We figured we will close out a most action-packed week with a statement from Daryle Lamont Jenkins about the events surrounding the James O'Keefe story. We don't normally make personal statements other than what we write in our lead-in paragraphs, but this is a special occasion. We will never hear James O'Keefe's name as a credible source ever again. He is officially poison. Andrew Breitbart and his crowd may still be around, but who cares? He made himself look like a fool this week. Max Blumenthal and David Weigel, the two reporters who have been unfairly assailed over covering this story, are going to be just fine as well. And us? Well, we are going back to focusing on opposing the American Renaissance Conference happening in two weeks. It is pretty interesting that the man putting on that conference Jared Taylor, and his fellow forum panelist John Derbyshire, managed to be the only two players in this whole affair who hasn't said jack about it in recent days. Maybe they will once they think the storm has passed, but as DLJ makes clear: that's not going to happen anytime soon. Much love for everyone that has shown support, because we could not do any of this without you!
Daryle Lamont Jenkins, One People's Project
I have to say that this has been the most enjoyable week for us in a long while. The truth of the matter is One People's Project can stand by our story. The spin from our more conservative brethren is only a butt-covering attempt to avoid dealing with one simple fact: James O'Keefe attended a white racist forum that was organized by the Robert A. Taft Club, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center once termed an extremist organization and whose founder Marcus Epstein has been associated with racist groups and individuals and was arrested for a racist physical attack nine months after the forum. The forum itself generated controversy well before it even took place, enough to say that if you attended it, you were either a reporter, a supporter, or someone who was going to have a whole hell of a lot of explaining to do.
The most interesting thing about this is while the attacks have been leveled mostly at Max Blumenthal and David Weigel, OPP and myself merely gets mentioned as the source. We have seen no such attacks. We have had a few phone calls from bloggers and other reporters, but that has been it. Even more curious, I can't even tell you if it was Larry O'Connor Andrew Breitbart, this Alpaca thing or who from that crowd called us the other day to confirm our source because they didn't want to say who they were!
It is as if the affront was not so much that the story was written, but the fact these two white guys with influence in the mainstream press had the audacity to lend an ear to this "Negro leftist". It's particularly offensive to me, because as Weigel noted we need to stand by our own story - which again we will - and not get attacked by proxy, as it seems to be the case in going after Blumenthal and Weigel.
Spin doctoring and nitpicking of the facts won't make this story go away, and it hasn't. There are not too many people who are going to be all that forgiving of a person who prefers to associate themselves with the crowd that was at this forum. And that is good. We shed a lot of blood in this country and abroad to dismantle the institutional racism that had been established. We as a nation are not going to allow anyone to resurrect that institution, and the portions of that little hate machine that still exist will soon fall as well. If you happen to be one of those trying to maintain that machine in 2010, prepare to take the plunge with it.
Like little Andy Breitbart said in one of his tweets, our slogan says it all: "Hate Has Consequences".
