Rod Dreher deludes himself or Rod Dreher please!

The Sept./Oct. 2015 issue of The American Conservative has a cover article "My People, Black & White" by Rod Dreher. He collaborated on a book with actor Wendall Pierce, an African American from Louisiana. Rod Dreher is from Louisiana.

Rod Dreher asserts, as the title suggests, that since both he and Wendall Pierce like some of the same foods and have shared Louisiana experiences it gives them a commonality as people from Louisiana that supersedes racial divisions. He also feels that has made some type of an achievement regarding race.

The idea that shared cultural things over arches the division of race is an old idea of neo-Confederate John Shelton Reed, one of the founders of the modern neo-Confederate movement. In short it is an idea that some African Americans and some white southerners both like pecan pie and fried green tomatoes so the racial divide in the South can't be that bad.

The article notes that Rod Dreher is the Senior Editor of The American Conservative. Let's look at this one issue to see who are the contributors. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/

First on page 11 is Patrick J. Buchanan's column. He was an editor for Southern Partisan the leading magazine for the neo-Confederate movement from 1979 to 2005 (roughly, it died out slowly.) I don't know if Buchanan is still a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

On page 40, in an article "South of the Right: The regional conservatism of John William Corrington," by Allen Mendenhall, they are praising Corrington. I know of Corrington because he was a favorite of Southern Partisan magazine, and I purchased a book of essays written in his memory. In one of the essays, by Melvin Eugene Adonis Bradford, I learned about the nasty little racist Corrington. Maybe I am judgment about Corrington's writing portraying Nathan Bedford Forrest as a hero.

On page 43 is Bill Kauffman, a contributor to Chronicles magazine over the years, another racist publication. He doesn't write about race. He writes mostly that America's involvement in World War II was some type of conspiracy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the British and other anti-war stuff.  https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/  Recently Thomas Fleming left the Rockford Institute which publishes Chronicles magazine. But it is a racist publication.

On page 49 Thomas E. Woods Jr. reviews a book. He is a leading neo-Confederate theorist. Contributor to Southern Partisan, Chronicles and even the Southern Patriot, which was the official publication of the League of the South. I have devoted a web page to his neo-Confederate writings since he has hoped that they fall into a memory hole. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/thomas-e-woods.html

On page 52 is Paul Gottfried, another long time contributor to Chronicles magazine.

But the very worst is on page 58, Taki Theodoracopulos, an arrogant racist if there ever was one. Another contributor to Chronicles magazine. Also, a name dropper extraordinaire. I have read every one of his columns in Chronicles magazine and he does name dropping going back decades to before World War II.

These are just the names I recognize from the publications I pursue in my studies of neo-Confederates. Who knows what the background of the rest of the contributors to this magazine is? Obviously racism isn't a bar to contributing or other involvement in The American Conservative.

The reason I have subscribed to this magazine and purchased what issues I have missed and have them organized in magazine files on my bookshelves is because I had recognized so many names from my research into neo-Confederates in the issues of The American Conservative.

Yes, Rod Dreher ate a meal with an African American and he is patting himself on the back on the issue of race. However, in the end he will be the senior editor of a magazine that publishes racists and neo-Confederates, a senior editor who himself very likely selected some of those neo-Confederates for publication.

He is unfortunately on the editorial staff of the Dallas Morning News, but then again, he does represent what is called the North Dallas mentality.

Regarding Louisiana, someone there voted for David Duke.