Virginia Abernethy
Virginia Deane Abernethy (born 1934) is an American anthropologist, far-right activist, white nationalist[1], and self-described "ethnic separatist."[2] She is professor emerita of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has published research on population demography and immigration. She ran for Vice President of the United States in 2012 alongside Merlin Miller for the American Third Position, a party that promotes white nationalism.[3][4][5]
Virginia Abernethy
American
Anthropologist, activist
Early life[edit]
Virginia Deane Abernethy was born in 1934 in Cuba to American parents.[6][7] She was raised in Argentina and New York City,[7] being educated at New York's Riverdale Country School.[7] She received a B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University, and Ph.D. from the Social Relations Department at Harvard University in 1970.[7][6]
Positions held and publications[edit]
From 1989 to 1999, she served as the editor of the academic journal Population and Environment.[2] She also served on the editorial board of The Citizen Informer, the newsletter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), a neo-Confederate organization. She has also appeared as a guest on the CofCC-affiliated radio show, The Political Cesspool hosted by James Edwards.[2] Abernethy regularly addresses meetings of the CofCC. In 2004, she was listed as a member of the editorial advisory board of The Occidental Quarterly, a white nationalist journal, on which she remained in 2013.[2][19] She serves on the board of directors of the Carrying Capacity Network, an immigration-reduction and sustainability organization, and also on the Board of Population-Environment BALANCE,[20] which advocates an immigration moratorium in order to balance population size with resources and the environment's capacity to cope with pollution. However, Population-Environment BALANCE has characterized an organization that promotes a right-wing, nativist agenda under the guise of environmentalist activism.[21]
Abernethy has written or edited several books, including: Population Politics: The Choices that Shape our Future (1993) and Population Pressure and Cultural Adjustment (1979).[22] Abernethy has written articles that have appeared in Chronicles, The Social Contract Press, The Atlantic Monthly, and numerous academic journals. She has also made occasional contributions to the weblog VDARE, which have been republished by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an organisation which the SPLC describes as being a hate group.[23] In a blog post circulated by CIS in 2012, she said, responding to Karl Rove, the George W. Bush administration strategist, "those who advocate continued mass immigration choose the path of national suicide."[14]
At a shared conference of the American Freedom Party and the Council of Conservative Citizens in June 2018 at the Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee, Abernethy was a speaker along with Kevin MacDonald, also a leading member of the AFP, and David Duke who was the principal speaker.[24]
In 2012, the Anti-Defamation League referred to Abernathy as an "unabashed white supremacist", and the Southern Poverty Law Center called her a "full-fledged professor of hate," adding her to a list of 30 new activists heading the radical right.[6] Abernethy denied that she was a "white supremacist," preferring to describe herself as an "ethnic separatist."
Protect Arizona Now[edit]
She was involved in Arizona's Proposition 200 campaign. She was Chair of the National Advisory Board of the Protect Arizona Now (PAN) committee which promoted Proposition 200 in that state's 2004 election. Proposition 200, which passed, limited undocumented immigrants access to government benefits and to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote.[14]
During the campaign, she replied to a journalist's question about her views by stating how she distinguished between being a separatist, rather than a supremacist: "Groups tend to self-segregate. I know that I'm not a supremacist. I know that ethnic groups are more comfortable with their own kind."[2][25]