What Nikki Haley Doesn't Understand About American History
Nikki Haley has done quite a good job over the past few weeks butchering American history. It started with here failure to acknowledge slavery as the root cause of the Civil War.
In a recent interview with FOX News’s Brian Kilmeade, Haley offered her understanding of the history of racism in the United States.
We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country. Our goal is to make sure that today is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No. But our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can.
I know I faced racism when I was growing up. But I can tell you, today is a lot better than it was then. Our goal is to lift up everybody. Not go and divide people on race or gender or party or anything else. We’ve had enough of that in America.
It’s another confusing mess. On the one hand the United States has “never been a racist country” and on the other hand there seems to have been plenty of work to do on the racial front.
Of course, we’ve seen a great deal of change throughout American history on the racial front and there are plenty of moments to celebrate and learn from if we are to continue to make progress, but Haley never acknowledges how that change or progress has come about.
It’s all the more disappointing given Donald Trump’s recent recent attacks against her candidacy, specifically that Haley is unqualified to run for the office of president because she is not an American citizen.
This accusation is not born out of the surfacing of some newly discovered document about Haley’s birth. This is the same “birther” nonsense that Trump used against former president Barack Obama. The rhetoric is racist in origin intended to encourage the worst tendencies and fears within the MAGA community and beyond—fears that are deeply rooted in American history.
The United States, in Trump’s view and that of his followers, is a white man’s nation that should be governed by white Americans. It is also another reminder of Trump’s hostility toward the Fourteenth Amendment and “birthright citizenship.”
Haley’s response?
He’s clearly insecure. If he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s going and spending millions of dollars on TV, he’s insecure, he knows that something’s wrong. I don’t sit there and worry about whether it’s personal or what he means by it.
It is personal and Haley should care what Trump means by it.
Why would anyone expect Haley to work to lift up everyone in the face of racial discrimination when she is unwilling to call it out when it is being directed specifically at her and in a contest to determine the leader of the free world?
What Nikki Haley doesn't seem to understand about American history is that whatever progress has been made on the racial front is the result of people who have stood up to the Donald Trump's of the world.
It takes people who have been willing to sacrifice everything, including their own lives to push this country forward. No one is asking Haley to go that far.
I am currently making my way through Raymond Arsenault’s wonderful new biography about John Lewis. I’ve been reading about Freedom Riders, lunch counter sit-ins, voting drives, and arrest after arrest followed by beating after beating, all in the name of civil rights and equality.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.—John Lewis
This could be Haley’s moment to say something and stand up for the principles that she claims to embrace.
It took the murder of nine innocent Black churchgoers in a Charleston church in 2015 for Haley to finally sign legislation authorizing the removal of a symbol of white supremacy atop the state house in Columbia.
Unfortunately, Nikki Haley appears to be all too willing to push another opportunity to stand up for the principles she claims to embrace down the road for political purposes, only this time it could very well have catastrophic consequences for all of us.
She understands that she needs to win the South Carolina primary.
I fear you give Haley more credit than she deserves. From my observation of her career aince 2015, she says exactly what she thinks will profit her most at any particular moment. No way to tell what, if anything, is sincerely meant.