Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley sparked one more public firestorm on race this week after asserting in a current interview that she confronted racial discrimination in her youth “as a brown lady.”
Haley, whose Sikh dad and mom immigrated to America from India within the Nineteen Sixties, stated she encountered racism all through her childhood in South Carolina every week after she declared the US has “by no means been a racist nation.”
“We had been the one Indian household in our small Southern city,” Haley instructed NBC on Sunday. “I used to be teased day by day for being brown. So, anybody that wishes to query it could return and take a look at what I’ve stated on how laborious it was to develop up within the Deep South as a brown lady.”
The feedback prompted swift backlash on social media, with many voices questioning Haley’s authenticity as a result of she seems and sounds white and accusing her of pandering by drawing parallels between her privileged upbringing and the struggles of Black folks.
The controversy emerged simply forward of Tuesday’s New Hampshire major, the place Haley had closed the hole on Donald Trump in current weeks however nonetheless wants a miracle to beat the Republican front-runner after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis give up the race on Sunday following an embarrassing defeat in Iowa final week.
Haley sparked the latest controversy final week after inserting third within the Iowa caucuses after which making an look on “Fox & Buddies” the place she repeated a earlier declare that the US has by no means been “a racist nation.”
Through the phase, host Brian Kilmeade performed a clip of MSNBC commentator Pleasure Reid, who spoke to Haley’s id as a girl of shade and her candidacy in a celebration that Reid characterised as changing into extra “anti-immigrant” within the Trump period.
Kilmeade then requested Haley if she considers her occasion “racist.”
“No, we’re not a racist nation, Brian. We’ve by no means been a racist nation. Our aim is to make it possible for in the present day is best than yesterday,” she responded. “Are we good? No. However our aim is to all the time be sure that we try to be extra good day by day that we will.”
Through the phase, which aired the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Haley talked about for the primary time that she skilled racism throughout her childhood, which infuriated racial advocates and Black leaders throughout the nation.
“Nikki Haley claiming that America has ‘by no means been a racist nation’ simply reveals how out of contact conservatives are about this nation,” one X person fumed on Jan. 16. “Race-based slavery wasn’t racist? Race-based segregation wasn’t racist? Denying alternatives to Black folks due to their race isn’t racist?”
Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a Democrat, additionally chimed in: “Slavery? Indigenous genocide?Jim Crow? Black Codes? Mass incarceration? Lynching?And on and on and on. @NikkiHaley you’ve misplaced your rattling thoughts.”
Haley’s camp later doubled down on the candidate’s stance, saying, “America has all the time had racism, however America has by no means been a racist nation.”
Some political pundits tried to clarify Haley’s stance, asserting that from the candidate’s perspective, the US has “by no means been a racist nation” as a result of her non-white household had achieved the “American dream” as a part of an immigrant success story that was persevering with as Haley runs for president.
Nonetheless, one opinion author acknowledged that Haley was “useless improper” for failing to acknowledge the nation’s historical past of institutional racism that continues to disenfranchise Black folks greater than 150 years after the tip of slavery.
A refrain of conservative voices additionally skewered Haley over the feedback as Haley’s former GOP marketing campaign rivals fell in line to help Trump towards Haley within the New Hampshire major.
“I’m extra *brown* than Nimarata,” stated Kathy Barnette, the marketing campaign director for politician Vivek Ramaswamy.
“She grew up within the ‘deep’ south, I grew up within the *deeper* south in Southern Alabama on a pig farm in a home with no insulation, no working water, an out home within the again, and a properly on the aspect… … and I used to be NEVER teased EVERY day for being black. That is race baiting. That is ‘enjoying’ the race card.”
In distinction, Haley’s dad and mom each held doctoral levels and led profitable careers in regulation and academia whereas working a profitable merchandising enterprise after retirement.
Barnette referred to as Haley “despicable” for making an attempt to match her expertise to the institutional racism that Black folks have endured since lengthy earlier than the Civil Battle.
“And my coronary heart felt somewhat bit wounded for individuals who have really confronted and fought *actual* racism,” she wrote.
Proper-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza additionally challenged Haley on her feedback, saying: “I got here to America from Bombay, India at age 17 and have spent the previous 4 a long time in probably the most conservative precincts of American life. I’ve by no means as soon as been teased for being brown, and I’m browner than Nikki Haley. So what’s occurring right here?”
Most individuals took subject particularly with Haley saying, “I used to be teased day by day for being brown,” as summed up by conservative activist Matt Walsh, who responded merely, “No, you weren’t.”
Quite a lot of random voices additionally heckled Haley on social media, however particularly within the feedback part of the video shared by the Citizen Free Press.
“Nikki Haley is palms down the whitest brown individual I’ve ever seen,” one person quipped. One other individual acknowledged. “When was she ever brown? She isn’t brown now. She’s whiter than Elizabeth Warren. I’m so sick of her pandering.”
Through the interview, Haley additionally sought to carry out injury management following a earlier debacle at a New Hampshire city corridor in late December when she refused to name out slavery as a reason behind the Civil Battle.
Haley defined that she fumbled via her response as a result of she believed that discussions in regards to the Civil Battle inherently implied the presence of slavery with out explicitly stating it.
“If I didn’t point out slavery on that day, it’s as a result of that’s an automated,” she stated. “The Civil Battle has all the time been identified about slavery.”
On the time of the episode, nonetheless, Haley tried to clarify that the Civil Battle was attributable to authorities getting in the best way of particular person freedoms, spiritual liberties, and financial pursuits — resulting in a scolding from the viewers member who requested Haley, “What was the reason for the US’ Civil Battle?”
“Within the 12 months 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you just reply that query with out mentioning the phrase ‘slavery,’” the person stated.
Racial controversies have been a recurring theme all through Haley’s public service profession.
In 2020, she gave a speech earlier than the Republican Nationwide Conference, saying America just isn’t racist as protests gripped the nation within the months following the police killing of George Floyd.
“My father wore a turban. My mom wore a sari,” she stated on the time. “We confronted discrimination and hardship, however my dad and mom by no means gave into grievance and hate.”
“It’s now trendy to say that America is racist. That may be a lie,” stated Haley, who eliminated the Accomplice flag from South Carolina’s statehouse as governor. “America just isn’t a racist nation.”
Questions in regards to the Civil Battle’s legacy additionally stay important in Haley’s dwelling state of South Carolina, the place she’s confronted scrutiny on the subject up to now.
Again in 2010, throughout her gubernatorial marketing campaign, she characterised the Civil Battle as a conflict between two sides — one advocating for “custom” and the opposite for “change.”
The identical 12 months, she additionally stirred controversy when she stated the Accomplice flag, which is extensively seen as a logo of racism, was “not one thing that’s” inherently racist and initially expressed help for conserving the flag above the state Capitol.
5 years later, nonetheless, Haley referred to as for the elimination of the Accomplice flag following the 2015 bloodbath of 9 Black Charleston churchgoers by a 21-year-old white supremacist.
