National Policy Institute

National Policy Institute
Abbreviation NPI
Motto "For our people, our culture, our future."
Formation 2005
Type
Headquarters Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Chairman
 Richard B. Spencer
Website npiamerica.org

The National Policy Institute (NPI) is a white supremacist think tank based in Alexandria, Virginia.[1][2]

It acts as a lobbying group for white supremacists and seeks to provide a "so-called alt-right" "intellectual vanguard".[3] Its president as of 2016 is Richard B. Spencer, a founder of the blog Alternative Right. It publishes the journal Radix.

Activities

NPI was founded in 2005 by William Regnery II.[4] Louis R. Andrews was the chairman until 2010. Andrews said that he had voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election because "I want to see the Republican Party destroyed, so it can be reborn as a party representing the interests of white people, and not entrenched corporate elites."[5] When Andrews died in 2011, he was replaced by Richard B. Spencer.[6]

The group was based in Augusta, Georgia at its founding, but by 2013 had relocated to Montana.[7] Spencer divides his time between Montana and Virginia;[8] in 2016, the group was based in Arlington, Virginia.[9][10] By early 2017, the NPI had leased a townhouse office space on King Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, where it maintains its headquarters today.[11][12] City leaders in Arlington and Alexandria acknowledged the NPI's right to operate, but denounced the group's views.[10][12] The group's presence in Alexandria has prompted several protests.[12]

James B. Taylor was vice president of the NPI for a time, and was listed as such in the group's 2012 tax return. Taylor's involvement with NPI attracted some attention because Taylor is also involved in more mainstream conservative groups, such as the Young America's Foundation, of which Taylor is a former executive director and a current board member.[7]

In December 2013, NPI launched a website, Radix Journal, which describes itself as "a periodical on culture, race, meta-politics, critical theory, and society."[13] The NPI received a grant from the Pioneer Fund, a racist pseudo scientific organization.[1][14]

In 2016, Twitter suspended the accounts of the NPI, its leader Richard Spencer and others under its terms of use. Spencer said that "digitally speaking, there has been execution squads across the alt-right.[15] and accused Twitter of "corporate Stalinism."[16] However, Twitter's suspension was not based on the content of Spencer's posts, but rather on Twitter's rule barring multiple accounts with overlapping uses.[16] Spencer's personal Twitter account was reinstated several weeks later; the NPI's remained suspended.[16]

Spencer was the headline speaker at a 2016 NPI conference held in Washington, D.C., and celebrated the election of Donald Trump as "the first step towards identity politics in the United States",[17] and "the victory of will" (a reference to a Nazi propaganda film).[18] Spencer "railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German". Spencer finished his speech by yelling "Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!" as audience members responded by standing up and making the Nazi salute.[18][19] The United States Holocaust Museum issued a statement condemning the "hateful rhetoric" of the conference.[20]

NPI's tax-exempt status was revoked in 2017 by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to file tax returns.[21] The group had not filed a Form 990 since 2013.[22] In March 2017, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which regulates the operation of charities in Virginia, removed the NPI's entry from its public database of nonprofits and announced that it was reviewing the group's status.[21] The NPI raised $50,000 in late 2016 and early 2017 from an online fundraising drive and has solicited donations to be sent to its Arlington, Virginia post office box, but in February 2017 VDACS had listed the group as "not authorized to solicit in Virginia."[21]

Views

NPI's website says that "the dispossession of White Americans will have catastrophic effects for the entire world, not just for our people." The organization has produced a series of reports on affirmative action, race and conservatism, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a report edited by VDARE contributor Nicholas Stix, The State of White America – 2007. Stix's introduction to the report said it gave "a statistical and narrative portrait of the war on white America" and described the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling outlawing school segregation as "arguably the worst decision in the Court's 216-year history."[7]

The NPI has been classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a white supremacist organization.[23][4] Marilyn Mayo, the co-director of Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, says that the group was "founded to be kind of a white supremacist think tank."[7]

NPI is regarded as part of a group of white nationalist organizations which, according to The New York Times, "try to take a more highbrow approach" to white supremacism, "couching white nationalist arguments as academic commentary on black inferiority, the immigration threat to whites and other racial issues."[24] Other groups which advance similar strategies include the New Century Foundation (and its publication American Renaissance,[4][24]) the Charles Martel Society (and its website the Occidental Observer[4][7][24]), and the Pioneer Fund, all of which have been described by the SPLC as playing leading roles in the promotion of "academic racism".[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Wines, Michael; Saul, Stephanie (July 5, 2015). "White Supremacists Extend Their Reach Through Websites". New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  2. ↑ "How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling, White Nationalist Alt Right Movement". BuzzFeed News. 2015-12-27. Retrieved 2015-01-18.
  3. ↑ "Meet the new think tank in town: 'Alt-right' comes to Washington to influence Trump". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-11-20.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Groups: In the world of 'academic racism,' four groups play leading roles". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center (122). Summer 2006.
  5. ↑ Washington, Jesse (June 11, 2009). "Gunman may reflect growing racial turmoil", msn.com; accessed November 15, 2016.
  6. ↑ Richard Bertrand Spencer, Southern Poverty Law Center; accessed November 19, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Nick Baumann, Top Conservatives Run PAC That Funded White Nationalists, Mother Jones, January 29, 2013.
  8. ↑ Michelle Goldberg, "Better Know an RNC White Supremacist: Richard Spencer", Slate, July 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Garrett Haake, White Nationalist group to hold conference on Trump in DC Saturday, WUSA (March 2, 2016).
  10. 1 2 Dick Uliano, White nationalist, alt-right group calls Arlington home, WTOP (November 22, 2016).
  11. ↑ Rosie Gray, A 'One-Stop Shop' for the Alt-Right": The white nationalist leader Richard Spencer is setting up a headquarters in the Washington area, The Atlantic (January 12, 2017).
  12. 1 2 3 Patricia Sullivan, The chocolatiers and the white nationalist, coexisting in Old Town Alexandria, Washington Post (February 17, 2017).
  13. ↑ Burghart, Devin (June 27, 2014). "Who is Richard Spencer?". Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  14. ↑ Tucker, Maria Luisa (2007-06-30). "Warp and Woof". The Village Voice. 52 (22): 12. ISSN 0042-6180.
  15. ↑ Andrews, Travis M. (November 16, 2016). "Twitter suspends prominent alt-right accounts, including Richard Spencer's". Los Angeles Times.
  16. 1 2 3 Niraj Chokshi (December 12, 2016). "Twitter Reinstates Richard Spencer, White Nationalist Leader". New York Times.
  17. ↑ Glueck, Katie. Alt-right celebrates Trump's election at D.C. meeting, Politico (November 19, 2016).
  18. 1 2 Goldstein, Joseph. Alt-Right Exults in Donald Trump’s Election With a Salute: 'Heil Victory', New York Times (November 21, 2016).
  19. ↑ Lombroso, Daniel. "'Hail Trump!': Video of White Nationalists Cheering the President-Elect". The Atlantic.
  20. ↑ McCaskill, Nolan D. (November 21, 2016). "Holocaust Museum condemns neo-Nazi conference". Politico. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 Pearce, Matt (14 March 2017). "IRS strips tax-exempt status from Richard Spencer's white nationalist nonprofit". Los Angeles Times.
  22. ↑ Michael Wyland (December 6, 2016). "Why Isn’t This White Supremacist Nonprofit Required to File 990 Returns?". Nonprofit Quarterly.
  23. ↑ Potok, Mark (April 8, 2008). Immigration report being released today linked to white supremacists, Hatewatch, Southern Poverty Law Center.
  24. 1 2 3 Wines, Michael & Stephanie Saul. "White Supremacists Extend Their Reach Through Websites", nytimes.com, July 5, 2015.
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