I mostly ignore Nikki Haley because, while I find her irritating, she's mostly irrelevant. Her recent statement about Obama setting back "minorities" by making them out to be victims is part and parcel of her schtick.
But when Michael Harriot, who writes epic Twitter threads about Black history in addition to his day job writing for The Grio and other outlets, said he had something to say about her, I knew it would be worth reading.
First, as background, a Punjabi Sikh who had served in the U.S. army tried to challenge the 1920s-era law that barred immigrants from outside Western Europe, and particularly people like him as an Indian, because, he argued, Indians were literally Caucasians. The Supreme Court said while that may be true, you aren't white, so too bad, no entry for people like you.
Then, more than 40 years later, after major Civil Rights action by Black people, LBJ signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Haley's parents were allowed entry to the U.S. They were also from the Punjab region of India, and also Sikhs.
They lived in South Carolina, where their daughter was born three years later. Her father taught at Voorhees College, a historically Black college in Denmark, S.C., and her mother was a public school teacher.
Haley — named Nimrata Nikki Randhawa by her parents — didn't go to the public schools in her home town, though. She went to Orangeburg Preparatory Schools, a school that opened after Brown v. Board of Education, which Harriot describes as a segregation academy, backed up by a link to this article, written by a white alumnus.
Harriot's thread continues to highlight the hypocrisy of Haley's family history compared to her past and current political stances, especially her feigned ignorance of the symbolism of the Confederate flag when she was governor of South Carolina, and her delay in removing it from the state capitol.
A second Twitter thread, written by a person who says he offers an Indian American perspective, also criticizes Haley's presence in politics as "not the type of representation the Indian American community should be proud of." He wrote:
As a white-passing Indian American, Haley exploits our community when it serves her, but has turned her back on the brown immigrant experience at every opportunity. Born Nimrata Randhawa, the former South Carolina governor prefers to go by her middle name, “Nikki.”
Ironically, despite her refusal to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism, Haley insists those who point this name change out are “racist.” True, other politicians have taken a similar tack, but while I am happy to call Haley, who takes great issue with trans people identifying as they choose, whatever she likes — it’s hard not to read into the choice given her history of whitewashing her identity.
Haley reportedly does not like to discuss her Sikh background, but takes pains to remind everyone of her conversion to Christianity. Though she now finds her Indian American identity politically useful, in 2001, she identified as “white” on her voter registration card.
Haley has used her power to harm communities of color around the world. In Nikki Haley’s America immigrant families like mine (and hers) would never have been allowed here in the first place. Just last year, she even called for American-born Black Senator Raphael Warnock to be “deported.”
Nikki Haley is a classic example of "how do they sleep at night."
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