richard b. spencer - wikipedia b. spencer … · 2017-01-21 · richard b. spencer born richard...

Richard B. Spencer

Born Richard Bertrand Spencer

May 11, 1978

Boston, Massachusetts,

U.S.[1]

Residence Whitefish, Montana, U.S.

Nationality American

Citizenship United States

Education St. Mark's School of Texas

Alma mater University of Virginia

University of Chicago

Occupation Author

Richard B. SpencerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard B. Spencer - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B._Spencer

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Publisher

Known for President & Director

The National Policy

Institute

Executive Director

Washington Summit

Publishers

Spouse(s) Nina Kouprianova

(separated)

Parent(s) William B. Spencer

Sherry Spencer

Richard Bertrand Spencer (born May11, 1978) is an American white nationalist,known for promoting white supremacistviews.[2][3][4] He is president of theNational Policy Institute, a whitenationalist think-tank, and WashingtonSummit Publishers, an independentpublishing firm. Spencer has stated thathe rejects the description of whitesupremacist, and describes himself as an


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identitarian.[5][6] He advocates for a whitehomeland for a "dispossessed white race"and calls for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" tohalt the "deconstruction" of Europeanculture.

Spencer and others have said that hecreated the term "alt-right",[7] a term heconsiders a movement about whiteidentity.[8][9][10]

Spencer has repeatedly quoted from Nazipropaganda and spoken critically of theJewish people,[10][11] although he hasdenied being a neo-Nazi.[12] Spencer andhis organization drew considerable mediaattention in the weeks following the 2016presidential election, where, in responseto his cry "Hail Trump, hail our people,hail victory!", a number of his supportersgave the Nazi salute similar to the SiegHeil chant used at the Nazis' mass rallies.Spencer has defended their conduct,stating that the Nazi salute was given in a


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spirit of "irony and exuberance".[13]

Contents

1 Early life2 Career3 Views4 Controversies

4.1 Montana5 Personal life6 References7 External links

Early life

Spencer grew up in Dallas, Texas. He wasborn to William B. Spencer, anophthalmologist, and Sherry Spencer.[14]

In 1997, Spencer graduated from St.Mark's School of Texas. In 2001, he


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received a B.A. with High Distinction inEnglish Literature and Music from theUniversity of Virginia and, in 2003, anM.A. in the Humanities from theUniversity of Chicago. He spent thesummer of 2005 and 2006 at the ViennaInternational Summer University.[15] From2005 to 2007, he was a doctoral student atDuke University studying modernEuropean intellectual history, where hewas a member of the Duke ConservativeUnion. He left Duke "to pursue a life ofthought-crime."[14][16]

Career

From March 2007 to December 2007,Spencer was an Assistant Editor at TheAmerican Conservative magazine.According to founding editor ScottMcConnell, Spencer was fired from TheAmerican Conservative because his viewswere considered too extreme.[14] From


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January 2008 to December 2009, he wasexecutive editor of Taki's Magazine.[17]

In March 2010, Spencer foundedAlternativeRight.com, a website he editeduntil 2012. He says he created the termalt-right.[10][18]

In January 2011, Spencer becameExecutive Director of Washington SummitPublishers. In 2012, Spencer foundedRadix Journal as a biannual publication ofWashington Summit Publishers.Contributors have included Kevin B.MacDonald, Alex Kurtagić, Samuel T.Francis, and Derek Turner. He also hosts aweekly podcast, Vanguard Radio (asuccessor to AltRight Radio).

In January 2011, Spencer also becamePresident and Director of The NationalPolicy Institute, a think tank previouslybased in Virginia and Montana.[19]


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Spencer has been published at RightNow!, American Renaissance, PeterBrimelow's VDare.com, The OccidentalObserver, and other publications.

Groups and events Spencer has spoken toinclude the Property and FreedomSociety,[20] the American Renaissanceconference,[21] and the HL MenckenClub.[22] In November 2016, an onlinepetition was signed by "thousands ofstudents, employees, and alumni" toprevent Spencer from speaking at TexasA&M University on December 6, 2016.[23]

A protest and "a large counter-event" wereheld to coincide with Spencer's event.[24]

On January 20, 2017, Spencer attendedthe inauguration of Donald Trump, andappeared in the surrounding streets whereprotests were taking place. While givingan impromptu interview on a streetcorner, protesters came up, one of whompunched Spencer in the face, then ran


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off.[25][26]

Views

Spencer advocates for a white homelandfor a "dispossessed white race" and callsfor "peaceful ethnic cleansing" to halt the"deconstruction" of European culture.[17][27][28] According to a 2010 article byAlex Knepper on David Frum'sFrumForum.com, Spencer is an admirer ofFriedrich Nietzsche, based upon "ahideously poor reading" of his works.[29]

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation Leaguerecognized Spencer as a leader in whitesupremacist circles, saying that since histime at The American Conservative, he hasrejected conservatism, because accordingto Spencer, its adherents "can't or won'trepresent explicitly white interests."[30]

In a 2016 interview for Time magazine,


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Spencer said that he rejected whitesupremacy and slavery of nonwhites,preferring to establish America as a whiteethnostate.[10][31]

Spencer opposes same-sex marriage,[32]

which he described as "unnatural", a"non-issue," and that "very few gay menwill find the idea of monogamy to theirliking".[33] Matthew Heimbach of theTraditionalist Youth Network (TYN) wasreportedly disinvited from an NPI eventfor his anti-gay views, while Jack Donovan,an openly gay alt-right author, was a keyspeaker.[34]

Spencer openly supports Americanpresident-elect Donald Trump and calledTrump's presidential victory "the victory ofwill", a phrase echoing the title of LeniRiefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, aNazi-era propaganda film.[10] UponTrump's appointment of Steve Bannon ashis chief of staff, Spencer said Bannon


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would be in "the best possible position" toinfluence policy. This echoed similarremarks from David Duke, former ImperialWizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who saidBannon's appointment was “excellent” andhad created “the ideological aspects ofwhere we’re going.”[35]

Controversies

In 2014, Spencer was deported fromBudapest, Hungary, and via the SchengenAgreement, is banned from 26 countries inEurope for three years, after trying toorganize National Policy InstituteConference, a conference for whitenationalists.[4][36]

In mid-November 2016, excerpts ofSpencer giving a speech at an alt-rightconference attended by approximately 200people in Washington, D.C., showedaudience members cheering and making


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the Nazi salute when he said, “HailTrump, hail our people, hail victory!”[10][37]

On the day of President Donald J. Trump'sinauguration on January 20, 2017 Spencerwas giving a television interview on astreet in D.C. when an apparent black blocprotester suckerpunched him in the sideof the head. The video clip and gifs of thevideo have since been widely shared. [38].

Montana

In January 2013, according to multiplenews outlets, as well as an accounting ofthe event himself,[39] Spencer got into anunpleasant exchange with RandyScheunemann, John McCain's formerforeign policy aide, during McCain's 2008bid for the presidency. The two men wereon a ski lift at a private ski resort calledThe Big Mountain Club. Then monthslater, at the club's New Year's Eve Party


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that next winter, the two men againexchanged heated words. Scheunemanncomplained about Spencer and wantedhim kicked out of the club. The clubdecided that instead Scheuneman wouldlose his membership privileges. Spencereventually resigned his membership. Theevent, because it was covered widely inthe American press, increased local publicawareness of Spencer, that he and hiswork were at least partially based inWhitefish some of the year. This resultedin rallies and local anti-racist effortsagainst Spencer and his company.[40]

The National Policy Institute think tankhas a mailing address in Whitefish,Montana, which shares an address withthe Alternative Right/Radix online forum.In 2013, Rachel Maddow reported a linkbetween the Montana-based NationalPolicy Institute and The HeritageFoundation's report, written by theirSenior Policy Analyst, Jason Richwine, that


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was critical of the U.S. Senate's 2013Immigration Act.[41]

Spencer had published the same report onhis AltRight website, and defended bothreports as it related to his views onnationalism.[42] Spencer responded byseeing the Maddow segment as helping toraise his and his organization's profile.[43][44]

In 2014, local residents in Missoula,Montana, through the Whitefish CityCouncil, initiated a non-discriminationresolution, and an organization calledLove Lives Here, which is part of theMontana Human Rights Network, heldrallies against Richard Spencer andNational Policy Institute because theorganization and Spencer was locatedthere.[45][46]

In December 2016, RepublicanRepresentatives Ryan Zinke and Steve


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Daines, Democratic Representative JonTester, Democratic Governor Steve Bullockand Republican Attorney General Tim Foxcondemned the "anti-Semitic views" heldby neo-Nazis planning a march in supportof Spencer in Whitefish in January2017.[47]

Personal life

In 2010, Spencer moved to Whitefish,Montana. He says he splits his timebetween Whitefish and Arlington, Virginia,[27][48] although he has said he has lived inWhitefish for over 10 years, and considersit home.[39]

He was married to Russian Americanwriter Nina Kouprianova, also known asNina Byzantina.[49] As of October 2016,the couple is separated.[14]


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References

Burghart, Devin (27 June 2014). "Who isRichard Spencer?". IREHR. Retrieved7 December 2016.

1.

Peoples, Steve (July 24, 2016). "Energizedwhite supremacists cheer Trump conventionmessage". The Associated Press. Cleveland,OH.

2.

Wines, Michael; Saul, Stephanie (July 5,2015). "White Supremacists Extend TheirReach Through Websites". The New YorkTimes.

3.

Gelin, Martin (November 13, 2014). "WhiteFlight: America's white supremacists areignored at home. So they are looking to startover with a little help from Europe's farright". Slate. Budapest, Hungary.

4.

Ehrenfreund, Max (November 21, 2016)."What the alt-right really wants, according toa professor writing a book about them".Washington Post. Retrieved November 24,2016.

5.

Posner, Sarah (October 18, 2016). "Meet theAlt-Right 'Spokesman' Who's Thrilled WithTrump's Rise". Rolling Stone.

6.


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Spencer, Richard (August 6, 2008). "TheConservative Write". Taki's Magazine.

7.

"Alternative Right". Southern Poverty LawCenter. Retrieved November 22, 2016.

8.

Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (May 5, 2016). "Isthe Alt-Right for Real?". The New Yorker.

9.

Goldstein, Joseph (November 20, 2016)."Alt-Right Exults in Donald Trump's ElectionWith a Salute: 'Heil Victory' ". The New YorkTimes.

10.

Stahl, Jeremy (2016-11-21). "Meet theNeo-Nazi Steve Bannon's site described as aleading "Intellectual." ". Slate.com. Retrieved2016-11-26.

11.

"Watch White Nationalist Richard SpencerGet Punched". Time. 20 January 2017.Retrieved 21 January 2017.

12.

Barajas, Joshua. "Nazi salutes 'done in a spiritof irony and exuberance', alt-right leadersays". PBS NewsHour. RetrievedNovember 25, 2016.

13.

Harkinson, Josh (October 27, 2016). "MeetThe Dapper White Nationalist Who Wins EvenIf Trump Loses". Mother Jones.

14.

Stadler, Friedrich. "Statement on behalf of theInstitute Vienna Circle" (PDF). Institute ViennaCircle. Retrieved 2 December 2016.

15.


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"About". RichardBSpencer.com. RetrievedNovember 22, 2016.

16.

"Alternative Right". Southern Poverty LawCenter. Retrieved November 22, 2016.

17.

Bokhari, Allum; Yiannopoulos, Milo (March29, 2016). "An Establishment Conservative'sGuide To The Alt-Right". Breitbart.

18.

OPP HQ (November 23, 2014). "A NewBuilding Goes Up in Montana - Courtesy ofWhite Supremacist Dick Spencer". OnePeople's Project. Whitefish, MT.

19.

Richard, Spencer (June 3–7, 2010). "The'Alternative Right' in America" (Video). FifthMeeting of the Property and Freedom Society.Bodrum, Turkey.

20.

Spencer, Richard (April 5, 2013). "AmericanRenaissance Conference: Facing the Future asa Minority". The National Policy Institute.

21.

Spencer, Richard (May 6, 2013). "RichardSpencer kicks off the Fourth Annual HLMCMeeting". The Mencken Club.

22.

Mangan, Katherine (November 28, 2016)."Richard Spencer, White Supremacist,Describes Goals of His 'Danger Tour' toCollege Campuses". The Chronicle of HigherEducation. Retrieved November 29, 2016.

23.


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Jaschik, Scott (December 7, 2016). "ProtestsGreet White Supremacist at Texas A&M".Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved December 8,2016.

24.

Baragona, Justin. "Alt-Right Leader RichardSpencer Punched in the Face During LiveInterview". Mediaite, LLC. Retrieved21 January 2017.

25.

CNN, Paul P. Murphy. "White nationalistRichard Spencer punched during interview".CNN. Retrieved 2017-01-21.

26.

Scott, Tristan (November 26, 2014). "Who isRichard Spencer?". Flathead Beacon.

27.

Kirchick, James (October 18, 2014). "ARacist's Crazy Ski Resort Smackdown". TheDaily Beast.

28.

Knepper, Alex (March 14, 2010). "RichardSpencer's Nordic Supermen".FrumForum.com.

29.

"Richard Spencer: A Symbol Of The NewWhite Supremacy". Anti-Defamation League.May 14, 2013.

30.

Altman, Alex (April 14, 2016). "The Billionaireand the Bigots: How Donald Trump'sCampaign Brought White Nationalists Out ofthe Shadows". Time. (subscription required(help)).

31.


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Spencer, Richard B. (August 5, 2010). "TheInevitability of Gay Marriage". Radix Journal.

32.

Spencer, Richard (June 26, 2013). "The End ofthe "Culture War" ". The National PolicyInstitute.

33.

Hatewatch Staff (August 18, 2016). "SomeWhite Nationalists Continue to Court theLGBT Community". Southern Poverty LawCenter.

34.

The Editorial Board (November 15, 2016)."Steve 'Turn On the Hate' Bannon, in theWhite House". The New York Times.

35.

Pintér, Sándor (September 29, 2014)."Minister of Interior bans racist conference".Website of the Hungarian Government.

36.

Lombroso, Daniel; Appelbaum, Yoni(November 21, 2016). " 'Hail Trump!': Videoof White Nationalists Cheering the President-Elect" (Includes excerpted video). The Atlantic.

37.

"Donald Trump inauguration: Hundredsarrested as Washington protests turn violent".Retrieved January 21, 2017.

38.

Spencer, Richard B. (November 26, 2014)."Skiing With The Enemy". Radix Journal.

39.

Baldwin, Matt (November 25, 2014). "Fight atWhitefish Mountain resort gets nationalspotlight". Whitefish Pilot.

40.


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Sakariassen, Alex (May 13, 2013). "RachelMaddow calls out white "nationalist" nonprofitin Flathead". Missoula Independent."Segment, "Our People", starts at 2:13"

41.

Moody, Chris (May 9, 2013). "Heritageimmigration study co-author penned articlesfor 'nationalist' website". Yahoo! News.

42.

Spencer, Richard (May 13, 2013)."Opportunity Smears [Support]". The NationalPolicy Institute. Archived from the original(Blog) on June 11, 2013.

43.

Council takes stand in support of diversity.Whitefish Pilot. Retrieved November 24,2016.

44.

"Whitefish City Council Minutes" (PDF). City ofWhitefish. November 17, 2014.

45.

Desch, Heidi (December 2, 2014). "Counciltakes stand in support of diversity". WhitefishPilot.

46.

Coffman, Keith; Johnson, Eric M. (December27, 2016). "Montana Lawmakers Unite ToDenounce Neo-Nazi Rally Plans". Forward.Retrieved December 29, 2016.

47.

Spencer, Richard B. (December 2, 2014)."Defending free expression". Whitefish Pilot.

48.

Kouprianova, Nina. "Nina Byzantina".About.me. Retrieved November 22, 2016.

49.


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External links

RichardBSpencer.com(http://richardbspencer.com)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_B._Spencer&oldid=761232395"

Categories: 1978 births Living peoplePeople from DallasPeople from Lake County, MontanaWriters from BostonSt. Mark's School (Texas) alumniUniversity of Virginia alumniUniversity of Chicago alumniDuke University alumni Alt-rightAlt-right writersFar-right politics in the United StatesAnti-immigration politics in the UnitedStates


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Critics of multiculturalismAmerican white supremacistsAmerican critics of JudaismAmerican white nationalists

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