Calgary Mayor to Aryan Guard: Fuck Off

There's a difference between being "proud to be white" and being racist

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier has a message for Calgary's Aryan Guard: Fuck off. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.

"This is certainly something that we don't support. This is, I think, the wrong move, of trying to take a supremacist organization and trying to encourage people, with money, to join their organization," Bronconnier announced. "I find it distasteful."

This is in response to a "come one, come all -- we'll even pay you" offer submitted by the Calgary white supremacist group to pay the damage deposit on properties rented by any white supremacists willing to relocate to Calgary.

"The Aryan Guard is always seeking new brothers and sisters, if you are interested in relocating to our Calgary area, we will pay the damage deposit for your residence," wrote "Pitbull-AG" on Stormfront, a white supremacist website.

This is only the most recent bold move by this group. In March, 30 members of the Aryan Guard staged a march in downtown Calgary and were promptly out-protested by 150 anti-racist demonstrators.

"We're just proud to be white, that's all. Why can't we be proud to be white?" asked one unidentified member of the Aryan Guard.

Of course, there's a difference between being "proud to be white" and nonsense like this, as quoted from the Aryan Guard's "88 precepts":

"21. People who allow others not of their race to live among them will perish, because the inevitable result of a racial integration is racial inter-breeding which destroys the characteristics and existence of a race. Forced integration is deliberate and malicious genocide, particularly for a People like the White race, who are now a small minority in the world."

There's a difference between being "proud to be white" and teaching people they cannot live beside a family of another racial group without becoming a threat to their own "race".

(On top of that, those who choose to marry and raise children with people of other racial/ethnic groups are perfectly entitled to make that choice.)

"24. No race of People can indefinitely continue their existence without territorial imperatives in which to propagate, protect, and promote their own kind."

There's a difference between being "proud to be white" and insisting on having the right to racially dominate any geographic space.

"27. It is not constructive to hate those of other races, or even those of mixed races. But a separation must be maintained for the survival of one's own race. One must, however, hate with a pure and perfect hatred those of one's own race who commit treason against one's own kind and against the nations of one's own kind. One must hate with a perfect hatred all those People or practices which destroy one's People, one's culture, or the racial exclusiveness of one's territorial imperative."

There's a difference between being "proud to be white" and accusing anyone who doesn't share the Aryan Guard's narrow worldview of being "race traitors".

Many commentators have noted that the fact that the Aryan Guard seems to have to pay existing racists to move to Calgary is encouraging -- it means their local recruitment must be less than brisk.

Of course, this is nothing new. The Calgary-based Final Solution Skinheads disbanded years and years ago. And no cultural movement that loses touch with its youth can sustain itself.

Unfortunately, some white supremacists seem to be interested in accepting the offer -- a prospect that has some Calgarians worried.

"[It] makes me sick," says Calgary Alderman Ric McIver. "We can't stop people from moving here, but we can make sure that when they do, they know this isn't a city that tolerates hate crimes."

Hopefully, Calgarians from all walks of life, of all racial or ethnic backgrounds and of all political stripes, will come together to insure they recieve a rather chilly welcome.