A magazine described as a platform for white nationalists plans to hold its annual conference in Charlotte next month, smack on the heels of an NAACP leader's description of the city as a "racist bastion."
American Renaissance, a magazine of the nonprofit New Century Foundation, plans a conference Feb. 4-6 at a site yet to be announced.
According to its website, the group advocates "race realism," a belief that race is "the most prominent and divisive" fault line in society.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such groups, says at Renaissance conferences "racist 'intellectuals' rub shoulders with Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists."
Magazine editor Jared Taylor on Wednesday dismissed the criticism.
"They clearly have an axe to grind; we have perfectly ordinary people," said Taylor. "But that's their typical fearmongering. Their purpose is to paint us in the blackest language so people will contribute to them."
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