And she’s back. Auntie Ruckus, aka black conservative commentator Candace Owens, was back on the Hill Friday in her role as white-nationalist-denier, telling a House committee that white supremacy is simply “not a problem” for black folks.
For some reason, Owens was invited by Republicans to appear before a House Joint Oversight Subcommittee on combating white supremacy to provide cover for right-wing racist intent her take on the situation, The Hill reports.
Democrats in charge of the hearing tried to shut Owens down by simply ignoring her, but the Republican who invited her to the party, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, ceded his time to her, allowing her the floor, according the The Daily Beast.
And Owens commenced, pulling out all the tired, trite, and frankly debunked tropes she apparently could think of to avoid denouncing white supremacy and white nationalism; that bunk about missing fathers in black homes; “black-on-black” crime; and the need for “God, religion and shrinking government,” as the Daily Beast reports.
The violence and racial hatred espoused—and often acted upon—by white supremacists and white nationalists simply don’t make Owens’ top five, or even 10.
As Owens put it, per The Hill:
“Based on the hierarchy of what’s impacting minority Americans, if I had to make a list of 100 things, white nationalism would not make the list,” Owens said Friday.
“White supremacy and white nationalism is not a problem that is harming Black America,” she continued.
So, no “harm” was committed when nine black folks were massacred by white supremacist Dylann Roof at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.?
No “harm” was done when, as federal prosecutors allege, a white supremacist so violently threatened a black candidate for elected office in Charlottesville, Va., the candidate left the race for good?
But Owens is nothing if not consistent. She basically said the same shit stuff before a House Judiciary Committee hearing in April, when she claimed white nationalism was a “fear-mongering” tactic cooked up by Democrats to get black votes.
As Root Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr. noted then, Owens “is just empty calories and something you’ve seen a million times before.”