Hate Groups Go Green
A speaker at a recent environmental conference has numerous ties to white power groups, watchdogs say.
By Erin Rosa
January 22, 2010
Frosty Wooldridge speaks during an anti-immigrant demonstration across from the White House in Lafayette Park, Sunday, April 22, 2007, in Washington. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
What was supposed to be an annual convention of environmental scientists and influential policymakers quickly turned into a political polemic after some discovered that a speaker at one of the event’s breakout sessions had close ties to white supremacists.
Due to what researchers say is growing trend of radical right-wing groups using the environmental protection movement to push their own nativist agenda, convention organizers may have unknowingly given legitimacy to an alleged white nationalist. Experts studying hate groups in the United States were shocked to find out that Roy Beck, a former environmental journalist and current executive director of the anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, was invited to speak yesterday at the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment (NCSPE) held at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., Beck was scheduled this week to speak on “Perverse Incentives, Subsidies, and Tax Code Impediments to a Sustainable Economy” and how they relate to the convention’s “New Green Economy” theme.
The event was organized by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), a nonprofit that works to “improve the scientific basis of environmental decision making” and one that is hardly known for having a political agenda. But for years, watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have been documenting Beck’s intimate connections to the white power movement.
Founded in 1997, NumbersUSA is careful to bill itself as an organization that “favors an environmentally sustainable and economically just America,” but in reality, the nonprofit backs a radical right-wing ideology that is much more tacit. Beck boasts that his group was responsible for mobilizing a barrage of angry phone calls and faxes to lawmakers against then-President George W. Bush’s immigration reform package that would have offered a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in 2007. NumbersUSA referred reform as an “amnesty” proposal. More recently, the organization endorsed a 2010 ballot proposal in California that would try to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants who were born in the Untied States, a law that would more than likely be unconstitutional, even if it makes it onto the ballot in November.
The nonprofit Center for New Community (CNC), a Chicago-based group that monitors and reports on white nationalist threats, was the first to discover the anti-immigration activist’s attendance at the environmental conference. “Mainly they serve as a mobilizing arm,” says Jill Garvey, a researcher at the organization, when talking about NumbersUSA. “They’re very active online. Beck generally talks about population growth and negative effects of immigration on the environment. But most of the time immigrants are the victims of environmental problems and not the cause.”
As the CNC is quick to point out, it was Beck who spoke at the Council of Conservative Citizens’ national conference in the 1990s. The Council, a group that has referred to blacks as a “retrograde species of humanity” on its website, actually goes back to the Citizens Councils of America, a now defunct coalition that used to represent “white-supremacist groups formed throughout the South to defend school segregation after the Supreme Court outlawed it in Brown vs. Board of Education,” according to the SPLC. Most recently, the Council has been organizing Tea Party protests, and director Gordon Baum was shown on video this month, lamenting that “our nose is being rubbed into the fact that Obama’s black and we better all recognize the fact that he’s a black man and he’s the president.”
Even if Beck’s performance at the Council’s national conference was just a fluke, he also had his book, Re-Charting America’s Future, published by an outlet called The Social Contract Press, an organization that the SPLC has officially labeled a “hate group” for publishing racist screeds from Council members in its quarterly magazine called The Social Contract. Beck also used to be an editor at the Pressuntil 2000, according to CNC, and its current editor, Wayne Lutton, who has been on the Council’s board of advisers, has been quoted by the SPLC saying, “We are the real Americans … not the Hmong, not Latinos, not the Siberian-Americans.”
On top of that, before Beck began using his influence at NumbersUSA to send millions of faxes to Congress to defeat immigration reform a few years ago, he created his organization through his close relationship with John Tanton, considered the main “pioneer of the anti-immigrant movement” by the ADL.
Tanton, who is the publisher of the Press, founded NumbersUSA with Beck through another one of his organizations, U.S. Inc. In fact, as far back as 1991, Tanton hired Beck as a consultant because of what he described in a memo as Beck’s “unique background in environmental reporting, and his understanding of the immigration issue."
Before Beck even became a consultant for him, Tanton was already well-known for his racist writing. Memos leaked in 1988 turned into a media firestorm when Tanton was caught pondering, “As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion? Why don’t non-Hispanic Whites have a group identity, as do Blacks, Jews, Hispanics?” As a result of the communiqués, one of which warned of a pending "Latin onslaught,” Tanton resigned from U.S. English—yet another one of his immigration organizations, which was lobbying to make English the official language of the United States—after prominent backers of the “English only” group quickly severed connections with the organization.
Garvey at CNC sees danger in allowing people like Tanton and his disciples to push their agenda at mainstream outlets like the NCSPE. “I think it’s a serious matter. It’s just one event, but I think it’s serious in the sense that every event that the Tanton network is allowed to mainstream itself at is one more step into legitimate discourse,” she says. “What [is] the American public supposed to think?”
Over the years, Beck tried to distance himself from what watchdog groups now call the “Tanton network,” denying over and over that he and NumbersUSA have racist or “immigrant bashing” motives. In 2002, NumbersUSA officially ended its partnership with U.S. Inc. But a recent SPLC investigation last year revealed that Beck’s organization had still accepted a $20,000 grant from U.S. Inc. in 2006, and that in 2008 Beck and a coworker spoke at a conference organized by the Press. Then there’s the fact that NumbersUSA joined with the Tanton-created Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 2008 to fund an advertising campaign against immigrants, according to the ADL. Meanwhile, Tanton continues to sit on FAIR’s board of directors.
As for NCSPE’s role in the controversy, the convention organizers really seem to have been caught unaware of Beck’s past. “I’m surprised to hear a person like that wasn’t vetted out,” says Lyle Birkey, a spokesperson for the science organization. “We really want to lean toward people that are well-respected in the industry and for all the right reasons. Providing this kind of conference is a huge task to take on, and so to make sure that each one of our 300 speakers is not on a watchdog list, that would take a tremendous amount of work that we simply don’t have the power to facilitate.”
But for researchers like Garvey, the incident is an all-too-familiar story. These days white supremacists and their nuanced sympathizers are finding more ways to cloak their real agenda, especially when it comes to tying environmentalism to the immigration debate. Just this month, CNC reveled that Beck helped staff a fledgling nonprofit called , another “environmental protection” group connected to Tanton that is used as a ruse to recruit people on the left to support a more radical ideology. “You’ll never hear Roy Beck say anything that’s overtly racist and there’s a reason for that,” Garvey says. “They need organizations like NumbersUSA to keep up the charade that they are legitimately concerned about the environment.”
Erin Rosa is an associate editor at Campus Progress. Follow her on Twitter.
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Comments
In a photo taken from a Concil of Conservative Citizens’ newsletter, Beck speaks at the group’s national conference in 1997. (
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Erin Rosa is on very thin ice here. The SPLC has never labeled NumbersUSA a “hate group,” yet the headline on this story says just the opposite. She would be very wise to think twice before shooting off her mouth the next time.
Dave Gorak
— Dave Gorak - Jan 22, 04:56 PM - #Executive director
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration
LaValle, WI
Erin Rosa writes without facts. I marched with Dr. Martin Luther King up Slappey Dr. in Albany, GA, in the summer of 1963. I am a military brat integrated since birth. I attend a completely integrated church in Denver where I sit with Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Japanese, Muslims and many other races. I teach in the inner city with 95 percent minorities. I also volunteer teach all races, creeds and colors handicapped skiing in Winter Park CO for the past 20 years. I have never made any statement or written against any legal immigrants. I have stood by the US Constitution to enforce our laws against illegal immigration. I will always stand on the side of the law. You can ‘create’ falsified accounts Ms. Rosa, but the the facts bear out my work and integrity. Frosty Wooldridge
— Frosty Wooldridge - Jan 22, 05:31 PM - #“Thin ice”, Please, Mr. Gorak. What are you going to do, stamp your feet and scream until Rosa admits its another group John Tanton founded, FAIR, that is designated as a hate group while noting that NumbersUSA is still, along with FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies are “all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the ‘puppeteer’ of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots.” And Frosty, although you might have a point with why this article included your picture when you are not mentioned in the article, all you did was show that you know better than to associate with Council of Conservative Citizens, whose members founded Americans for Immigration Control (which is the first link on your site), and write articles found on David Duke’s website that complain about how “The United States speeds toward becoming a dysfunctional, unstable and hopelessly multicultural civilization” in an article that by the way complained about mass immigration that didn’t get so nuanced as to note you were only talking about “illegal” immigration. Oh, and there aren’t too many non-racists that don’t appear on the Political Cesspool. So you can see where the confusion is, eh?
Daryle Lamont Jenkins
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins - Jan 22, 06:10 PM - #One People’s Project
Whoops! I just notices something else, Mr. Gorak. The headline doesn’t say anything about NumbersUSA being labeled a hate group, by the SPLC. It says “A speaker at a recent environmental conference has numerous ties to white power groups, watchdogs say.” Well, Ms. Rosa detailed exactly what she was referring to by noting Beck’s ties. So where’s the thin ice, sir?
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins - Jan 22, 06:18 PM - #Whoops! I just noticed something else, Mr. Gorak. The headline doesn’t say anything about NumbersUSA being labeled a hate group, by the SPLC. It says “A speaker at a recent environmental conference has numerous ties to white power groups, watchdogs say.” Well, Ms. Rosa detailed exactly what she was referring to by noting Beck’s ties. So where’s the thin ice, sir?
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins - Jan 22, 06:19 PM - #Ms. Rosa, I state emphatically: I have never, ever been involved with, or participated in white power groups or hate groups of any kind and I have never spoken out against legal immigration. Your fallacious writing exceeds slander and moves into the realm of outright fiction. At no point can you make up anything against me other than the speech and the picture you show is me speaking to a crowd that wants our immigration laws upheld. It says on my T-shirt: stop illegal immigration. That means to uphold the law, nothing more and nothing less. In the end, this country cannot sustain endless immigration if it expects to remain a viable civilization into the 21st century. The sooner we lower immigration to 100,000 per year, the sooner we can help other overpopulated civilizations balance their own populations. Overpopulation is the THE single greatest issue facing America and the world in the 21st century. Frosty Wooldridge
— Frosty Wooldridge - Jan 23, 01:42 PM - #Mr. Wooldridge,
You, and many of your cohorts, like to say that the immigration debate is about “law” and the “environment,” yet when provoked to talk about immigration you usually harp on cultural issues from a nativist (and yes, racist) ideology.
As the SPLC has documented:
Cock-fighting, animal sacrifice, Santeria sorcery, staged dog fights — these are some of the nasty things illegal aliens bring us, Woolridge writes in his 2004 book Immigration’s Unarmed Invasion: Deadly Consequences. There’s genital mutilation — clitorectomies — that come to us courtesy of illegal non-European immigrants (“What if your daughter married a man who insisted your granddaughter undergo this operation?”). If you go to places like Wal-Mart or the movies, he warns, “you’re breathing air that may be carrying hepatitis.” Tuberculosis, head lice and hepatitis are showing up in our classrooms — part of what Wooldridge calls immigrants’ “disease jihad.” Thanks to donations from illegals, blood supplies may be contaminated with a deadly parasite that will destroy your heart.
Not worried yet about the ways of “barbaric” immigrants? Consider the toilet habits of the undocumented. Somali immigrants, Wooldridge warns, “never used a toilet or washed their hands before being plunked down in America.” Mexicans “do not wash their hands after using bathroom facilities.” Then Wooldridge suggests in his book that readers think about just who it is who prepares their food.
Seems pretty clear to me.
By the way, you do realize that slander is something that is spoken, and not written, right?
— Erin Rosa - Jan 23, 04:23 PM - #Mr. Wooldridge, are you going to explain this stuff or slink off because you can’t?
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins - Jan 23, 10:11 PM - #Erin, I love it when you point out facts that get under peoples’ hides!!! Must mean you hit a raw nerve. Reality bites!
— Jan Michel - Jan 25, 04:41 PM - #I don’t know Roy Beck personally, but a good friend who I respect knows him well, and tells me Roy is no racist. I believe him.
Further, having read your piece above, there is nothing Roy said that you could in any way construe as racist, you nevertheless insinuate that he is because of some association in a group that is against illegal immigration.
I’m as green and as liberal as anyone reading this blog, but my brother is a hard-core “birther” type who loves his guns and his Jesus more than life itself. Does that make me one of those kind of people, or does his association with me make him a liberal?
Overpopulation is a serious environmental issue. Anyone who doesn’t believe this is not paying attention. Unsustainable immigration into the U.S., where the average citizen uses orders of magnitude more energy and resources than the average global citizen, means our environmental problems will grow too fast to ever solve.
If we are to ever get a handle on the big issues like climate change, we will need to address unsustainable population growth. Please try to refrain from painting those who are working to solve these problems with the racist paintbrush. We are not racist in any way, shape or form.
— Paul Scott - Jan 27, 06:38 PM - #Hmm..I previously posted
— ThisAmerican - Jan 28, 11:17 AM - #The hypocrisy of the illegal alien lovers knows no bounds. Last year, upon inspection of a “migrant” camp we found a coyote, strangled with plastic bags and scalped..it’s body left to rot. Last month an illegal alien was convicted of supplying child “prostitutes” (sex slaves) to these same lovely, hardwarking people.
Why don’t these Lib do gooders like SPLC, ACLU, La Raza, MEChA et al, head on down to the border and CLEAN up the tons upon tons of environmentally hazardous materials left by illegals entering the US? Then they can move into the canyons and do the same. Then, finally, into neighborhoods, being destroyed by filth and disease brought to the US by these poor people “who don’t know any better” How about it, Erin…put your activism to some good use, eh?
SPLC is the “hate” group. They label anyone who does not follow their liberal agenda as a “racist” or “anti-semite.”
Why is it libtards (and the repuglicans who support the corporations who want illegals here to exploit so they don’t have to pay Americans a living wage) are so quick to label those of us who want to see the laws of this country enforced as “racists?” I don’t give a damn what race they are: if they come here illegally, they should be deported. Also, anyone who is caught hiring them should have to pay a huge fine.
— Mary - Jan 28, 03:10 PM - #Roy Beck needs to slap Erin Rosa with a big fat “Libel” and “Slander” suit.Anyone else who gets falsely labeled by one of these “American Bashing”,“OPEN-BORDER” CLOWNS needs to do the same.We are all tired of the pro-Illegal-hispano-groups screaming “White Racism” in a crowded theater…..It has gotten very old,and very annoying.Time to fight back,and make it count.You heard me,“ERIN”.......!!!
— Dom McCrevasse - Jan 28, 04:11 PM - #Paul,
Since you actually took the initiative to respond coherently, I’ll respond back.
To label this as a simple “guilt by association” logical fallacy is, well, just wrong.
It was Roy Beck who is seen above in the picture presenting at the Council of Conservative Citizens’ annual conference. It was Roy Beck who decided to become intertwined with Tanton, even after those racist memos were leaked. It was, again, Beck who founded NumbersUSA with Tanton’s money. These are facts.
— Erin Rosa - Jan 29, 03:03 PM - #OK, you stated some facts, but the facts don’t translate to Roy Beck, or Tanton, being racists. I often speak to conservative groups about environmental issues, but that doesn’t make me a conservative. Your logic seems strained at best.
I must question your basis for calling these people racists. Have you asked them what is in their hearts? This is where the truth resides. If they claim not to be racist, and there is no evidence of overt racism, then you have to accept that.
I’m not familiar with your site here, but from the looks of it, I would conclude this is a pro-environment site. You chose not to address my contention that overpopulation is a serious environmental issue. Rather than spending your time falsely accusing population activists of being racists, I’d respectfully suggest you spend more time on the important issues before us.
— Paul Scott - Jan 30, 09:22 PM - #Paul, fact of the matter is even if we gave the benefit of the doubt to Roy Beck there is still the matter of the fact that he is comfortable working with
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins - Jan 31, 01:37 AM - #those who are. And they are not merely racist. They are trying to bring back the days when whites were the only ones with rights in this country. So tell me, what is your basis for ignoring that?
I see so many comments here where the writer uses the term, “nativist,” as if it were a calvary saber to figuratively destroy anyone who is opposed to granting amnesty to illegal aliens. I wonder if any of these writers have ever bothered to look up its meaning? Well the first definition of nativism is, “the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.” How can anyone be against protecting the interests of US citizens against illegal aliens?
Don’t forget illegal aliens aren’t immigrants, they are law breakers who don’t care about our laws or what damage they do to US citizens. All they care about is themselves, and they will break any law to get whatever it is that they want! Want to come to the US, not problem break the law. Want to work in the US, not problem break the law. Want to drive in the US, not problem break the law. Don’t want to buy auto insurance, not problem break the law. Want to drink and drive, not problem break the law. Want to have sex with that pretty woman down the road who wants no part of you, not problem rape her. Want to have sex with that pretty little five year old down the road who doesn’t even know you, no problem rape her. Out of money, no problem steal it. Want to buy that new Lincoln Navigator but don’t have the money, no problem sell drugs or become a coyote and bring even more illegal aliens into the country to do same thing.
Illegal aliens are here in our country for one purpose and one purpose only, to get whatever they want anyway they can. They are parasites and like any parasite they must be removed from our country before they suck the life blood out of our body politic. Those US citizens who aid and abet these parasites are, let’s see what is the word, oh I know traitors — a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc. My interpretation of this definition is, (we see you as traitors, as sellouts to the illegal alien parasites. You prefer illegal aliens to your own countrymen. How pathetic!
Want to find some reliable information about immigration (legal and illegal) and what impact it has had on you and what impact it will have on our future? Visit NumbersUSA.org. It can’t hurt to find out why massive immigration is bad for our country. It will not hurt unless of course the truth hurts.
— PaulC1958 - Mar 12, 01:22 PM - #