- Roy Beck presenting for the Council for Conservative Citizens
The white nationalist movement has long tried to dress up opposition to immigration as a “progressive” effort to protect the environment from population stress. So it should come as no surprise that Roy Beck, Executive Director of NumbersUSA, a Tanton-network group, will speak at a conference that starts today entitled The New Green Economy. What is both surprising and disturbing is that the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) invited him.
The environmental movement has been a target of aggressive tactics by anti-immigrant organizations for over 20 years. The strategy was first clearly articulated in 1986 by Beck’s former employer, and the original fiscal sponsor of NumbersUSA, John Tanton — widely described as the architect of the American immigration-restriction movement.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Tanton wrote in a then-secret memo to colleagues that their cause would benefit from getting the Sierra Club to adopt an anti-immigration position. Tanton’s idea was to deflect any damaging accusations of racism by having groups seen as “liberal,” such as the Sierra Club, take up policies opposed to immigration.
Let’s insure that Roy Beck doesn’t have the chance to further his hateful cause while distracting conference goers from real environmental concerns.
Platforms such as this conference only serve to provide a veneer of mainstream credibility to Beck’s disturbing agenda. Join me in calling or emailing the organizers of the event to ask them why they are supporting a controversial figure with ties to white nationalism at their conference.
Peter Saundry, Executive Director
[email protected] 202-207-0002
Chris Bernabo, Director of Science Solutions
[email protected] 202-207-0007
Let Peter and Chris know that Roy Beck is not an innocent man.
· Roy Beck has long associated with white supremacists and their organizations. In 1996, Beck spoke at a conference put on by the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, which has described Black people as “a retrograde species of humanity” and opposes racial intermarriage, among other things.
· NumbersUSA opposes automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S., as guaranteed by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. They endorsed vitriolic anti-immigrant ballot initiative called the California Taxpayers Protection Act. “It is time,” it says on the initiatives website, “to stop the proliferation of the Third World in the United States.”
· Beck, NumbersUSA and their allies, including organizations designated as hate groups by the SPLC and key figures in America’s white nationalist movement, have been a top concern of civil rights organizations for a number of years. Their tactics have led to a dangerous increase in racial disharmony and intolerance and have had a direct impact on the disturbing rise in hate groups and hate crimes in America.
Clearly Beck wears many hats, from spokesperson for a hate group to anti-immigrant activist, but one thing he is not is an environmental expert. The inclusion of Beck among a roster of otherwise highly respected experts stretches the bounds of a well-rounded dialogue.
There are no excuses for NCSE to give the white nationalist movement space to spread their hate. Let’s make sure NCSE knows we’re watching.