Candace Owens Speaks to Local Youth at Texas Youth Summit in The Woodlands

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- The first night of the 2020 Texas Youth Summit took place at Grace Church The Woodlands, September 18. Organized by Christian Collins, this two-day event is, “directed on equipping and engaging the youth on the Conservative principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, American Exceptionalism, and the Judeo-Christian Values our country was founded on.” Key speakers include, Congressman Dan Crenshaw, Candace Owens, Charlie Kirk, Allie Beth Stuckey, and Tanner Roberts.

Candace Owens was the first to speak. She is the cofounder of BLEXIT, a, “non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of urban and minority communities by encouraging youth to seek and take advantage of opportunities in 21st Century America. The organization promotes educational initiatives, pursues criminal justice reform, educates minority communities regarding America’s founding principles, and highlights the importance of free markets and entrepreneurship as the antidote to poverty.”

Owens took the stage as a room full of teens and young adults jumped to their feet in applause. Her speech included much of her personal journey; how she went from identifying as a liberal, to becoming a conservative author, commentator, and political activist. She provided her take on current events, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, her thoughts on President Trump, and how conservatives can and need to win the cultural battle.

The following are Owens' direct statements:

“I asked myself the most important question. I said, is it possible that racism is now being used as a theme to turn black people into single-issue voters? And of course, the answer was yes. And then it didn't take much for me to leap and go, okay, well, is it possible that sexism and misogyny is now being used as an issue to turn women into single-issue voters? And of course, the answer was yes … And this is identity politics.”

“The founders of Black Lives Matter, if you look up the clips of the women talking, they tell you that they are proud Marxists. So the question is, to ask yourself whether or not you agree with the tenets of Marxism … Proud Marxists are people that are after the undoing of society … [they] sort of harp on that oppressor versus the oppressed narrative because it allows them to overthrow the institutions of government and need power for themselves. And everywhere you look in the world, since Karl Marx patted down his ideas, it's never worked, and it's not going to be any different in this country.”

“In case you need to know what white privilege is, I have a definition for you - it's racist. It's a racist assumption. The literal definition of racism is assigning an attribute to someone because of their skin color, right? So assuming that somebody is privileged because they are white is a form of racism, just as assuming somebody is poor or stupid because they are black would be a form of racism. And yet, somehow we've woken up in a society where this is permissible and this is being taught inside of the classrooms.”

“So much of our society is ruled by fear. We are taught to be fearful at a very young age and it is reinforced on us. And a lot of the actions that we take are done out of fear … when I broke past the fear complex and when I started doing things, not because I was scared to do it, but because they were right, because they were the morally right thing to do, the whole world opened up for me. So that is what I would recommend for students, young students, and young people today.”

“Andrew Breitbart said a long time ago and it's so accurate, this quotation, that, ‘politics is downstream from culture.’ … Conservatives stopped playing upstream for a long time … and said, ‘Oh, we don't do that, we don't do humor, we don't do fun, we don't do culture,’ and the truth is, is that that's exactly how we handed over the keys to the left to destroy everything, because they played upstream … I feel confident that this next generation of conservatives will be playing upstream.”

“BLEXIT is close to my heart, and it's just amazing to see so many minorities waking up and realizing, you are not a black person, you are not a Spanish person, you are an American first and foremost.”

The second night of the event will take place today, September 19. Find more information about the Texas Youth Summit, here.