What is it that so excites the Establishment—left and right—when white people get together to discuss their interests? I have been asking this question for 20 years, ever since the first American Renaissance conference in 1994.

We have had 11 meetings since then, and every time there have been shrieks of “hate” and “white supremacy.” Our 12th meeting will be in April this year (details here), and the shrieking has already begun, months before the doors even open. Why?

Blacks have hundreds of organizations looking out for them, and they have a Congressional Caucus that picks over every new law to see what’s in it for “the bruthas.” The same is true for Hispanics and Asians. For American whites, though, a student union or a firefighters’ association apparently would be an offense against decency.

I’m puzzled by this. Why are whites the only people who are not supposed to talk about their interests?

It’s not as though we don’t have any. VDARE.com reported just a few days ago that most of the new recruits at the Los Angeles Fire Department are white—and that Mayor Eric Garcetti is furious. Only 29 percent of the city’s population is white, but they keep getting the best grades on the firefighting exam, so the new class of firemen is 60 percent white. “Unacceptable!” thunders the mayor, who promises to correct this outrage.

Do white people have a right to be curious how Los Angeles proposes to keep their sons and brothers from becoming firemen? No. Any organized curiosity would be “hate” and “white supremacy.”

At the upcoming conference, I plan to mention this sort of thing in a talk called “Why All Politics is Racial”—but by today’s standards, that will be an act of depravity.

Race is grimly serious business for Lefties. In December, a 30-year-old PR executive named Justine Sacco was on a flight to South Africa and tweeted that she would probably avoid getting AIDS because she is white. She became the latest of countless whites to lose a job because of a joke. Even her father turned on her.

Last year, a federal judge, Richard Cebull, was forced to retire when he posted this joke: “A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’ ”

RamZPaul, who will be speaking at the American Renaissance conference, will blast back at our humorless Establishment with his unique brand of irreverent wit. Nothing makes the reigning ideology look so ridiculous as to trap it in its own prissy foolish.

Europe is as humorless and hysterical about race as we are. Last December, a British sandwich shop owner wrote online that “my PC takes so long to shut down I’ve decided to call it Nelson Mandela.” Police arrested him, grilled him for eight hours, took a DNA sample, and confiscated his computer for three weeks. They let him off with a warning.

Seventy-seven percent of Britons want immigration cut and only four percent want it increased, but immigration continues at a furious clip because Britain’s rulers think stopping it would be “racist.” Just this month European “human rights” officials told British authorities they could not deport a Jamaican criminal because that would separate the poor dear from his family. In December, an investigation concluded that the authorities failed to signs that Pakistani men were grooming young white girls for sex because social workers refused to see the racial angle.

So there will clearly be plenty to say about Britain and Europe at the conference. Andrew Brons, who represents Yorkshire and Humber in the European Parliament and is president of the British Democratic Party, will report on whether there are any prospects for sanity.

Something else white people might want to talk about is the official, perpetual, terrifying, number-one crisis that menaces America: the achievement gap. Just the other day, education bureaucrats were distressed to learn that only three seniors in all of Camden, New Jersey, got “college ready” scores on the SAT this year. You are “college ready” if you can manage an average of just 517 out of 800 on the three sub-tests.

But these Camden results shouldn’t surprise anyone. The city is 47 percent Hispanic and 44 percent black. Detroit’s test scores are always so bad that in 2009 one expert said they were “just above what one would expect by chance alone—as if the kids simply guessed at the answers.” He went on to say that the results were “shocking, appalling, and outrageous and should not be allowed to stand.”[ On national test, 69 percent of Detroit children score below basic on fourth grade math; 77 percent below basic on eighth grade math, Detroit Public Schools, December 8, 2009]

In plenty of school districts bad results literally were not “allowed to stand.” In Atlanta, the superintendent and 35 teachers were indicted for helping students cheat. This was awkward because the head of the school district, Beverly Hall, had been named America’s “superintendent of the year” in 2009 precisely because of her genius for boosting black test scores.

At least 200 other districts had equally improbable performance jumps, but mass indictments would have been too cruel, and even teachers who came forward and confessed are collecting pensions.

There was a good reason to cook the scores. No Child Left Behind punishes schools and teachers if they can’t get every racial group to perform at the same level—but that’s impossible. Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending point out that as the races evolved, the chances of their ending up with the same average levels of intelligence was “about as likely as a fistful of silver dollars all landing on edge when dropped.”

We might as well punish teachers who can’t get their students to levitate.

But our country has a touching faith in the perfectibility of Mexicans and blacks. The latest warmed-over miracle cure that will close the gaps is called Common Core Standards. Veteran teachers will again have to learn a whole new jargon, and sit through excruciating “professional development” sessions while perky young ignoramuses tell them they need to improve their “metacognitive strategies.”

All this futile, costly nuttiness would evaporate if the country faced up to the biological fact: blacks and Hispanics on average simply aren’t as smart as whites and Asians. But biological facts are “hate facts.” That is why when Illinois State University’s Prof. Douglas Whitman gives a talk at the conference called “The Evolution and Biological Reality of Race,” he will be joining the forces of darkness.

America has reached such a state that some whites have begun to wonder if they shouldn’t give up on the whole silly mess and create local havens where sensible people run the city government and the public schools. These “whitopias” are already emerging in the US: the question is whether they will ultimately find political expression through some form of secession.

A group of Afrikaners is creating just such a local haven in black-ruled South Africa, in a community called Orania. One of Orania’s ambassadors to Europe, Philip Craik, will be speaking at the conference, in what will be the first public appearance in the United States of a representative from this remarkable community.

Another of our top-billed speakers is VDARE.com ’s own John Derbyshire, who has been entertaining and infuriating readers around the Internet for years. Mr. Derbyshire will be speaking on “China, America, and the Chinese in America,” a subject on which is especially qualified. Here is his report on last year’s conference.

There will be other first-rate speakers, including a mystery guest who will take up the main theme of the conference: “Prospects for our People.”

As anyone can see, this will be a gathering of full-throated “hate,” and unbridled “white supremacy,” as well as haruspicy, anthropophagy, and paraphilia.

On two occasions in the past, American Renaissance conferences had to be cancelled because Cultural Marxist thugs pressured the hotels we had booked. We have since turned our back on hotel chains—they are all run by invertebrates—and we hold our meetings in a beautiful Tennessee state park, which has a legal obligation to defend the free-speech rights of all comers, even “racists.” (The staff at the lodge tell us we are so pleasant that we are their favorite group.)

We have also fought back. Comanche activist and scholar David Yeagley was scheduled to speak at the 2010 conference, which thugs shut down. Warrior that he is, Mr. Yeagley sued the thugs, and has been racking up settlements and court judgments. Just a few weeks ago, he won a $50,000 settlement against one of the worst thugs, Darryl Jenkins of One People’s Project. There is all manner of fun to be had with someone when a court orders him to pay you $50,000.

The conference, therefore, faces no threats of any kind. A volunteer organization has nevertheless promised live, open-air entertainment that will coincide with the cocktail hour on Saturday evening before the banquet. It will be a quaintly dressed group that performs original compositions of inspirational, rhyming slogans while waving hand-lettered signs that reflect its curious views. Its more gregarious members will seek to join us, but will be dissuaded by Tennessee State Park Police who believe that separation, rather than diversity, is a source of strength. This will be one of the highlights of the program; better than a ticket to the zoo.

The American Renaissance conference will be a gathering of thoughtful men and women, united in their concerns about their people and their country. There is nothing like a weekend spent among intelligent dissidents, undeceived by slogans about “diversity” and “inclusiveness.”

I invite you to join us for what is sure to be a memorable and very enjoyable conference.

And if you’re flying, don’t forget: you get the cheapest air tickets if you make reservations early.

I look forward to seeing you.