Sally Kern, the Oklahoma Republican who equates homosexuality with terrorism and doesn’t believe in evolution, again treated the press to some of her famous bigotry. This time she basically said that blacks don’t earn as much as whites because they’re lazy.

Kern’s comments came after she and her fellow state representatives approved a constitutional amendment that, if passed by voters, would end affirmative action in local government. They set a new bar for some of the most racist, outlandish and myth-laden remarks in an increasingly prejudiced political culture.

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school?” said Kern as she explained her vote. “I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

Her comment makes Donald Trump’s suggestion President Obama only got into Columbia and Harvard because he’s black seem quaint. The only way it could have been worse would be if she continued, “They’re too busy eating watermelon,” or something. (Although, I have to admit I’m surprised she actually knows the term “people of color.”)

PBS host Tavis Smiley caught some conservative flack this week for predicting that next year’s national elections will be “the ugliest, the nastiest, the most divisive, and the most racist in the history of this Republic.”

With people like Sally Kern running around, that’s not hard to imagine.