• Weissberg in happier (albeit frizzier) times

Robert Weissberg, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and not-so-closeted white nationalist, was fired earlier this week from his gig at the fair-and-balanced National Review Online after the publication "learned" of Weissberg's address at the recent American Renaissance Conference.

Via Politico:

"Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism," editor Rich Lowry wrote in a post on the National Review's website. "He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention."

Weissberg spoke at the conference about "viable alternatives" to white nationalism, including the creation of "Whitopias," according to the American Renaissance website.

"Prof. Weissberg went on to argue that liberals are beyond reason when it comes to race, that explaining the facts of IQ or the necessity of racial consciousness for whites "is like trying to explain to an eight-year-old why sex is more fun than chocolate ice cream."

D'oh!

At the AmRen conference, Weissberg also talked about how the U.S. Census Bureau handed out paint chips to volunteers to better delineate a person's race; opined on the so-called "Paper Bag Test" ostensibly used by African-Americans to discern true blackness (he even joked "Michelle Obama failed the paper bag test while her husband passed it."); and also criticized the National Review for its attempts at political correctness.

According to Politico, Weissberg is the latest victim of the National Review's ongoing purge of racist loonies despite the fact that the National Review was founded in part to counter the civil rights movement. Cognitive dissonance is a bitch, no?

UPDATE: Turns out Weissberg has already groveled to Politico:

• We're not saying he's a racist, but he's definitely a racialist-ist

But I'll tell you what: Richard Land is done hearing about Trayvon Martin. Before you read this next part, remember that the Southern Baptist Convention is in the middle of trying to heal some old wounds with the African-American community.

“I believe Mr. Obama’s comments were misguided, and I think they were harmful. No one knows what his son would look like. The statement was meant as a sign of racial solidarity. Martin is black, so by extension Mr. Obama shares the victim’s racial identity.”

He also said, "The president’s aides claim he was showing compassion for the victim’s family. In reality, he poured gasoline on the racialist fires."

• Austin Peay students gather to remember Trayvon Martin.

As mounting evidence calls into question George Zimmerman's version of events in the Trayvon Martin shooting, Austin Peay State University students gathered on Thursday to remember the slain teenager and call for justice, at an event organized by student Lelann Evans.

APSU alumnus Wanda McMoore was one of the speakers. McMoore's husband Terry McMoore, director of the Tennessee Urban Resource Center, provided photos and a transcript of the speech:

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Wanda McMoore. I am an APSU alumnus, a wife and a mother. I actually wrote this little speech several days ago after reading an update on Trayvon Martin’s murder. At the end of that short update in the online newspaper — although I normally resist the temptation because I don’t like to read the negativity that usually gets posted there, regardless of the subject — in Trayvon’s case I was compelled on this day to see what venom was spewing forth from the bloggers. I actually was surprised to see that there was a fair share of postings that possessed a higher degree of civility. So because of that civility, I stopped what I was doing at that moment and wrote these words down, at first, it was to send to the editor, then just to get it off of my chest and onto paper, and now, I bring my feelings and thoughts of that day to each of you.

The rest of the speech and more photos, after the jump ....

The uproar over the shooting of Trayvon Martin shows no signs of abating anytime soon. And there's plenty of outrage here in Nashville, as evidenced by Saturday's Trayvon Martin rally in Nashville, shown in the video above.

As the comments to this Pith post from last week make clear, readers on all sides of the issue have a lot to say. The post discussed Molly Secours' take on the issue, and recalled her eerily prescient 2006 story about knee-jerk suspicion of black males in hoodies. Furthermore, Secours took on the issue of white privilege, and offered a sample question from a quiz she was developing on the subject.

Over the weekend, Secours spent some time working on the White Privilege Pop Quiz, and she's up to about 15 questions. Here are a few more samples:

A) When was the first time you were made aware of your

racial identity and realized that your 'race' would play a

pivotal role in the challenges you faced on a daily basis.

1) 1-5 2) 6-10 3) 11-present 4) never

Discuss: How old were you? What happened? What kind of Impact did it have on you? How did it change your hopes, dreams and goals?

• Molly Secours in a hoodie

In 2006 I wrote an article called "Here Comes The Neighborhood" describing a community meeting in a newly gentrified neighborhood in Nashville and articulated how the unchecked fears (on the part of the new residents) put all young black males in the neighborhood — who were between the ages of 12-17 (wearing a hoodie) — at risk. The outrage that followed the publishing of the article was unyielding and it appeared that some were more offended by the suggestion that racial profiling had occurred than the fact that their internalized fear of young black males put an entire community in jeopardy.

If Trayvon Martin's killing were an isolated incident, there would not be millions of people marching in protest while wearing hoodies and petitioning to change the Florida Law that allows anyone to shoot someone because they 'felt scared'. And lest we assign all outrage and blame on Zimmerman, let us be mindful of what inspired the act and the laws that prevent him from being accountable. The same internalized fear that allowed Zimmerman to feel threatened by an unarmed child are the same internalized fears harbored by those who allowed him to walk away.

A line from Secours' 2006 story seems especially prescient in light of the murder of Martin. Discussing suspicion of black men in hoodies, she writes, "It gives new meaning to the phrase 'fashion police.' "

Secours is developing what she calls the "White Privilege Pop Quiz." Check out a sample question after the jump....

• The Rev. Kennedy in front of his property

And how did they come to own this building? Oh, people, that you have to read to believe:

Ownership of the building was transferred in 1997 to the Rev. David Kennedy and his church, New Beginnings, by a Klansman fighting with others inside the hate group, according to court records. That man, according to Kennedy, was feuding with store proprietor John Howard over a woman and "developed a spiritual relationship" with Kennedy's church, the judge wrote.

Yes, a fight over a woman.

The Rev. Kennedy isn't sure what his congregation is going to do with the building. For obvious reasons, his congregation is a little weirded out about meeting in a building that used to house a segregated theater and is now home to a Klan tourist attraction, but it sounds like he hasn't ruled out using the building as a meeting place. He says, "I think that the church would do good in that building."

Well, sure. Why not? As Billy Sunday says, the Devil's had it long enough.

• Photo: Jude Ferrara

People, the tens of thousands of dollars you give the club for the privilege of belonging? If y'all moved that money elsewhere, you'd see real change, almost instantly.

And lo and behold, three years after Matt Pulle wrote his article for the Scene in which one Allison Halsell read this —