Over the weekend, BigJournalism.com posted video of and commentary on the confrontation between Daryle Jenkins of One People’s Project and Andrew Breitbart. Beyond ambushing Mr. Breitbart at this weekend’s CPAC, Mr. Jenkins has written a number of articles riddled with false facts regarding me and my role in what he called a “racist forum” at Georgetown Law Center. BigJournalism.com has offered me the opportunity to go on record to refute various assertions made by Mr. Jenkins. As has been acknowledged previously at Big Journalism, Mr. Jenkins is far from a mainstream blogger, but so long as he continues to misrepresent facts that are then used as source material for authors who are published on mainstream sources like Max Blumenthal at Salon.com, he ought to be exposed as well.
David Almasi, who is the national director for Project21, which is under the National Center for Public Policy Research, contacted me via voicemail about the Leadership Institute’s desire to have a black panelist speak on a forum they were sponsoring on “Race and Conservatism.” Because I was working nights at the time, Marcus Epstein and I played phone tag for about two weeks before I was finally able to contact him. Marcus extended the institute’s invite to me personally and told me the forum’s rules–these included a 15-minute speech by each of the speakers and Q&A for those in the crowd.
I committed myself to the event and began my in-depth research into the writings of Jared Taylor, as I do with any opposition I debate. This flies in the face of Jenkins, who repeatedly prints I was a “last-minute addition.” I had weeks to research Mr. Taylor’s writings and ideas.
I appeared at the event, said my piece, and there was even an unofficial “meet and greet” afterwards where the panelists took pictures and met the students in attendance. One of the many students who offered support for my position and denounced Mr. Taylor was James O’Keefe, who also shook my hand.
Several weeks after the event, I had the chance to meet Mr. Jenkins fresh off the train from New Jersey and over of the next few hours, he attempted to probe me for information on the conservative movement, black conservatives, and allied groups while trying to convince me that any black conservative is a tool or shill that is being used by racists, corporations, and right-wing fringe movements to gain creditability for themselves.
Still, while he routinely publishes lies, hearsay and personal attacks on his own fringe blog, it was after he was granted credibility in an article written by Max Blumenthal and printed by Salon.com and asserted himself publicly and aggressively into the news cycle when it became important for me to go on the record and clarify who this person is and the misinformation he has spread.