Colorado chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) led protests against controversial speakers at two separate events last week. The Mesa County DSA led a protest against white nationalist Jared Taylor at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction on March 27, and the Colorado Springs DSA led a protest against conservative political strategist Steve Bannon, who headlined the Colorado GOP gala at the Phil Long Music Hall.
“We’re here to protest the platforming of hate and white supremacy with the invitation of Jared Taylor here on campus,” said Isabel De La Canal, co-chair of the Mesa County DSA. “We really want to come together with our community to make a stand and show that white supremacy and fascism won’t be tolerated, and really put pressure on the school to do their job and be responsible for the safety of students. Platforming people that believe in segregation, that really brings some potential violence and danger.”
Taylor has long been an intellectual mainstay of the American white nationalist movement, influencing the organizers of 2017’s deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and groups like Identity Europa and Patriot Front. Taylor describes himself as a “race realist” and a “white advocate,” and claims that, due to what he describes as inherent intellectual and psychological differences between races, communities should voluntarily segregate. While some academics, notably Charles Murray, have advocated for the connection between race and IQ, mainstream science has discredited the idea, noting problems with the methodology of IQ tests and lack of a direct genetic link between intelligence and race.
“Skin colour as a surrogate for race is a social concept not a scientific one,” said Dr. Craig Venter, the scientist/businessman who led the private effort to decode the human genome, in 2007. “There is no basis in scientific fact or in the human genetic code for the notion that skin colour will be predictive of intelligence.”
While Taylor, and even Murray, aren’t necessarily household names, the Mesa County DSA engaged in an educational campaign in advance of the event, largely via a recently re-launched socialist newspaper for the Western Slope. “A lot of people that are plugged in with The Revolutionist have probably seen all of the articles rolling out recently,” said De La Canal. “[There has been] a lot of collaboration between The Revolutionist and Mesa County DSA posting statements and referring to materials and quotes of Jared Taylor to make sure that everybody knows this is what this man believes and this is what he stands for. [We’re] also making sure that people understand the correlation between fascism and white supremacy and why it is important that we don’t let these things fester in silence because when they’re ignored history shows us that that does not solve the problem.”
The next day, the Colorado Springs DSA gathered to oppose Bannon, who has also flirted with race science. According to reporting from the Guardian, “In July 2016, for example, Steve Bannon, who was then Breitbart boss and would go on to be Donald Trump’s chief strategist, wrote an article in which he suggested that some black people who had been shot by the police might have deserved it. ‘There are, after all, in this world, some people who are naturally aggressive and violent,’ Bannon wrote, evoking one of scientific racism’s ugliest contentions: that black people are more genetically predisposed to violence than others.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Bannon first gained public attention as the editor of the right-wing online publication Breitbart, a position he took over in 2012. As editor, Bannon expressed his enthusiasm for the alt right, a loose network of individuals and groups that promoted white identity and rejected mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racism, antisemitism and white supremacy. Bannon reportedly “proudly” told a Mother Jones reporter at the 2016 Republican National Convention “we’re the platform for the alt-right,” referring to Breitbart News.
“I really wanted to show up for everybody else and make it clear that we do not welcome fascists or Nazis in Colorado Springs,” said DSA organizer and Colorado Springs City Council candidate Maryah Lauer. “We are going to be actively resisting and organizing to undermine local GOP activists like Darcy Shoening and making sure that Colorado Springs is actually a city that’s welcoming to all people, including immigrants, including trans people, queer people. We are actually representative of the people who care and live here and make this city a good place to be.”
During the course of the protest two individuals were struck by cars as protesters lined the sidewalk and walked across the entrance to Phil Long Music Hall.
“It’s great,” said Schoening about the protestors, who lost her bid for Colorado GOP Chair the next day. “Everybody’s exercising their First Amendment right, just like we’re exercising our First Amendment right to be inside and listening to Steve Bannon and celebrating our right to gather as Republicans and enjoy our values.”
