During a House Oversight Joint Subcommittee hearing, Owens, who is black, said that white supremacy would not make her list of the top 100 issues facing her community and other communities of color in the U.S.
“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.
Owens clashed with Dr. Kathleen Belew, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, who was called by Democrats on the panel to testify on growing trend of hate crimes and combating white supremacy.
“To me, this feels a lot like your reaction to being named in one of these manifestos,” Belew told Owens. “Now, you’re of course not responsible for the words of someone writing that document, but I do think laughing at it is a real problem.”
“The audacity of you to bring up the Christchurch shooting manifesto and make it seem as if I laughed at people that were slaughtered by a homicidal maniac is in my opinion absolutely despicable,” Owens countered, referring to criticism she received for a tweet that responded “LOL” to reports that her name appeared in the shooter’s anti-Muslim manifesto.
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