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Nikki Haley, GOP presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has drawn attention recently for her comments on issues like racism, slavery and the U.S. Civil War. In a recent interview on Fox News, she stated that the United States has “never been a racist country.” Those comments followed a previous town hall where she told an audience the Civil War was about what governments can and can’t do, without mentioning the word “slavery.” Haley, standing accused of whitewashing U.S. history, has since clarified some of her comments and explained to reporters that she was just trying “to do the right thing” and send a positive message.
Straight Arrow News contributor Dr. Rashad Richey discusses the candidate’s recent gaffes, asserting that her apparent lack of awareness regarding racism renders her unfit for leadership.
America has never been a racist country? Already the debate about America not being racist, being racist today, is contextualized through the experience of those who have experienced it, meaning racism. To deny that racism exists is to deny the experiences of individuals who have gone through it.
For example, we cannot deny that murder exists. We cannot deny that violence and robbery exist. But all of a sudden, we can deny that racism even exists? What you’re really denying are those who have been the victims of this systemic oppression.
Let’s do this. Let’s go back to the original founding documents of this nation and the sentiment of the Founding Fathers who believed that only rich white men who own property could actually participate in democracy. That’s not only racist, it is sexist. And naturally, we will call that an oligarchy today. But I digress.
There’s a reason why some of our declarative documents say things like Native Americans are savages. Would that not be considered racist? Well, let’s fast forward. How about the federal law that once was called the Chinese Exclusion Act? That was once an actual federal law and it did exactly what it sounds like. All right.
Racism has been something we fought against. If racism is not a real thing, meaning America according to Nikki Haley has never, never been a racist country, what did Dr. [Martin Luther] King march for? What was he assassinated for?
