He is a former member of the advisory board of The Occidental Quarterly and a former director of the National Policy Institute, a Virginia-based white nationalist think tank.
[4][5] Taylor and many of his affiliated organizations are accused of promoting racist ideologies by civil rights groups, news media, and academics studying racism in the United States.
[13] During a period that interrupted his undergraduate and later graduate college years, he worked and traveled extensively in West Africa, improving his French in the Francophone regions of the continent.
[17] In 1992, Taylor published a book titled Paved with Good Intentions in which he criticizes what he deems the unwise welfare politics that contributed to the economic situation of the African-American underclass.
Unlike many of his American Renaissance articles, the work avoids genetic-based reasoning due to fears of not being able to get it published had he talked about IQ differences.
[22] In 1994, he was called by the defense team in a Fort Worth, Texas black-on-black murder trial, to give expert testimony on the race-related aspects of the case.
[23] Prior to testifying in the trial, Taylor, presented as a "race-relations expert and author" by The Washington Post, called young black men "the most dangerous people in America" and added "This must be taken into consideration in judging whether or not it was realistic for [the defendant] to think this was a kill-or-be-killed situation.
[42] He states that his publication, American Renaissance, was founded to provide a voice for such concerns, and argues that its work is analogous to other groups that advocate for ethnic or racial interests.
"[48] Taylor supports the white genocide conspiracy theory,[49] and has hosted the Suidlanders on his AmRen podcast to discuss the topic,[50] while encouraging donations to the South African organization.
[40] In 2006, a clash erupted at one convention between anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Duke and Michael H. Hart, a Jewish astrophysicist sharing many of Taylor's ideas.
[53] The Forward reported that Taylor "has been trying to de-Nazify the movement and draw the white nationalist circle wider to include Jews of European descent.
"[55] Scholar Elizabeth Bryant Morgenstern states that "unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic, and in fact encourages Jews to join his fight.
[63] Southern conservatives Samuel Francis and Sam Dickson, who have been regular speakers at American Renaissance conferences, are also cited as influential on Taylor's views.
According to scholar Russell Nieli, "the combination of southern regional conservatism and Taylor's experience of living in ... Japan has undoubtedly had a formative effect on his thinking about race.
"[55] Mark Potok and Heidi Beirich, writers for the Intelligence Report (a publication of the SPLC), have written that "Jared Taylor is the cultivated, cosmopolitan face of white supremacy.
They have also stated that "American Renaissance has become increasingly important over the years, bringing a measure of intellectualism and seriousness to the typically thug-dominated world of white supremacy".