and ethical issue for me.
Indeed, @nikki_d. I encourage you to engage in your right to both withhold your money from Capitol Skyline and attempt to persuade others to do so, and I’m happy to put this issue before our readers so that they may also make an informed decision for themselves. Thanks for sending us the info.
Also, LOL @ Navy Yard… I thought about making a joke about how they have all those pool parties but I didn’t hear any complaints about a “pattern of hosting douchebags,” but thought it might be too flip. ;)
“Accepting business from known hate groups is a business decision…”
How easily you libel those with whom you disagree. I have known Jared Taylor for many years and have never heard him say anything hateful. There’s not one shred of evidence to support your charge that American Renaissance is a “hate group.”
If what Jared Taylor says is so wrong or terribly loathsome, then he should be easy to refute. Both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both came into office claiming that they wanted to have a dialogue about race. In truth, the Left fears an honest dialogue about race, so the leftists and anarchists organized a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and death threats to shut down our conference.
Imagine for a moment that some band of extremists had used threats of violence to shut down a convention of the NAACP or La Raza. Such terrorism would be all over the news.
Shut down a meeting of white people meeting *as* white people and there’s not a peep in the major media.
Oddly, Karl, it wasn’t the government that pulled the plug, it was the hotel itself that decided this wasn’t a meeting they wanted to host.
If your “values” are so mainstream, why does no one want to host your meeting?
Remember, when the politically correct use the term racist, they simply mean whitey:
RACIST: 1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive term for a white person. 2: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, if promoted by white people. 3: a belief that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,if promoted by white people.
Tom wrote:
>If your “values” are so mainstream, why does no one want to host your meeting?
First, I never claimed that my values or opinions were “mainstream.” In fact, Jared Taylor and his readers (myself included) are heretics, dissenters from our secular religion of racial egalitarianism and multiculturalism. We reject liberalism’s silly little fairy tales, and we mock liberalism’s gods.
To answer your question, the four hotels breached their contract with us after a relentless campaign organized by Daryl Lamont Jenkins, Jeffrey Imm, and other brownshirt guardians of political correctness. The barrage of harassment, intimidation, and telephonic death threats aimed at hotel staff eventually proved too much pressure, so they caved.
See The Saga Of American Renaissance’s 2010 Conference: “Anarcho-Tyranny” In Action
By Alexander Hart
http://vdare.com/hart/100216_anarcho_tyranny.htm
The Persecution of American Renaissance
Greg Johnson
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2010/02/the_saga_of_ame.php
They cannot refute our arguments, so resort to making terroristic threats and actual violence in order to shut us up. Were it not for the leftwing terrorism, the conference would be on.
Those who cheer on tyranny are tyrants themselves.
@ Joe Morgan – Yep, a “racist” is someone who is winning an argument with a Leftist.
I guarantee you that this is not over.
Mature thinkers protest action, not speech. And if some go so far as to intimidate speakers with threats of violence, then they have violated our most precious natural right; these protesters have shown themselves to be complete caricatures of the worst enemies of free societies-true believers who would destroy freedom to ‘protect it.’