THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

(originally published in Southern Partisan, 1987, and is reprinted with permission)

There are always self-styled spokesmen for America who use Moscow's language to confess American evil. There are always self-styled Southern spokesmen who use New York language against the South. Both groups turn my stomach.

In Moscow's terms, I am a warmongering imperialist, and proud of it. If in New York terms I am a racist provincial then I am proud of that, too.

America has a huge defense budget. The kind of American Pravda likes apologizes for the arms buildup without ever asking why it was necessary. The kind of Southerner loved by the New York Times regularly offers up ritual denunciations of Southern racism and hate groups, again without ever asking why those groups came to be.

Two New York Times-style denunciations of Southern racism appeared in the last two issues of the Southern Partisan

When I was fifteen, I was arguing that any integration would lead to total integration, and that interracial dating and interracial marriage would become established policy. Those who said I was crazy then now brag about how great it is that the Supreme Court forced Bob Jones University to permit interracial dating.

Back then the Enlightened Bunch argued that no such results were possible. Look around you and see how wrong they were. Now the Enlightened Bunch claim that the melting pot gives them a warm and fuzzy feeling; they worship the Statue of Liberty and gather on Ellis Island to sing hymns of glory before the fiery torch that fuses all races into one that is neither white nor black, red nor yellow.

That torch is not my god. And while it may be blasphemy in our time to say so, I am proud to be white; I like my race and I pray that my children and grandchildren will retain their whiteness.

As several national columnists have had the courage to point out, the existence of the white race is, in sober fact, threatened. Europe, North America and Australia have been opened wide to a flood of third-world immigration.

To the turncoats on the Southern Partisan staff, the white race may be just one of those little sacrifices one has to make to be liked by Yankees. A Southern partisan doesn't think like that.

I am not surprised to see working people, confused by the madness of our time, drawn to groups like the Klan. Such groups merely articulate a prejudice that has gone out of fashion in chic places. But make no mistake about it, those who dwell in chic places are filled with their own bigotry.

Sure, we would like for people who are drawn to the Klan to do something more constructive and to give a more persuasive shape to their arguments. But I do not blame them for feeling betrayed when the Southern Partisan publishes drivel about how hateful and retarded Southerners are. If we cave in, they will find other leaders.

What Vancounver calls "hate" has loyalty behind it. There are lots of writers in other regions to denounce our extremists. Our job is to denounce theirs. And if our people join "hate groups," it is because "respectable" outlets like the Southern Partisan offer no leadership - just the history of yesterday's bravery and cutesy wimpishness today.

In dealing with Moscow, we can prevent war by giving up our country. And we can solve the race problem by giving up our race. I reject these solutions.

My people and their prejudices are better than the Enlightened Bunch and their prejudices. I am a partisan loyal to my race, my nation (which is the South) and to the country which protects my nation's existence. I have respect for other races who feel the same way about themselves because only a clown can be loyal to a melting pot. By definition, a melting pot is nothing specific. Anyone who can be deeply loyal to nothing specific is in urgent need of psychiatric care.