News

May 21, 2008

NAACP says no skinhead speaker

Ron Felton says chapter won’t provide group with forum.

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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In a press release issued by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, President Ron Felton states the organization has turned down an offer made by a member of the Keystone State Skinheads to speak at an upcoming anti-hate summit.

Felton, in the release, said that allowing Steve Smith, director of the local Keystone State Skinheads chapter, to speak at the summit in June is something the NAACP “does not normally engage in for obvious reasons.” Felton said he would consult with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission about the issue because it has more expertise in dealing with these groups.

Smith said he wasn’t surprised by the announcement.

“That’s what I was expecting,” Smith said. “They don’t want an upsetting opinion. I’ve been on TV and offered to be at the summit. We’re out in the open already; we’re not hiding.”

Smith said he doesn’t blame anyone for stereotyping his organization since, “They think they know how we’re supposed to be, when we’re really not that way.”

Smith said his organization isn’t what Felton and those who don’t understand it think it is.

“We have facts on our side,” Smith said.

Felton said in the release that “…the Wilkes-Barre NAACP will not be providing Steve Smith with the forum nor platform to promote his rhetoric. If Steve Smith is interested in making sure there’s a balanced message, then I suggest that he…organize a similar forum.”

Smith said his organization always has “something in the works for future events.

“We’ll be out and about for people to meet us.”

Felton said the anti-hate summit is not a debate but a forum built around the presentation by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission that will leave the community with a process of spreading a much more positive message.

“It wouldn’t be a debate. It’s freedom of speech,” Smith said.

“We are inviting like-minded people who share our vision of non-violence and anti-hate,” Felton said in the release. “The newly constituted Luzerne County Diversity Commission is also in agreement with this response.”

Sheena Delazio, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7235.

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