Dear Steve King,

I heard your statement the other day, you know, the one where you said, “This '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 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?”

This is the statement which you tried to backtrack on by saying that it was only Western civilization that contributed to society. By your definition, Western civilization is “rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world.”

You clearly did not realize that the United States of America isn’t just made up of White people, so many of the contributions that came from the United States actually also came from people of color. The light that is probably turned on in the room you are sitting in right now would not be there if not for Lewis Latimer, an African American man who invented the carbon filament for the Lightbulb. Though Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb, Lewis Latimer helped make it more common and accessible to the American public. Including you. Also, how about you tell your grandchildren that the 3D movies they love so much are only possible because of the 3D graphics technology that Marc Hannah, another African American man, invented? I could go on, but clearly, you are seeing that some of the biggest contributions that came from the United States, aka the “Western Civilization” that you mentioned, were actually created by people of color — not just White people as you seem to believe.

Let’s pretend that you argue that those people of color are American, meaning that they still fall within your realm of “Western civilization”. However, you would continue to be wrong because you forget the countless inventions that originated in other parts of the world, probably because the schools in the United States seem to only teach Eurocentric history... But that's a topic for another day.

Because your original statement was based on assumptions, I am going to prove you wrong by using facts.

You have a high school diploma. Fact.

I, too, have a high school diploma. Both of our high school diplomas would not exist if paper had not been invented in China in 100 BCE. The marriage licenses that you did not want to grant same-sex couples are also made from paper. The constitution of the United States, which you must have read, considering you are a member of the House of Representatives, was written on paper. None of these things would exist if not for paper, so I would say that was a pretty significant contribution to society — and it didn’t come from Western civilization.

You support gun ownership, and you once tweeted about chasing and shooting a raccoon that had tried to enter your house. Fact.

You would have no guns to support or no weapon to protect your household from furry trespassers if firearms and gunpowder had not been invented in China. Not to mention that all the bombs you were avoiding when you deferred the draft in 1967, 1968, and 1969 were also invented in China around the same time. During the time that you deferred the draft, you were studying in college. The last time I checked, studying requires books. The earliest form of books (tablets, papyrus, and scrolls) were invented in ancient Egypt.

In 2012 you introduced an amendment to the House Farm Bill that would legalize animal agriculture practices that were previously banned. This included things such as tail-docking, putting arsenic in chicken feed, and keeping impregnated pigs in small crates. Fact.

First of all, I don’t know about you, but I personally would prefer not to have arsenic in the chicken I eat. If that’s what you like, then maybe you should know that arsenic was first discovered, not only in Greece, but in China and Egypt. Also, since you’re all for domesticating animals, it might do you some good to learn that the first people to domesticate animals for milk, meat, and hides were the Mesopotamians, who were located in the modern day Middle East.

You do not believe that global warming is a concern, and you have labelled it a “religion.” You believe that many scientists overreact when discussing the consequences of global warming. Fact.

You probably don’t realize the effects of global warming because you’re sitting comfortably under the shade of your sun umbrella. Little do you realize that umbrellas were first invented in — wait for it — China!

How do you think your life would be without the invention of paper, books, guns, domesticated animals, or umbrellas? You wouldn’t be able to write your big checks, pay the bills for your mansion, or sign all of the petitions to ban same-sex marriage without the invention of paper. You wouldn’t be able to shoot furry little animals that try to seek shelter in your home if not for the invention of guns — also from China. You wouldn’t be able to eat all the arsenic-fed chicken and caged-up pigs that you want to if the Mesopotamians hadn’t begun domesticating animals. You also wouldn’t be so blind to the concerns of global warming, if your sun umbrella hadn’t done such a great job of keeping you in the shade — courtesy of Ancient China. Not to mention the countless other contributions that non-Western civilizations gave to society.

So, Mr. King. If you think that you could live without any of these inventions, then sure go ahead and say that White people were the only ones who contributed to civilization. However, I personally recommend that you go back to finish your last year of college, and take some history classes while you’re at it.