September 24, 2013
A number of extremists published articles in the summer 2013 issue of The Social Contract (TSC), an anti-immigrant journal. Released in September, the journal also features articles from two representatives of the DC-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an anti-immigrant think tank. Pieces from Mark Krikorian, the longtime executive director of the organization, and Don Barnett, a CIS fellow, appear alongside those from numerous racists with ties to white supremacist and anti-Semitic individuals and organizations.
TSC’s publisher is racist John Tanton, the founder of the modern-day anti-immigrant movement and also the founder of CIS. This edition of TSC focuses on the issue of refugee status in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and contains numerous examples of anti-immigrant rhetoric and stereotypes.
Among the extremists who have published articles in the latest issue of TSC is its editor, Wayne Lutton. Lutton served as a director on the board of the Charles Martel Society, which publishes the Occidental Quarterly (OQ), a racist journal and the Occidental Observer, an anti-Semitic online magazine. Lutton also served on the OQ Editorial Advisory Board alongside other racists and anti-Semites, including Kevin MacDonald, an anti-Semitic professor of evolutionary psychology at California State University–Long Beach. Lutton also sat on the editorial advisory board of the Citizens Informer, the publication of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC). He is a frequent speaker at white supremacist gatherings, including Council of Conservative Citizens and American Renaissance conferences. On numerous occasions, Lutton appeared as a guest on the white supremacist radio show, Political Cesspool. In 2010, Lutton’s editorial in an issue of TSC titled “The Muslim Menace” called for a ban on all Muslim immigration to the United States.
Another extremist published alongside Krikorian in this issue of TSC is John Vinson, the president of the anti-immigrant American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF). Vinson is a founding member of the League of the South, a racist neo-Confederate organization. Vinson is credited with drafting the “Kinism Statement,” a statement of guiding principles for a modern white supremacist interpretation of Christianity called “Kinism.” Vinson is also affiliated with the CofCC. In 1998, Vinson was the guest-editor of one of the most notorious issues of TSC, titled “Europhobia: The Hostility Toward European-Descended Americans.” The issue featured articles from a number of white supremacists, including Jared Taylor and Sam Francis.
The new issue of TSC also features an article by Rick Oltman. Oltman spoke at a CofCC conference in the 1990’s and also served as a field organizer for the extreme anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), also founded by Tanton. He also worked for the Santa Barbara-based anti-immigrant group Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). Oltman participated in an immigration rally in Cullman, Alabama, in 1998 featuring a number of extremists, including Klansmen. According to news reports, attendees burned a Mexican flag.
Brenda Walker, who also has an article in the newest edition of TSC, is a frequent contributor to the journal, with a history of making anti-Hispanic and anti-Muslim statements. Walker is also a frequent contributor to VDARE, a xenophobic website founded by racist Peter Brimelow. VDARE regularly publishes articles from white supremacists and anti-Semites. In one VDARE article published in 2008, Walker wrote, “If I am around a couple of gangsterish Spanish-speakers, I don't know whether they are discussing… whether they should try to rob and kill me.” In a March 2008 post, she described the “Islamic world…India and China,” as “third word [sic] sewers” and “third-world piggy zones” whose people “are coming here, bringing their crappy cultures that don't have the wit to survive without actual slavery and other sorts of oppression built into the family structure.” Walker’s article for the summer 2013 issue of TSC attacks Somali refugees, claiming, “Aside from those who have not personally experienced violence, tribal people like Somalis have been a stupendous failure at acculturation, leaving a trail of gang crime, sexual assault, and support for jihad in the homeland.”
White supremacist Peter Gemma also contributed to the summer issue of TSC. Gemma is the editor of “Shots Fired,” a book of essays by white supremacist Sam Francis. Like Wayne Lutton, Gemma sat on the editorial advisory board of the Citizens Informer. Gemma also appeared on the Political Cesspool radio show in the past. In 2004, Gemma introduced notorious Holocaust denier Mark Weber at a meeting of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), once the leading Holocaust denial organization in the United States. In 2000, Gemma worked as a senior staffer on racist Pat Buchanan’s Presidential campaign. Gemma also contributed articles for the anti-Semtic publication Occidental Quarterly.
This is not the first time an article from Mark Krikorian has appeared in TSC, though his last contribution appeared over ten years ago. Though Krikorian does not have extensive ties to white supremacist and anti-Semitic individuals and organizations, he has made a number of extreme statements in the past. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Krikorian wrote, “My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough” in an article for National Review Online (NRO). In another article for NRO published in April 2011, Krikorian wrote, “Well, I’m afraid that in the Islamic world democracy faces the problem of a vicious people, one where the desire for freedom is indeed written in every human heart, but the freedom to do evil.”