Congressman: only WHITE people have ever contributed to civilization

[Torie]

This is a transcription I found on reddit that lines up with a the video clip:

Charlie Pierce: "I tell you what. If you're really optimistic, you could say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican party's platform, attention, and respect. Of course I thought that was going to happen after 2012. In that hall today, that hall is wired by loud, unhappy dissatisfied white people. Any sign of rebellion is going to get shouted down."

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

Chris Hayes: "...than white people?"

Steve King: "Than Western Civilization itself that's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the USA and every place where Christianity settled the world? That's all of Western Civilization."

Chris Hayes: "wait a minute, we're not going to argue the history of civilization here."

It appears he just took up the issue out of nowhere, they were talking about the platform and then he talks about contributions to civilization? WTF

 Also I think the title is misleading, nowhere did he say only white people, just apparently more so than any other people. Not that the statement isn't disgusting, just the thread title is wrong.

The comment may be technically true (I emphasize "may"), but it has nothing to do with white people being white, nor with Christianity. It might have something to do with Europe having so many small countries over the centuries warring with each other for advantage, and thus there was an incentive to embrace technology to gain an advantage over their immediate and hostile neighbors. Or so I have read.

[Torie]

The comment may be technically true (I emphasize "may"), but it has nothing to do with white people being white, nor with Christianity. It might have something to do with Europe having so many small countries over the centuries warring with each other for advantage, and thus there was an incentive to embrace technology to gain an advantage over their immediate and hostile neighbors. Or so I have read.

You say that as if it wasn't true all over the entire world for millennia.  Civilizations in Africa fighting each other had no incentives to embrace technology?  I think the "Eurasia is wide, the Americas and Africa are narrow but tall so plants good at one latitude were not able to spread very far in any direction" excuse for white  tribes being the most successful makes the most sense,

Whites (Western Civilization) was really were not dominant in the way we are discussing until after the end of the Middle Ages. Do you disagree? As nation states began to form, the need to competitive advantage (or at least parity) became ever more pressing. In the Middle Ages, some think the Islamic world was more cultured and advanced (yeah, I know, white - but not Western). I read somewhere that Britain eventually won the footrace, because it could borrow money at lower interest rates than its competitors, due to being an island, and viewed as relatively more stable. Everything is connected to everything else.