photo credit: Carrington Tatum // Shutterstock
You may remember the name Candace Owens from past issues. She’s a black woman who doesn’t seem to stand for black right or issues in the black community.
On Tuesday, Candace spoke in front of a panel at a hearing called to address the rise of hate crimes and white nationalism in our country. Candace basically said that white nationalism isn’t on the rise, calling it a ploy to scare black and brown people into believing that white nationalism is a real thing.
During the hearing, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California brought spotlight to previous comments Candace made concerning Adolf Hitler and nationalism. He pulled out his cell phone to play audio of Candace saying “if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine,” she said. “The problem is he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German.”
“In congressional hearings, the minority party gets to select its own witnesses. And of all the people Republicans could have selected, they picked Candace Owens,” Lieu said during hearing. “I don’t know Ms. Owens. I’m not going to characterize her. I’m going to let her own words do the talking,” he said before playing the clip.
Owens responded to the clip being played by accusing Lieu of believing black people are stupid. “I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety,” Owens said. “He purposely presented an extracted clip.”
Lieu asked another panel member, Eileen Hershenov from the Anti-Defamation League, “When people try to legitimize Adolph Hitler, does that feed into white nationalist ideology?” Hershenov replied, “It does.”
In February, Owens had tried to clarify her viral comments. She explained that she considered Hitler “a homicidal, psychotic maniac” and that her point was that he was not a nationalist. But she added, “I stand by my statements. And that is that.”
The hearing included representatives from Facebook and Google, who were appearing on a panel with six other witnesses, including civil rights activists, the father of two victims of an Islamophobic attack, invited by Democrats, and a prominent right-wing activist, Candace Owens of the conservative group Turning Point USA, invited by Republicans.
The hearing live streamed on Youtube, but comments had to be disabled after being flooded with racist and anti-semitic comments. The comments prove the on-going issue in this country. Lawmakers are exploring legislative options to tackle online hate.
Nationalism: identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.
Here's the original clip of Candace Owens' comments on Hitler:https://t.co/gJBzHSXPSW
— jordan (@JordanUhl) April 9, 2019
Written by Clarke Jones
Source: The Root