Most people don’t know who Steve King is. And no, I am not talking about the writer of horror fiction. Congressman Steve King, R-Iowa, is a ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law. He is considered by many to be either an extremist or a nut job. To me, his behavior is sadly comical and may even suggest the need for some sort of hospitalization, medication or both.
King, like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is an example of what is wrong with American politics and the festering infection called white supremacy that can lead to irrationalism.
Tancredo claimed in 2008 while addressing the Tea Party National Convention in Nashville, Tenn., that Obama would have not been elected president if America had literacy tests for voters. In the same vein, Rep. King appeared on G. Gordon Liddy’s talk show and asserted that Obama has a “default mechanism” that favors ”the black person.”
Now if any African American politician stated such, the claims of racism would be flying out the woodwork from the GOP and their supporters. But this is a common occurrence for King, who represents the 5th District of his state. Iowa, which has 600,000 people, is 99 percent white.
King has also been embroiled in a decision made to grant amnesty to Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango. Onyango was recently granted asylum by an immigration judge, overruling a previous judicial determination ordering her deportation. Congressman King thinks that she should have been deported.
Even prior to Obama’s election, King suggested that if Obama won, al-Qaida would be “dancing in the streets” more so than they did on Sept. 11, 2001.
Given his incendiary comments, it is no wonder he is held in high esteem by the likes of well-known klansman David Duke and the White Nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens.
King needs to be cautious with his rhetoric, given the increase in the number of hate groups in the United States.
It is obvious that the legacy of white supremacy and racism continues and that America is no more post-racial than it pre-KKK. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
For more with Dr. Stephens, visit twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo and rawdawgb.blogspot.com.
