Steve King creates uproar with salute to contributions of white people
Steve King creates uproar with salute to contributions of white people
Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has a penchant for controversy, created an uproar on social media Monday by making a salute to the achievements of white people during a cable television appearance at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Appearing on an MSNBC panel led by Chris Hayes, King suggested that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump had modified his comments on race that had attracted criticism earlier in the campaign. But Charles Pierce of Esquire magazine observed that the predominately white Republican convention was hardly a celebration of diversity.
"If you're really optimistic, you can say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican Party's attention, its platform, its public face," Pierce said. "That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people."
King offered a dissenting view.
On Monday at the GOP Convention in Cleveland, Republican congressman Steve King of Iowa declared that white people have contributed more to the advancement of human civilization than any other "sub-group of people." USA TODAY
"This 'old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie," King said. "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"
Hayes asked: "Than white people?"
"Than, than Western civilization itself," King said. "It's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That's all of Western civilization."
King's remarks resulted in other panelists entering the fray.
Journalist April Ryan, who is black, queried King: "What about Asia? What about Africa?"
Hayes tried to regain order on the panel. "We're not going to argue the history of Western civilization," he said. "Let me note for the record that if you're looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you have Hitler and Stalin as well."
King's comments drew a flurry of harsh criticism on social media. On Twitter, some people tweeted that King's remarks represented a white supremacist view while others simply called them racist. Meanwhile, Hayes tweeted that King's statement was "jaw-dropping."
King was criticized in June by Rep. Dave Loebsack, an Iowa Democrat, who said he is an "embarrassment to Iowa" because of a history of "racist and sexist comments."
Loebsack was responding to King's introduction of an amendment in the U.S. House that would have prevented Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist and supporter of women's suffrage, from replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. The House Rules Committee agreed to deny floor consideration of the proposal, which would have prevented the Treasury Department from spending money to redesign paper currency or coins.
Just last week, King again attracted controversy for having a small Confederate flag among a group of small historical flags on his desk.
... more ...
King should read
The Histories by Herodotus:
https://www.awesomestories.com/images/user/2c74569a81.JPG
In that book he would learn that Greek's true civilization began in Africa.
