WASHINGTON, DC — In a matter over hours, over 25,000 people have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Google to unequivocally and publicly reject the viewpoints of speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference with connections to hate groups. Google is among the conference's top sponsors, having donated at least $20,000 to the gathering.
The campaign on Change.org was started by Atlanta resident Aimee Castenell, an avid Google user.
"Growing up in the South, I heard my parents' stories about life under Jim Crow laws that limited their opportunities," said Castenell. "They were terrorized by hate and racism -- even a simple trip to the grocery store could be filled with degradations from people who saw my family as second-class citizens."
"The regressive ideas of some CPAC speakers show a level of intolerance that is both disturbing and potentially destructive," she continued. "Google should not be using its corporate dollars to promote hate."
Castenell's campaign points to a number of CPAC 2012 speakers with a history of white supremacist or anti-gay activity. These include:
Peter Brimelow: Founder of VDARE Foundation, described as a white supremacist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. VDARE.com, published by Brimelow, has published content that Castenell and others consider racially offensive, such as:
"America was defined — almost explicitly, sometimes very explicitly — as a white nation, for white people, and what that means is that there is virtually no figure, no law, no policy, no event in the history of the old, white America that can survive the transition to the new and non-white version. Whether we will want to call the new updated version 'America' at all is another question entirely."
— Sam Francis, VDARE.com, July 21, 2003
"Jewish activity collectively, throughout history, is best understood as an elaborate and highly successful group competitive strategy directed against neighboring peoples and host societies. The objective has been control of economic resources and political power. One example: overwhelming Jewish support for non-traditional immigration, which has the effect of weakening America's historic white majority."
— Kevin MacDonald, VDARE.com, Nov. 14, 2006
Bob Vandevoort: Vandevoort is moderating the CPAC panel entitled: "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity weakens America." According to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, he was a leader of Chicagoland Friends of American Renaissance, which promoted the white supremacist ideas of American Renaissance and its founder Jared Taylor. Some ideas published by American Renaissance include:
"In fact, blacks and Hispanics are, compared to whites, far more likely to be poor, illiterate, on welfare, or in jail; they are far more likely to have illegitimate children, be addicted to drugs, or have AIDS. By no definition of international competitiveness can the presence of these populations be anything but a disadvantage."
— "'Who Speaks for Us?' (A Word of Introduction to Our Readers)," American Renaissance, 1990
"Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears."
— Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, 2005
Tony Perkins: Perkins leads the Family Research Council, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-gay hate group. Perkins' anti-gay activism goes back to his time as a state legislator in Louisiana. Perkins or FRC have said such things as:
"[Homosexuality] … embodies a deep-seated hatred against true religion."
— Steven Schwalm, FRC senior writer and analyst, in "Desecrating Corpus Christi," 1999
"One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the 'prophets of a new sexual order.'"
--1999 FRC pamphlet, Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex with Boys.
"[T]he evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners."
— Timothy Dailey, senior research fellow, "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse," 2002
"While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. … It is a homosexual problem."
— FRC President Tony Perkins, FRC website, 2010
Live signature totals from Aimee Castenell's campaign:
http://www.change.org/petitions/google-dont-sponsor-bigotry
Journalists interested in contacting Google's public relations staff should try:
Jill Hazelbaker, Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
press@google.com
1.650.930.3555
Contact information for petition signers in your area can be arranged upon request:
William Winters
Senior Organizer, Change.org
press@change.org
(202) 684 2552
For more information on Change.org, please visit:
http://www.change.org/about
Change.org is the world's fastest-growing platform for social change — growing by more than 500,000 new members a month, and empowering millions of people to start, join, and win campaigns for social change in their community, city and country.
