Group That Accused Darien Man Of Racist Posts In Trouble With Feds

DARIEN, IL – A Darien conservative says a criminal case against an Alabama-based group casts further doubt on its 4-year-old report that described him as racist and homophobic.

Resident Terry Newsome was referring to the case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks what it describes as hate groups.

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According to a federal indictment in April, the group funneled more than $3 million over a decade in donated money to those associated with extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and Nazis. The government alleged the group lied about where the money was going.

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release at the time.

The law center told the media that the money was part of a program to infiltrate white supremacist groups. The group said it kept the program under wraps to protect informants' safety.

In a recent interview, Newsome noted the criminal case.

"They do some good things, but they have shifted away from their original values," Newsome said. "They became radicalized. The Southern Poverty Law Center has hurt people's reputations."

He added, "Are there white supremacists and Nazis? Absolutely."

But Newsome, a former Democrat, said the group was wrong to label him one. He said he has endorsed Black candidates and worked with members of the LGBTQ community on conservative issues, such as what he views as porn in books in schools.

In an interview four years ago, Newsome said he was fine with LGBTQ Pride Month and opposes hate against the LGBTQ community.

Newsome said he has worked closely with Log Cabin Republicans, a group that says it advocates for equal rights for LGBTQ Americans.

In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch reported that Newsome liked an anonymous comment that used the N-word on Newsome's Gettr social media page. The commenter said, "More attacks on White Americans. And they wonder why we call them (N-words)."

At the time, Newsome, who has nearly 8,000 followers on Gettr, acknowledged that he inadvertently liked the comment. Once he said he realized his mistake, he deleted the comment and cut off the commenter's access to his page. He said he repudiated such views.

The center also showed how Newsome posted what the group considered a racist caricature of former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman. Newsome disputed that characterization.

He said he was criticizing Rodman's plan to go to Russia to secure the release of a U.S. citizen.

"This was supposed to be the sarcastic meme I wanted to post, joking about the craziness of Rodman thinking he's going to represent America in the middle of a war! You will see he's sweating bullets," Newsome said in a text message to Patch in 2022. "I posted the meme as I found it. This isn't supposed to be racist. (It is a) sarcastic spoof. So (the Southern Poverty Law Center) is the ultimate arbiter of what's racist?"

He said he found the allegation that he was racist especially offensive.