Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Steve King Wonders How ‘White Supremacist’ Became An Offensive Term

Representative Steve King told The New York Times in an interview published Thursday that he is not a racist — but he wondered when terms like “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became something unsavory and wrong.

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

It’s not such a shocking question from the Iowa congressman, who is known for vocalizing white nationalist viewpoints. In the past year, King endorsed a white nationalist for mayor of Toronto, had an interview with members of a far-right Austrian political party with historic Nazi ties and retweeted a British neo-Nazi and refused to apologize for it.

The Times article highlights how King tried to implement his hardline stances on immigration long before President Trump’s government shutdown over a wall separating the U.S. and Mexico — King once presented a model of a 12-foot border wall on the House floor.

King told the Times that he’s not racist, and offered as proof his Twitter timeline showing him greeting a diverse group of Iowans in his office — where, the Times noted, he used to display a Confederate flag.

After a surprisingly narrow election victory over a underfunded Democratic challenger in last year’s midterms, King is now facing a primary challenge from Iowa State Senator Randy Feenstra. State governor Kim Reynolds has said that she will no longer endorse King.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.