Rep. Steve King's comments about white people cause stir

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is no stranger to racially offensive language, but his remarks Monday about the superiority of white people during a TV panel outside the Republican National Convention still caused a stir.

He was on an MSNBC panel when Esquire writer Charles Pierce said the GOP was catering to disaffected whites.

'That hall is wired,' he said. 'That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people.'

King responded:

'This 'old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie,' King said. 'I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out: Where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?'

'Than white people?' host Chris Hayes asked.

'Than, than Western civilization itself,' King replied. 'It's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That's all of Western civilization.'

Another panelist April Ryan asked, 'What about Asia? What about Africa?'

The panelists started speaking over themselves until Hayes stepped in again.

'We're not going to argue the history of Western civilization,' Hayes said. 'Let me note for the record that if you're looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you have Hitler and Stalin as well.'

Imani Perry, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, reacted on social media Monday: 'Rep. Steve King's belief that the only contributions to civilization have come from white people is both astoundingly ignorant and racist.'

King defended the controversial remarks Tuesday. In an interview with Iowa reporters, he said liberals are constantly denigrating 'old white people' and there was a need for him to respond.

"That comes out of the mouths of liberals on a daily basis around this country. They're disparaging a group of people. And it's about time somebody stood up for that group of people,' King said.

Reporter Ed Tibbetts of the Quad City Times contributed to this article.