Photo courtesy of the National Press Club.

The National Policy Institute describes itself as “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of European people in the United States and around the world” on its website.

Smash Racism DC and other groups describe them as a racist organization.

NPI President Richard Spencer disagrees with that characterization. “The word racist has been abused to the point that it has lost its meaning,” he tells DCist. “We think that race is real and race matters. More importantly, race is an extended family. It’s a shared set of values.”

Smash Racism DC organzier Mike Isaacson has some other words for the Arlington-based think tank. “They’re a white nationalist, white separatist hate group,” Isaacson says. That’s why he and others from Smash Racism plan to protest NPI at the National Press Club, where the organization is holding its biennial conference tomorrow.

Smash Racism wants to point out the more extreme positions NPI has because, “they do have a modicum of mainstream sway,” Isaacson says.

Earlier this month, Smash Racism posted a petition on MoveOn called “No Neo-Nazis at the Press Club” that asks NPC President John Hughes to cancel NPI’s event. The petition had about 40 signatures, according to Isaacson, when Spencer found it and tweeted it out.

Signatures from clearly fake names like “Shlomo Goldtrephillanblatt,” “Cuck Scheckelwitz” and “Sir Gimmedat Muh Dik” began accumulating with anti-Semitic and racist comments.

Isaacson sent Hughes the petition with all of the comments intact. Hughes’ emailed response said, “We oppose limiting access to Club space based on a group’s ideology or speech, regardless of how much we disagree with it. On a personal level, by the way, I find the idea of white supremacy positively vile.”

The NPC response did not surprise Isaacson. “They hid behind freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It was pretty much exactly what we expected,” he says. “We’ve protested them before and gotten relatively the same response. I have a difficult time believing that if ISIS wanted to hold an event there, they’d be able to do that under free speech.”

“Anybody can book an event at the press club. We don’t have anything to do with the event. We’re just the venue,” says NPC event booker Patty Powers. She declined to comment on whether ISIS would be allowed to hold an event there, directing DCist towards the general manager.

Hughes, NPC’s president, calls it “an interesting question. Obviously, we would draw a line on criminal activity, but on speech it’s hard to imagine any situation in which we’d deny use of our space for a private event or put restrictions on speech. It’s contrary to everything we fight for. Once you start drawing lines on speech, it’s a slippery slope.”

Hughes tells DCist that, on a personal level, he is glad Smash Racism will be protesting NPI. “I hope that the First Amendment works its magic all the way around tomorrow.”

Spencer is expecting 170 to 175 people at the conference, with at least a third of the attendees under the age of 30. “There’s been a huge response,” he says. “We sold out of the millennial discount tickets really quickly.”

That doesn’t surprise Isaacson. “The mainstream notion that young people are more progressive is a nice thought, but not necessarily true,” he says.

Smash Racism DC, which began in 2012 to counter-protest an Aryan Nations march on Capitol Hill, will be demonstrating outside NPC beginning in the morning. “If people come by in the morning, they’ll see a loud and rowdy protest,” says Isaacson. “In the evening, it’s going to be more laid-back and relaxed. We’ll have music and we’re encouraging people to wear costumes.”

The protesters don’t bother Spencer, though he notes that NPI has hired security for the event. “What I hope happens is that they scream their minds and we have a peaceful conference,” he says. “A conference like this is about people meeting up, not just being an anonymous Twitter handle but building community.”