Thursday, August 27, 2009

Call for Papers - "The Other Among Us"

Call for Papers and Submission Guidelines

The Institute for Action Against Hate is soliciting submissions for the eighth volume of the interdisciplinary Journal of Hate Studies.

We are interested in articles from various disciplines that address the topic of "The Other Among Us." We are particularly interested in articles that focus on immigration, refugees, or second-generation peoples who may have been born in one country but are still seen as being representatives of another, tourists, and others who cross national borders. However, articles are also encouraged from a range of perspectives on engagement or disengagement with "the other" in our society, culture, and lives. A special invitation is extended to scholars from disciplines such as history, psychology, philosophy, women's studies, cultural studies, anthropology, political science, social psychology, economics, literature, rhetoric, and religious studies.

Submissions are due by February 1, 2010 and should be between 5000-10,000 words. Submissions should include one hard copy and an electronic copy in MS Word format. Please do not submit PDF files. Submissions should be presented in APA format and, if necessary, contain endnotes rather than footnotes.

Address submissions and questions to the Gonzaga University Institute for Action Against Hate, AD Box 43, 502 E. Boone Avenue, Spokane WA 99258-0043; email address: againsthate@gonzaga.edu; phone: (509) 313-3665.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Dancing around the black hole

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.
Walter Benjamin, Thesis on the Philosophy of History, 1940

There was once a Lutheran who was arrested by the Nazis and put into a holding cell with a bunch of Jews headed for Auschwitz. The man protested that he was not a Jew, he hated Jews, in fact. He was a Lutheran. He was born a Lutheran. The Nazis replied that his mother was a Jew and so he was a Jew. No, he replied with passion, my mother converted to Christianity long before I was born and she married a Lutheran and she raised me a Lutheran and she was a Lutheran. No, the Nazis replied, she was a Jew. And so the man found himself in the gas chamber with a chamber load of Jews as the gas was being dropped into the chamber. As he drew his last breath it finally dawned on him, "oh, my God, I'm a Jew!"

All his life he thought that he knew who he was. He was a German and a Lutheran and he hated Jews. At the very last moment of his life he discovers that he is a Jew. He realizes that on some level this fact was fundamental to who he was and what his destiny was to be. He cannot now go back and live his life over and he has no future, so what benefit is his final insight?
Binyamin Mehler, Meditation on Benjamin, (2009)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Haeckel Controversy

Daniel Gasman has written two books on Ernst Haeckel. First, his 1971 The Scientific Origins of National Socialism which examines the Monist roots of National Socialism and his 1998 study, Hackel's Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology, which extends his analysis by examining Haeckel's influence on French and Italian fascism.

Gasman's work was widely accepted, if not fully appreciated. Now comes Professor Robert Richards to turn Gasman on his head. Where Gasman contends that Haeckelian Monism is significantly different from Darwinian evolutionary theory, Richards argues they were substantially the same. Where Gasman contends that Haeckel was an antisemite, Richards argues he was a friend of the Jews. Where Gasman contends that Haeckel was a proto-Nazi, Richards argues he was hated by the Nazis. Some observers have commented that the debate is about ego's rather than issues; that the debate between Gasman and Richards has become vitriolic and personal and therefore not fit for public consumption. But that view ignores the underlying significance of what is at stake. This is not about Dr. Gasman's or Professor Richards' reputation, although, both are clearly at stake. If Gasman is right, if his criticisms of Richards are sound, Richards reputation and integrity will be called into question. If Richards is right, Gasman's life work becomes a misguided attempt to malign a man who ought to share the stage with Darwin as one of the great heroes of modern science.

But beyond that and far more important is how we end up understanding fascism, the single most pernicious political and social ideology of modern times. Taken in this light, ISAR believes that Richards obscures and Gasman illuminates.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Jews and Neo-Nazis

In 1994 after I appeared on ABC World News with Peter Jennings talking about the Bell Curve. My ex had just been in a bad accident and was in a cast up to her thigh. The phone rang and this guy started to rant so she hung up. He called back and left this message on the answer machine: "Listen, bitch! I know who you and are where you live and I'm coming for your family."

At the time, we had good friends, Ron and Debbie who were training Rottweiler guard dogs. She was an ex-cop and he was ex-Marine. They moved in with us to help out and brought Tasha, who they were training. She was nearly two hundred pounds of pure muscle and she would sit on my porch like a statue. She wouldn't bark or move when people walked by the house, but if someone stopped in front of the house and looked at the house, Tasha would literally fly off the porch. The heavy chain would yank her to the ground and she would communicated to whoever was standing there that it would be a very good idea to keep moving.

Isaac was about ten and Ron took him to school everyday and picked him up in the afternoon. Isaac liked Ron, but after a few days, I heard Isaac tell him, "Ron, I like you, but I want to meet my friends at our secret fort by myself." I heard Ron say: "Isaac, there are some people who might want to hurt your dad and the worst thing they could do would be to hurt you. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen." Isaac’s best friend, Austin, who lived next door, might as well have lived on another planet. His front door was never locked and he lived in a place that was safe for children. My son lived in a world where Nazis were still gunning for Jews!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

ISAR - Front for Genocide

We received this email a few weeks ago from Jason.

Your 'institute' is just a front. The truth is that you are a Jew. Your true goal is to exterminate all White people. Just like what happened in East Prussia to the civilian population of Germans when the Soviet Army came. That is your true dream. Mass rapes. Mass murder. The greatest mass rape of children in the history of the world. The Russians used mass rape as a means of ethnic cleansing. Millions of German civilians were taken as slaves east to Siberia.

Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book Gulag Archipelago. He won the Nobel prize in literature for that work. Communism is Jewish in origin. Marx, Engels, Trotskey, Lenin ... they were all Jews. Communism was a Jewish scheme to enslave entire White nations. Your Jewish tricks won't work on me. Lazar kaganovich, another Jews, was responsible for the artificial famine in Ukraine in 1923-24 that killed 7 million White people.

The Jews invented genocide. In the Bible, in the Book of Numbers and later in the book of Joshua we read of mass Genocided comitted by the Jews where they slaughter countless peoples, killing men, women, children, and even their pets and livestock.

I answered Jason:
--- On Sat, 5/30/09, BarryMehler@ferris.edu wrote:

From: BarryMehler@ferris.edu
Subject: Re: your Jewish lies
To: "Jason"
Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009, 10:28 PM

Yeh, that's me. I'm a Jew.

Jason replied:

Jared Taylor had an article published in a mainstream blog today. Read the link below for a rebuttal of your worldview:

http://www.takimag.com/article/what_do_white_nationalists_want/

I'm not going to waste my time debating you. You are liar. As your father, Satan, is the father of lies.

Our movement is growing. You devil, you. You will not stop us. God is on our side. The White race is God's true choosen people.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

New Essay Prize on Prejudice

PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES
ON PREJUDICE

First Annual Paper Prize


The Committee for the Prejudice Paper Prize announces the First Annual Competition for a manuscript on Prejudice from a Psychoanalytic Perspective.

Submissions are welcome for original papers that address any theoretical or empirical aspect of this important subject. Deadline: December 15, 2009.

All papers will be juried by the Paper Prize Committee. A $500 Prize will be awarded to the winning paper. Additionally, a Student Prize of $300 will be awarded to a paper by a graduate student or psychiatry resident (Psychoanalytic Candidates will be considered post-graduates).

Manuscripts should be up to 30 double-spaced pages including references, and could be authored by one or more persons. Please email intention of submitting to committee chairperson.

The journal Contemporary Psychoanalysis will have first right for publication after review. This Paper Prize competition is open to any person interested in writing on the topic of prejudice from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Submissions and Questions should be emailed to: Ron Aviram, Ph.D. at ronaviram@msn.com or 212-439-8070 (Paper Prize Committee Chair).

Each submission should have a cover page with Name, Affiliation, and contact information. Please note if the author is a student or psychiatry resident. No identifying information should appear on the rest of the manuscript.

Updated information can be found at the William Alanson White Institute website: http://www.wawhite.org/home/home.htm

Paper Prize Committee: Cleonie White, Helen Quinones, Fred Millan, Alison Feit, Mark Blechner, Christopher Bonovitz,
Steve Bashkoff, Ron Aviram.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

A Response to David Kelsey – The Kvetcher

David:

First, thank you for inaugurating my new blog. I really appreciate your commenting on my blog. This is my first blog and you’re the first to comment!

The Kvetcher wrote: “My post was, in fact, edited. A lot. All the block quotes--never mind the links--were taken out, and it is consequently much harder to read coherently. But I guess that works well for you with your penchant for nasty name calling that you are famous for, Dr. Mehler.”

I apologize for the inadvertent edits. I just did a cut and paste and obviously some of the formatting changed, I hope that anyone who is interested in your original remarks will go directly to your blog:
http://kvetcher.net/
I would restore the links as you asked, but I’m not sure how to do it. Your welcome to post them.

With regard to my “penchant for nasty name calling” - I must tell you that I have many bad traits. I’ve been called a Marxist and a Lysenkoist. A recent correspondent said I was either irresponsible or despicable and I wrote him back to point out that the two were not mutually exclusive. I might, in fact, be both irresponsible and despicable. David, I have always felt that it is not up to me to decide how to characterize myself and I don’t take offense.

When I characterize certain arguments as “white nationalist” it’s not a matter of name calling, I’m trying to point out that arguments about the dangers of Mexican immigration to American culture or the American nation are basically white nationalist. The United States defines citizens as those born or naturalized and it says nothing about what language they speak or what beliefs they hold about religion or government or anything. The character of this nation has changed dramatically since the colonial days and it is constantly changing. I’m not making that happen. The demography of the world is changing and the kinds of debates we are having, the British and French and Germans are having as well.

Now, you commented, “But it's okay when Israel does it, right?” If you mean, do I believe it is ok to have a Jewish state, I would have to say that if I had been in charge of history, I would have made Israel a bi-national state. What the future will hold for Israel is not up to me. Demography in Israel is changing just as it is changing everywhere. The Arab and non-Jewish minority is growing as a percentage of the population and the conflict between fundamentalist Jews and secular Jews is a serious schism that is growing more serious and shows little sign of any peaceful resolution. I wish I had an answer, but I don’t. In short, I don’t think anything is right just because Israel does it.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Modest Proposal

Caryn and I have been researching the immigration restriction movement. As you may know, anti-immigration propaganda has been at the center of the extremist campaign to gain influence politically, not only here in the United States, but globally as well. In the course of our investigation we came upon Stephen Steinlight, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who is trying to convince the Jewish community that we need a stricter immigration policy because the massive Mexican immigration threatens us as Americans and as Jews. This is a daunting task since the Jewish community has always been extremely sympathetic to immigrants.

Steinlight is the last person you would expect to find working for an organization that was started by John Tanton, a racist and antisemite. He began his career working for civil rights organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. He “converted” – his own term for his change of views – and in 2001, he joined the white nationalist as a Senior Policy Analyst for CIS. Since then he has been trying to convince Jews that Mexican immigration to the U.S. – both legal and illegal – is a threat to the country and to Jews.

He posted a blog on a Jewish web site called, Jewcy (www.jewcy.com), in which he spoke of the danger of “irredentist” Mexicans who refuse to learn English and who remain loyal to Mexico, actually threatening the U.S. sovereignty of states such as Texas, New Mexico and California. At the very least, they threaten the social cohesion of American society. In response, I posted a comment, titled, “A Modest Proposal,” in which I suggested that “it is never too late to give back what has been stolen” and perhaps we ought to just let the Mexicans have Texas, New Mexico and California. What follows below is the reaction to my modest proposal. I must warn you ahead of time, some of what follows are the mindless babblings of individuals devoid of the ability to express themselves in sentences. Clearly, I am gaining a reputation among white nationalists who can barely read.

The first response comes from “The Kvetcher.” I present his blog, unedited:
http://kvetcher.net/

Well, at least he is honest about his hopes for the Southwest
by DK

A man claiming to be Dr. Barry Mehler, a far-Left Jewish activist whose *achievements* include, according to Wikipedia,
“employing ‘inflammatory’ and ‘inquisitional’ anti-racist rhetoric in an effort to spur activism and discredit controversial scientists through the manipulation of popular opinion.”

…proposed on Jewcy that,

I have a modest proposal in regard to this possibility. It is never too late to give back what you have stolen. Let Mexico have Texas, New Mexico and California. The result would be a smaller United States and a larger Mexico. The world’s one great super-power would become more like other nations and we would have to work in concert with others.

He also had some sympathetic words for those of us who want to retain these lands as part of our Anglo-culture.

We live in a hemisphere of the earth that is predominantly Spanish speaking. The age in which European descended white men could rule the earth is over. California, Texas, Florida and New Mexico will become states with majority Spanish speaking populations and their sympathies will be different from those of English speaking white men. It’s always a new world. Get out of the doorway if you can’t understand. The Mexicans are coming and they have every right to be here.
Of course, those of us who do not want this are “white nationalists,” and therefore “racists,” and therefore there is no legitimate debate to suggest stemming the tide, because all who oppose are white nationalist racists anyway.
Just “get out of the doorway.”

And here is the liberteaux - likewise, unedited.
http://www.jewcy.com/post/no_debate_please_were_jewish_0

DoGooder's Holyland

For those of you who haven't figured it out, no World Global Government is going to protect you. When will we learn, for heaven's sake. There is nothing wrong with insisting that people of vastly different cultures shall not be welcome here unless they are willing to become part of the original American project - that being the one invisioned by the wise and worldly founders. Even David Mamet realized their brilliance recently, and has seen the light. Mexico is for Mexicans, if their loyalty is to Mexico. They are just as selfish as we are if they want to come here 'for a better way of life'. What about MY better way of life, which is one that is without them. You say that that Mexican illegals have done nothing bad to this country? When my wife grew up in Phoenix her town of Maryvale was a lovely spot. Now it is gangland. Is it a superior culture who has taken over, or has our weakness and self-imolation to the god of Eastern European remorse still so with us that we are poisoned for life. Have we no self interest that is not tied into the supposed pursuit of 'justice' - when what we really are doing is providing the lawyers to make America-hating immigrants citizens at our own peril? When did we lose sight of justice being two sided - not only for those who want to be happy, but for those of us lucky enough to be here already. I for one have no moral obligation whatsoever to 'make the world happy', especially if it means making myself unhappy. Illegal immigrants have no rights here, and no right to be here at all. There is no univeral right to free immigration. It is a canard intented to keep the weak minded and guilt ridden on a constant journey of self deprication and deprivation so that a sick and sad society can assuage their own feelings of failure. Mexicans have no 'right' to the American West, only America haters think so, so who cares what they think anyway. I love my country just as it was. Where I came from no one discriminated against us for being Jews, we owned and still own the biggest and best apparel stores, furniture stores, hunting and sporting equipment stores, and we do not consider ourselves Askenazi first. We are Americans first. Our friends are white and black Americans who owe no allegiance whatsoever to any world 'justice' movement. Justice is right in front of you if you are just, and nowhere if you are not. I and other Jews like me will continue to support the sheriff in Phoenix who does his job to protect me and my family from those who think they deserve an American life because somebody like you says they have a right to it. You who would like to live in the socialist past of Eastern Europe. You who self-immolate and throw Western Civilization on the fire for your 'justice'. So that you can stand the guilt you allowed your parents to instill in you. A guilt that makes you miserable. My kids are happy. They are not poisoned with the shame of the past. Nor are they so arrogant that they think they can 'save the planet' for everyone but the horrible European white race that made Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Korngold, Wagner, Shakespeare, Somerset Maugham, Rembrandt, Bizet, Puccini and so much more that is detested by the tribal leftist, Caucasian-hating world, ancient and modern. I can't help you. You are amongst the miserable lost. But I can help stop you - for you will once again lead us into chaos and destruction by placing us at the hands of the murdering globalists who always have us in their crosshairs. I will stay an American, thank you very much. And so will my beloved Southwest.

And then a Mexican-American weighed in to point out that: (Edited)

“Hispanic” kids are now 50.2% of ALL first graders in the State of Texas.

55% of births in California are “Hispanic”, 45% of births in Arizona are “Hispanic”, 55% of births in New Mexico are “Hispanic”, 40% of births in Nevada are “Hispanic”, 30% of births in Colorado are “Hispanic”, 30% of births in Florida are non Mexican “Hispanic”. 25% of births in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (25% in each state) are non Mexican “Hispanic”. …

Whites (Anglos?) have below replacement birthrates all over the globe. In the southwest, this means whites are a mere 27% of births in California. 34% in Texas, etc

You people are waging battles in a war you have already lost. The only thing you can achieve at this point is the retardation of “Hispanic” socio-economic development. The flip side of this is a deep sense of ethnic cohesion….
America has been multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural, etc since the FIRST DAY European illegal aliens set foot on this continent. ANYONE that has a problem with this NOW should go back to their ancestral homelands (Aliya?). Granted people here now should learn English and attempt to acculturate themselves .

Mexican-Americans are as American as ANYONE with roots in Europe. Those of you that hate us so much should make Aliya, go back to Europe, Asia, Middle East, or whatever the case may be. WE SURVIVED 500 YEARS OF EUROPEAN (starting with the Spanish) EFFORTS TO EXTERMINATE US…AND THE NEXT 500 YEARS ARE GONNA BE DIFFERENT!
The craziest thing about being Mexican-American is that after ANOTHER day of tv, magazines, radio, cable “news”, internet, etc telling me how much whites (mostly but not exclusively) hate me, I come home to learn Marine Corps recruiters have come looking for me AGAIN that I may “serve my country”.

However, to borrow a phrase from “The Greatest”; No Iraqi/Afghan ever called me a wetback!

****

Dr. Mehler would only add that the definition of an “American” according to the Fourteenth Amendment, is “anyone born in the United States.” It is a simple definition that says nothing about our language or values – both of which are constantly changing. It is this change that the white nationalists fear and that fear is the engine driving the white nationalist drive.

Today is the last day of the eight day holiday of Pesach. It is a holiday in which Jews remember that they were once immigrants, fleeing famine in Canaan, who settled in Egypt only to find the Egyptians worrying that we would become "too numerous." Driven out, we found ourselves considered barbarian invaders by the natives of the lands we wished to return to. In short, Jews remember what it was like being a stranger in a new land and we are commanded to welcome the stranger, not fear her.

Friday, March 27, 2009

History from the bottom up

Stephen Pimpare, A People's History of Poverty in America (The New Press People's Histories, 2008) series editor Howard Zinn (Hardcover - Nov 17, 2008)

Walter Benjamin, famously noted that "progress" is the storm irresistibly propelling us into the future, to which our backs are turned, piling wreckage upon wreckage in front of our feet.

Abandon all hope of progress when you enter Pimpare's world of poverty. Here is what Pimpare has to say about progress.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/25/stephen_pimpare_on_a_peoples_history

"Well the way that the history of poverty is usually told is as much other history is told. It’s the history of great men and occasionally great women, right? So we’ll talk about Jane Addams or FDR or LBJ, or alternatively, we’ll talk about moments of state or national policy innovation. So we’ll focus on state-level innovations of the Progressive Era or of the New Deal programs of the 1930s or of the Great Society programs of the 1960s.

What I have done in this book is to ask, what happens if instead of asking “How has policy changed over time?” we invert our analysis and ask the question “How has the experience of being poor and in need changed over time?” And one of the consequences I argue of doing that is, among other things, instead of comforting ourselves with a relatively progressive story, a forward-moving story, an evolutionary story, that no matter how bad things may be at any given moment in time, they have in fact gotten better, what I argue is in fact the constants, the consistency of that experience of poverty over the course of American history has changed much less than we might like to believe."

According to Pimpare:
Among "advanced" nations, we have the highest of rates of poverty; the highest rates of childhood poverty; the second highest rates of elderly poverty; the highest rates of long-term poverty; of permanent poverty and income inequality. We boast the highest rates of incarceration; the highest rates of health-care costs and the highest CEO pay. At the same time, only Australia and New Zealand have longer average work weeks. We have one of the highest rates of infant mortality with Taiwan, Belgium, Cuba and the Czech Republic all showing lower rates of infant mortality than the US.

At the same time, the United States ranks among the very lowest for high school graduation, health-care coverage, mandated vacation and paid parental leave, voter participation, women in the national legislature, working-class wages, living standards among those at the bottom, and life expectancy. A 2005 study by Save the Children found ten countries in which mothers and their children fare better than in the United States. The infant mortality rate for African Americans in Washington, D.C., is higher than in the poor Indian state of Karala, and the overall infant death rate in the United States is the same as in Malaysia. Men in Bangladesh stand it better chance of surviving to age sixty-five than black men in Harlem. There is much that is exceptional about the United States, much that is extraordinary and worthy of celebration, but many Americans, perhaps /8/ most, would be better off elsewhere. As social-welfare analyst David Wagner has observed, it may be that our self-congratulatory rhetoric, what he calls our "virtue talk," obscures the less noble reality: Americans do less for the least among us than do other Western industrialized nations. (Introduction, p. 8.)

Medical Apartheid

I would like to recommend a few relatively new books that are on my desk waiting for a review to be posted on our ISAR website.

Harriet Washington has written an astonishing history of racism in the medical profession from colonial times to the present.

Book details:
Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (Random House 2006)

ISBN: 978-0-385-50993-0 (0-385-50993-6


You can listen to an interview of the author on Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/1/19/medical_apartheid_the_dark_history_of


Many people believe that the history of racism is a history of a progression away from racism and towards greater tolerance. There is little evidence of progress in this monograph.

The ISAR Blog

For those not familiar with ISAR, an introduction.
Our website: www.ferris.edu/isar

The Institute for the Study of Academic Racism (ISAR) at Ferris State University is a non-profit educational foundation that acts as a resource service for students, academics, journalists, legislators and civil rights activists.

ISAR monitors changing intellectual trends in academic racism, biological determinism, and eugenics. ISAR's investigative work has resulted in feature articles in such prominent newspapers and magazines as the New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Science Magazine. ISAR staff have worked with Congress and the Justice Department as well as national civil rights organizations. The institute promotes research in academic racism by posting extensive bibliographies and maintaining an on-line archive of primary and secondary sources.

The Institute encourages an activist approach to understanding. It challenges students to advance the cause of social justice by countering the intellectual and ideological foundations of prejudice. ISAR's goal is to engage students in projects that result in both a lasting contribution to human knowledge as well as real and immediate social change. One such project organized by students at the University of Hawaii -- a study of Stanley Porteus (1883-1972), a psychologist and academic advocate of segregation and apartheid, resulted in a unanimous vote by the UH Board of Regents in April, 1998 to de-name Porteus Hall. The project involved an educational campaign aimed at the campus community as well as the creation of an on-line archive of permanent historical value. Students learned not only academic and political skills, they learned how to use their academic skills to bring about real social change.

In 1991, ISAR director and founder, Dr. Barry Mehler, presented a report on the international eugenics movement at the Winston Institute's International Congress on Discrimination and Conflict in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1993, ISAR presented a report on 'Race, Law and the Political Process' to the National Executive Committee of the Anti-Defamation League. In 1994, ISAR helped prepare the 'Final Report of the McIntosh Commission on Fair Play in Student-Athlete Admissions' which was submitted to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness, chaired by then Congresswoman Cardiss Collins. In 1997, ISAR's report on psychologist Raymond B. Cattell was the subject of extensive comment in the international press.