Old white dude convinced white Christians contributed more to civilization than anyone else
The 2016 Republican convention hit controversy again Monday, after one congressman wondered aloud on live TV which "sub-groups" of humankind have contributed as much to civilization as western Christian people.
The comment from Iowa Representative Steve King came during an interview on MSNBC after a day of gaffes at the GOP gathering in Cleveland that included Paul Ryan supporting the wrong football team, journalists kicked off the floor during a "Never Trump" protest and lots of very special dancing.
During the interview, King responded to comments about the demographic of the convention and Esquire writer Charles Pierce's assertion that "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 and its public face... But I’ll tell you what, in that hall today, that hall is wired. It’s wired by unhappy, dissatisfied white people.”
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In a clip widely circulated online, King responds.
"This 'old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie," he said, before adding: "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 sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?"
"Than white people?' he asked.
"Than western civilization itself, that's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world," he clarified.
Presenter Christopher Hayes didn't allow follow up conversation to the comments, but later took to Twitter to apologize for how he handled the situation, saying that "the entire notion of debating which race/civilization/'sub-group' contributed most or is best is as odious as it is preposterous."
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Kim Weaver, a Democrat who is running against King for Congress in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, was quick to add her thoughts on Twitter.
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King hadn't tweeted a response by the time of writing.
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Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
