Republican congressman Steve King (IA) launched into the first night of the Republican National Convention with a racist tirade on MSNBC. He made the argument that white people have contributed the most to civilization, and downplayed what other races have done.King told the members of a panel on the network in response to a comment about how much older and whiter the convention audience is than most of America: I d ask you to go back to your history and figure out where 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? King went on to praise  western civilization itself  as solely the product of whites, citing western Europe and the United States as the product of white ingeniuity.The congressman failed to note the myriad of contributions made by blacks, Latinos, Asians, and other races, or that many of the white contributions he cited were made at the expense of slave labor using blacks, especially in the United States.King, who has been ranked one of the least effective members of Congress, has a history of controversial and off-the-wall comments. King defended candidate Todd Akin after he said a woman with a  legitimate rape  would have her body  shut down  to prevent pregnancy.When he opposed immigration reform, King notoriously said: For every one who s a valedictorian, there s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and they ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Opposing President Obama in 2008, King said: I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11. Slamming affirmative action, King said,: There s been legislation that s been brought through this House that sets aside benefits for women and minorities. The only people that it excludes are white men Pretty soon, white men are going to notice they are the ones being excluded. So these racist comments, in the context of one of the most explicitly racist campaigns from either party, are nothing new in Steve King s resume.Featured image via screen capture