I can already see the headline in the Tennessean: “White Supremacists Meet in Nashville.”

It might be “Racists Meet in Nashville,” but “racism” is so passé, such a cliché, so 20th century. Nowadays, when liberals want to work up a really satisfying hate for someone, they have to call him a “white supremacist.”

What will provoke these sinister headlines? The 11th American Renaissance conference, which will be held the first weekend in April—April 5-7. We will be talking about things that interest VDARE.com readers: what immigration is doing to America; nationalist movements in Europe; what kind of country we’d like to leave to our children.

Terrifying stuff, to be sure. But these days you can be called a white supremacist for a lot less than that.

Take the case of Noah Steadman. Last fall, he was a 17-year-old freshman at a school you never heard of: Bard College at Simon’s Rock. It is a tiny place, with not even 400 students, in the Massachusetts Berkshires. Simon’s Rock, as it is called, loves diversity. It even puts up bar graphs on its website bragging that non-white enrollment went from 10 percent to 30 percent in the last 10 years; and that 90 percent of seniors said “diverse” viewpoints were worked into class assignments “very often.” You can imagine what the place must be like.

Young Mr. Steadman wasn’t convinced by all the ballyhoo about diversity. He put up flyers on campus offering a reward to any student who could list five benefits of diversity other than ethnic food and music. Instead of answers, he got on-line threats.

“Go punch him in the gut.”

“Do we have a flag pole we can duct tape him to? Preferably naked.”

“I just consider this f—-r fresh meat.”

“Drop him off in some housing projects somewhere, I’d say kick his ass.”

And, of course, there was the usual name-calling. He was a “white supremacist” who, as one black student explained “would’ve supported slavery.”

Students raged that Mr. Steadman should be expelled—and it actually looked like the school might do that, until his parents threatened to sue .[Bucking the College Diversity Cult by Noah Steadman, American Renaissance, December 28, 2012]

So the “white supremacist” stayed at school, much to the fury of just about everyone else.

A group of non-whites issued a statement saying that, since the administration failed to expel this horrible person, it was “essentially legitimizing white supremacist ideologies on this campus.” They then boycotted Simon’s Rock’s annual and very earnest Diversity Day solemnities, claiming that if the school were serious about diversity, every day would be diversity day.

All this amounted to a very edifying answer to Mr. Steadman’s question about the benefits of diversity. I congratulate Simon’s Rock for making the case so clearly.

Mr. Steadman’s question was simple and factual question. But instead of answers, he got threats of violence and was called a “white supremacist.” Students at Simon’s Rock clearly had no answer to his question—but the very elites of American society have no answers either.

If you want to know what’s so great about diversity, or why whites would want to become a minority, or what’s wrong with preferring the company and culture of whites, you don’t get answers. You get screamed at. Being called a “white supremacist” is just one part of a long, moronic scream.

And the reason liberals call you that is because they can’t think of a more provocative, emotion-laden, dramatic insult. You see, white supremacy is worse than wife-beating or even murder, which are merely regrettable lapses by comparison.

The idea is to take Jim Crow, lynching, slavery, police dogs and fire hoses, and blame you for them. It’s like saying: “You may be questioning diversity but we know that what you really want to do is lynch black people.” It is quite marvelous how easy it is to turn liberals into berserkers.

There’s a funny thing about liberals: They claim to be above religion, especially Christianity. They think they are far superior to bumpkins who pray to God or go to church. But they have religion all right, and they practice it with the same medieval ferocity as inquisitors who burned heretics, or Muslims who behead apostates.

Poor Noah Steadman—who is transferring to another college—found out that he was dealing with religious fanatics, not rational humans.

Which brings me back to the American Renaissance conference.This little story about Simon’s Rock is not an isolated case of some curious form of Berkshires mania. Simon’s Rock is America, and we have been dealing with religious fanatics for a long time.

American Renaissance used to rent fancy hotel ballrooms, where we gathered and asked our questions about diversity—but not anymore. We got the Noah Steadman treatment. “Anti-racists” showed their devotion to tolerance and their love of inclusion by pressuring hotels to cancel their contracts with us. They leafleted lobbies, threatened to block parking lots, and one hotel manager even got death threats.

The hotels caved—and neither the local nor the federal law enforcement authorities showed any desire to defend our civil rights. No exemplary sentencing for our persecutors—indeed, no attempt to find them at all. This is what the late Sam Francis called "anarcho-tyranny."

It would be hard to think of a more transparent way for people to admit moral and intellectual bankruptcy—or display their totalitarian ambition. But that is the state of freedom of speech and assembly these days, at least in the private sector.

Which is why we now have conferences at a beautiful facility owned by the state of Tennessee. The state is required by law to defend a First Amendment obligation to let us say whatever we want. And—probably more important—it has a staff of muscular, Glock-packing park police who take guff from no one.

This year’s lineup of speakers includes VDARE.com columnist John Derbyshire, television commentator Professor Roger McGrath, and others who actually say what they think.

We are particularly pleased to be introducing Fabrice Robert to his first American audience. Mr. Robert is the leader of the Bloc Identitaire, a group that has the quaint goal of keeping France French. The Bloc first made headlines in 2006, when its affiliates handed out ham sandwiches and pork soup to homeless Frenchmen. Muslims can’t eat pork, of course, so the bienpensants screeched. But there are no laws against giving people free food.

Last October, Identitairians occupied the site of a mosque that was under construction in Poitiers. There something very important happened long ago. In a statement to the press, they explained:

1,300 years ago Charles Martel stopped the Arabs in Poitiers in a heroic battle that saved our country from the Muslim invasion. It was October 25th, 732. Now it is 2012 and we face the same choice: live free or die.

When the Bloc Identitaire held a conference in Paris last year, 700 people attended. These people are serious about saving their country from invasion.

We need to be serious. If you are serious, I hope to see you in Tennessee next April.

Jared Taylor is the editor of AmRen.com. He is the author of White Identity and Paved With Good Intentions. You can follow him on Parler and Gab.