Both parties deserve congratulations. Taking on the $PLC is considerably more dangerous than challenging the Pope in Medieval Europe.
This particular fight started when Swain defended herself on The Huffington Post after being smeared in the $PLC’s HateWatch:
Guilt by Association: The Southern Poverty Law Center Hurls a Punch October 12, 2009
I linked to the article criticizing film maker, Craig Bodeker for a DVD he produced called a Conversation About Race, for which I wrote a blurb recommending the documentary film for classroom use. Using the tactic of guilt by association and a highly selective list of the film's reviewers, the SPLC's article stated:Bodeker's documentary has received most of its praise from hate publications and groups, including Vdare.com, The Occidental Quarterly, the National Policy Institute, American Renaissance and the Council of Conservative Citizens' Citizens Informer. (One so-called mainstream fan of the film is the controversial black scholar Carol Swain, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and a member of the National Council for the Humanities...
(The VDARE.com citation was originally hyperlinked, but the Left protocol is never to link to opponents).
Here is Athena Kerry’s review of a Conversation About Race.
Swain’s local newspaper then attacked her Vanderbilt professor slammed for backing film that calls racism a myth By Janell Ross The Tennessean October 17,2009
Swain, a professor of law and political science, said in an interview with The Tennessean that she feels as if she has "been attacked" by the group. Mark Potock, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, responded, "If that is what she believes, she is suffering from some sort of low-grade megalomania."
Getting named by the $PLC in a context like this is a frequently lethal experience, and Potock is showing his employer’s characteristic intellectual dishonesty in his response.
It is a real culture clash. Carol Swain adheres to the Anglo-Saxon tradition of debate:
Swain sees things differently. If there are going to be conversations about race, she thinks they have to include what the Southern Poverty Law Center may consider extremist or hateful positions. ”My fear is that unless we create forums for people to safely and openly express themselves, then you are going to drive more young people into these extreme groups."”
Potock and the $PLC adhere to the contemptible civic traditions of Czarist and Stalinist Russia.
The Swain/Dobbs interview should be worthwhile.
Carol Swain's courage puts the ineffectual FAIR reply to the SPLC to shame
