PA STATE REP: 'A WHITE NATIONALIST…IS A LOT DIFFERENT THAN A WHITE SUPREMACIST'

Actually, there isn’t, but when you’re an elected official trying to save face, you’re going to say stuff like that. By the way, this is a picture of Pennsylvania Rep. Daryl Metcalfe speakinig at a 2007 Harrisburg, PA anti-immigration rally with noted anti-Semitic musician, Paul Topete of the band Poker Face standing right behind him.

One People’s Project

HARRISBURG, PA – Pennsylvania State Representative Daryl Metcalfe, under fire for inviting a reputed White nationalist to testify in support of an “English-Only” bill that he is co-sponsoring, as well for shutting off the microphone of the only Latino member on the committee when she attempted to ask the person questions, attempted to defend himself on the House floor Thursday by arguing that there is a difference between a White nationalist and a White supremacist.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Metcalfe, who has had a history of bigotry and polarization throughout his tenure as a State Representative, was trying to deflect accusations about Robert Vandervoort of Pro-English, an extremist organization that works to make English the official language of the United States, and is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a hate group. At one time, Vandervoort was the head of Chicagoland Friends of American Reniassance, a group formed to support the publication created by White supremacist Jared Taylor. He had testified in front of the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee on behalf of H.B. 1506, which if passed would make English the official language of Pennsylvania.

As she was about to ask Vandervoort questions, Rep. Leslie Acosta, D-Philadelphia, the only Latina Representative in Pennsylvania, was making a statement and questioning the motivations behind this bill, starting her statement in Spanish. Rep. Metcalfe, who chairs the committee interrupted her, called her statements out of line with the questioning process, then shut off her microphone. According to Metcalfe, Metcalfe said Acosta left before the end of the meeting.

Later, Metcalfe accused the SPLC of unfairly maligning the hearing by sending an email out regarding Vandervoort and the concerns of his testimony. “It was an email put out alleging that somebody was a White nationalist, which is quite a bit different from a White supremacist,” Metcalfe said, not mentioning either the SPLC or Vandervoort by name. “To say somebody is a nationalist and for the independence of their country and a patriot to defending their country, is a lot different from saying somebody is a racist.”

Metcalfe then attempted to deflect the racism charge back on those raising it, saying. “For whoever said the man was white to begin with, that person was actually the racist — tying his skin color to his patriotism and what he stands up for for his country.”

In the past, Metcalfe has participated in rallies organized by Hazelton, PA anti-immigration activist Dan Smeriglio, who has had close associations with neo-Nazis and White supremacists. In 2007, Metcalfe spoke at a Smeriglio-sponsored anti-immigration rally where many of the participants were either associates of the Keystone State “Skinheads”, a neo-Nazi organization in the state, or regular contributors to the neo-Nazi website Stormfront. Metcalfe has also used his office to attack Muslims and homosexuals, once blocking a fellow Representative from speaking on the House floor because he believed his plans to speak about the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage decision was in “open rebellion against God’s law.”

The SPLC says there is very little separation from White nationalists and White supremacists. “White nationalist groups espouse White supremacist or White separatist ideologies, often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites, it notes on its website. “Groups listed in a variety of other categories – Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, and Christian Identity – could also be fairly described as white nationalist.”