The Most Extreme Race-Based Positions Of Mitt Romney’s New Black Leadership Council Chair

The Romney campaign announced Wednesday that Rep. Allen West (R-FL), the Tea Party darling from Florida, will be one of three chairs on the Romney For President Black Leadership Council.



West will serve alongside Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll to “help facilitate dialogue between Mitt Romney and respected leaders who provide unique expertise, experience and knowledge on a range of issues impacting black American communities,” according to a Romney press release.

Here are some of the extremist race- or ethnicity-based viewpoints that West will bring to the table in his official relationship with the Romney campaign:

West says the federal government is ’21st century slavery.’ West once argued that “we are creating the sense of economic dependence, which to me is a form of modern, 21st century slavery,” specifically referencing Social Security Disability. He also said of all social programs “redistributionary handouts is in fact the most insidious form of slavery remaining in the world today.” Another time, West told residents of his home district that President Obama has not interest in helping Americans: “He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning and having that title of American,” West said. “He’d rather you be his slave.” On a similar note, West once called fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Maxine Waters (R-CA) a “plantation overseer.” 

West believes ‘we are at war with the Islamic culture.’ West is a believer in “creeping sharia,” the idea that Muslims are trying to instate strict Islamic law in the United States. The Congressman has been host to radical anti-Islam activists, for which he recieved harsh criticism from religious groups, but did not apologize. West also claimed that a Muslim member of Congress “represent[ed] the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established” and was a “wolf in the hen house.” (He even screened a Muslim-bashing film in honor of September 11th.) 

West doesn’t like the idea of a ‘multi-cultural America.’ West fears“political correctness or the desire to be a multi-cultural America.” He once argued, “you have to repel invasions” when talking about undocumented immigrants. Illegal immigration, he said, “can be considered what the founding fathers wrote as an invasion into your country.” When President Obama issued his directive to relieve young, undocumented students with no criminal record, West called the move“one of those backdoor opportunities to allow people in the next five months to get the opportunity to vote.”

West has a litany of other lines invoking sexism, quoting Nazis, and calling for censorship of the U.S. media. Plus, the woman West first named as his Chief of Staff has her own set of horrendously offensive remarks, and turned down the role because she said she felt she was part of an “electronic lynching by proxy.”