Source: Zach Gibson / Getty
Tuesday on Capitol Hill the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss white nationalism and the uptick of hate crimes and online hate speech, which has seen a dramatic rise especially since the last presidential election.
While white supremacy and hate crimes have remained an undeniable part of the American experience, members of congress gathered together to hold a hearing to discuss how water is indefinitely wet.
But at the center of it all was the controversial conservative figurehead, Candace Owens.
Owens is many things. She’s a Black woman who is also the communications director at Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization. She was also deeply heralded by Kanye West as a “free-thinker” during his ignorant MAGA rants and has also received praise from Trump himself.
She is also an up keeper of white supremacy. In February she was dragged after comments she made in December where she defended Adolf Hitler’s original ideas of nationalism.
Rep. Ted Lieu set up Owens’ testimony by giving Owens a literal mirror of herself as he played back an audio clip of her Hitler comments.
Owens, who was invited on behalf of the Republican committee members, spent most of her testimony decrying the hearing and accusing liberals of forcing marginalized groups into inferior ideology.
“The hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it’s about fear-mongering, power and control,” she stated at one point according to The Hill.
“We’re hearing [terms like ‘white nationalism’] sent around today because what they want to say is that brown people want to be scared, which seems to be the narrative that we hear every four years ahead of a presidential election,” Owens said.
“The goal here is to scare blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims, helping [Democrats] censor dissenting opinions … helping them regain control,” she continued.
“White supremacy, racism, white nationalism, words that once held real meaning, have now become nothing more than election strategies,” said Owens.
During her testimony Owens told a story about how she was called the n-word by the son of a Democratic lawmaker who also threatened to put a bullet in the back of her head. She said because of the incident she was turned off by liberals, which prompted her appeal to conservative ideals.
She also denied that the Southern Strategy ever existed, which was a proven tactic used by southern conservative lawmakers beginning in the 1960’s to appeal to white voters by propping up racist ideals aimed at African-Americans.
Later in her testimony she also made a note to address Rep. Lieu and was clearly upset at his decision to run back that tape.
Owens was one of eight panelists selected to speak at the hearing. Among them were top execs at the leading tech firms in the nation, and also included Kristen Clarke, the president & executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Dr. Abu Salha, whose two daughters and son-in-law were killed during a targeted hate crime in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2015 and Eileen Hershenov, a senior vice president of policy at the Anti-Defamation League.
The ridiculousness of Owens’ presence at the hearing just can’t be denied.
Black people are not a monolith, so of course there’s room for our different political and ideological understandings. The question is not whether you support a conservative or a liberal agenda, but if you’re working for an agenda which harms your greater good.
Owens does nothing but perpetuate the same ideals which the hearing wished to deconstruct. And with a platform as wide-ranging as hers, its only a matter of time until she makes her way to a larger stage, or into the halls of the White House.
Republican lawmakers clearly wanted to derail the event by choosing Owens as their representative voice. Instead of getting core work done at the hearing we’re focusing on Owens’ legacy of foolishness.
Congratulations. We all played ourselves.
