It was a charged scene during the House Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes and white nationalism on April 9. Candace Owens, an outspoken African-American conservative and political activist, was invited by GOP lawmakers to testify at the hearing.
Owens is the communications director for Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization aimed at educating students on college campuses about conservativism and the free market. In October 2018, she founded the “Blexit” movement, devoted to encouraging blacks to exit the Democratic Party “plantation.”
Owens was one of eight witnesses at the hearing. Alongside Owens were various civil-rights activists and big tech representatives, among them Eva Paterson, the president of the Equal Justice Society; Neil Potts, the public policy director of Facebook; Eileen Hershenov, the senior vice president for policy at the Anti-Defamation League; Alexandria Walden, the counsel for free expression and human rights at Google, and others.
After Hershenov spoke about the rise of white nationalism and extremism found online, Potts echoed that sentiment, saying “there is no place for terrorism or hate on Facebook. Of course, hate can take many forms beyond overt terrorism and none of it is permitted on our platform. Facebook rejects all hateful ideologies. Our rules have always been clear that white supremacists are not allowed on the platform under any circumstance.”
Paterson chimed in on the topic of white nationalism as well, saying, “White supremacy has been a feature of the mistreatment of Native Americans for years and it was applied to Africans, once we arrived here. From the beginning of our country’s inception through the Constitution, the founding fathers knowingly and consciously embraced slavery and white supremacy.”
It comes as no surprise that Paterson failed to mention that slavery was practiced all over the world during the early years of the 13 colonies, and that the United States was one of the first countries on the planet to abolish slavery.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Owens who kicked off an electrified response to the anti-American leftist talking points, but rather, it was Morton Klein: a German-born economist, statistician, a pro-Israeli activist, and a child of Holocaust survivors. He mentioned that according to the FBI, the majority of hate crimes—a staggering number of over 60 percent in America—are anti-Semitic. Klein voiced his concerns about neo-Nazis and white supremacists and called the groups horrifying.
Klein explained that during the decades his organization, Zionist Organization of America, combated anti-Semitic hate crimes on college campuses, “we’ve never received a single complaint of anti-Semitic discrimination, harassment or intimidation perpetrated by neo-Nazis or white supremacists. By contrast, we’ve received hundreds of calls by students about anti-Semitic harassment, discrimination, and intimidation perpetrated by the left-wing, significantly Muslim hate group Students for Justice and Palestine and its allies.”
Klein was cut off by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) as he concluded his testimony by condemning the Democratic Party’s defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Omar came under fire in February after sending a few distasteful, anti-Semitic tweets.
Klein said, “especially as a child of Holocaust survivors, I was horrified to see Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer defend Representative Omar after her vicious anti-Semitic remarks.”
Nadler slammed down his gavel after this comment and closed the floor to Klein, even though he was told he had 30 seconds for closing comments.
Nadler then opened the floor to Owens.
Owens began her testimony by pointing out the reason why she was invited to speak. She claimed that many journalists were confused by her attendance, so she explained that she was a victim of a hate crime in high school.
Owens didn’t disappoint conservatives, as she gave a bold testimony. She began by saying, “I don’t fit the stereotype of what they (the media) like to see in black people.”
“I support the president of the United States and I advocate for the things that are actually affecting the black community.”
Owens was joined by her 75-year-old grandfather, who sat behind her as she spoke. It was a heartwarming moment since she has often mentioned her deep appreciation for him as he helped raise and instill an ethic of hard work into her as a child.
Regarding her grandfather, Owens said, “he grew up in an America where words like ‘racism’ and ‘white nationalism’ held real meaning under the Democratic Party’s Jim Crow laws.” She mentioned that her grandfather was a victim of the “Democrat terrorist organization of that time: the Ku Klux Klan,” as they would often shoot bullets into his home in the segregated south.
Owens went on to explain that her grandfather never taught her to hate the white man for what her family had been through. She said she didn’t grow up with a victim mentality, but instead was taught about “faith in God, family, and hard work.”
Owens denounced the idea that America is a more racist country than it was during the pre-Civil Rights movement.
“The hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it’s about fear-mongering, power, and control,” Owens said.
“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 at the hearing.
“The goal here is to scare blacks, Hispanics, gays, and Muslims, helping Democrats censor dissenting opinions … helping them regain control,” Owens said. “White supremacy, racism, white nationalism—words that once held real meaning—have now become nothing more than election strategies. Every four years, the black community is offered handouts and fear ... this is the Democrat preview.”
She is absolutely right. This has been the Democratic strategy in 2016, 2018, and soon to be in 2020.
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