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Rep. Steve King: Proud White Supremacist

On Sunday, US Congressman Steve King (R-IA) retweeted the anti-immigrant fake news account Voice of Europe, adding his own white supremacist take on the original tweet:

SteveKingIA tweet

@SteveKingIA: “Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

@V_of_Europe: “Hundreds of Islamists shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wilders is right for over 10 years. #turkijerel”

Wilders refers to Geert Wilders, a far-right anti-immigrant Dutch politician running for prime minister in the Netherlands, an election to be held on March 15. He’s basically what you’d get if Draco Malfoy starred in Zoolander.

Republican representative Steve King is not Dutch, yet he refers to Wilders understanding “our destiny” and “our civilization,” presumably referring to the “Western civilization” mentioned in the cartoon in the original tweet. Apparently, King sees the need to “restore” this civilization, similar to how Donald Trump wants to “Make America Great Again.”

As many have asked of Trump’s slogan, what America does he want to return us to, when the country was “great”? The days of Jim Crow? Before women’s suffrage? The decades of polluted air and water across the nation?

Similarly, with Western civilization clearly in evidence and power all around us, what does King wish to restore? Since his tweet is in reference to Muslims, his comments on “somebody else’s babies” clearly show antagonism toward the non-white babies of Muslim immigrants. (King was apparently the product of asexual reproduction of himself, not “somebody else’s” baby.)

Alternatively, King is offended by people proclaiming “God is the Greatest!” because he has a coffee mug proving that he, in fact, is the Greatest.

King’s language comes straight out of the white supremacist playbook, this idea that American culture or Western culture is actually a monolithic white heritage that non-white people threaten by their very existence in proximity to white people (i.e., “demographics”). When asked to describe this imaginary culture, most white supremacists are unable to do so beyond “white” and cherry-picked examples of white men’s accomplishments.

Basically, this is the view of the Western world you might have if your sight was restricted by the eyeholes in your hood.

Now, I’m not saying that Steve King is a member of the Ku Klux Klan and wants to wear his white hood in public again. That would imply that he feels the need to hide his racism, which is clearly not the case. No, King is not longing to wear the white hood. He wants to turn our country (and Europe) into one.

Melanie Mallon

Melanie is a freelance editor and writer living in a small town outside Minneapolis with her husband, two kids, dog, and two cats. When not making fun of bad charts or running the Uncensorship Project, she spends her time wrangling commas, making colon jokes, and putting out random dumpster fires. You can find her on Twitter as @MelMall, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

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6 Comments

  1. Melanie Mallon,

    A hundred years from now Americans will see this an extremely racist time period. Off course that assumes that we make as much social progress within that time frame as we did over the past one hundred years.

  2. Ugh, Wilders. He’s an awful person, but I am glad to say that he’s not running for prime minister like one would run for president. His party (the PVV) is one of almost 30 running for seats in the Dutch House of Representatives. Some parties in the Dutch government have spoken out against Wilders and the PVV, and say they refuse to form a coalition with him. And a coalition is the only way to run the government in the Netherlands; it is extremely difficult for one party to get enough votes to have anywhere near a majority.

    Wilders’ rhetoric is so openly racist and awful, but unfortunately finds a foothold here, just like Trump’s and the Repubs have in the USA. Nevermind that Wilders is also incapable of sharing power (his party has had a number of issues, and lost a few members because of his ego).

    Here’s hoping that, even if he gets seats, the other parties stand firm in their repudiation of him and his ‘values’.

  3. My gut response to people like this is they should go back to where they came from that was so awesome and leave the rest of us alone.

    Of course they generally don’t consider themselves immigrants.

    It’s sad how we learn nothing from history.

    1. Theia,

      Well technically if you were born here, you’re not an immigrant, but even so, its safe to say that at one point, Steve King’s ancestors were born somewhere else besides America.

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