We know the drill — when all else fails, play the race card.
Although race is usually the trump card of the left, this time, it’s former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley who seems to be pulling them out of her pocket.
Comments Haley made during a Jan. 5 interview are resurfacing with the New Hampshire primary’s arrival. And her claims to NBC News and The Des Moines Register that she was the victim of racism growing up in Bamberg, South Carolina — in the “Deep South,” as Haley put it — are getting roasted by many social media users.
Haley, who was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, is the daughter of Sikh parents who immigrated from India.
“We were the only Indian family in our small southern town. I was teased every day for being brown,” Haley said in the interview.
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“So anyone who wants to question it can go back and look at what I’ve said on how hard it was to grow up in the deep south as a brown girl,” she added.
“I was teased every day for being brown”
Nikki Hayley complains about growing up in the America south. pic.twitter.com/Tm5owe5zFx
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 21, 2024
Haley’s comments struck a chord with many conservatives — but it wasn’t sympathetic.
In a post on X, comedian Terrence K. Williams wrote, “If Nikki Haley is a brown woman then I’m a White Man with blue eyes and blond hair.”
🚨 JUST IN: Nikki Haley is claiming she was teased and bullied for being a “brown girl”
“I was teased every day for being brown”
If Nikki Haley is a brown woman then I’m a White Man with blue eyes and blond hair .
Who else is laughing at this joker 🖐️ pic.twitter.com/931FM7tEIM
— Terrence K. Williams (@w_terrence) January 22, 2024
Libs of TikTok posted a picture of Haley in her teen years looking very much like an all-American white girl, with the caption: “Nikki Haley when she was supposedly ‘teased for being brown.’ What do you notice?”
Nikki Haley when she was supposedly “teased for being brown”
What do you notice? 🤔 https://t.co/5cMnFTsfHt pic.twitter.com/bdfOEEYk84
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 22, 2024
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’souza, who is of Indian origin, also chimed in with his own experience growing up in the United States, which was vastly different than the one Haley claims to have had.
“I came to America from Bombay, India at age 17 and have spent the past four decades in the most conservative precincts of American life,” he wrote on X. “I have never once been teased for being brown, and I’m browner than Nikki Haley. So what’s going on here?”
I came to America from Bombay, India at age 17 and have spent the past four decades in the most conservative precincts of American life. I have never once been teased for being brown, and I’m browner than Nikki Haley. So what’s going on here? https://t.co/ukbNJRehcQ
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 22, 2024
Americans will remember that the interview apparently didn’t help Haley much with Iowa Republicans in the Hawkeye State’s Jan. 15 caucuses.
She came in third behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, who dominated the first voting of the primary race.
To be fair to Haley, when MSNBC’s Joy Reid suggested that Republicans in the Iowa caucuses had passed over Haley for former Trump because of her race, Haley refused to agree.
Do you like Nikki Haley?
“I mean, yes, I’m a brown girl who grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina, who became the first female minority governor in history, who became a U.N. ambassador, and who is now running for president. If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is,” Haley said.
“You can sit there and give me all the reasons why you think I can’t do this. I will continue to defy everybody on why we can do this. And we will get it done.”
The message Haley gave there was much more in line with the American spirit that Americans look for in their leaders — and probably far closer to the truth.
Did Haley get a comment or two about being Indian from some dumb kid who thought they were being funny? It’s possible.
But so do a lot of other kids who are short, have funny hair and glasses, are not good at sports, or are a little different for a myriad of other reasons. That’s the childhood experience in a nutshell.
For Haley to claim to have been teased every day about her race sounds like something out of the Democratic playbook and does not align with the Republican ethos.
Unlike Democrats, Republicans believe in rising above challenges, not dwelling on them.
But perhaps there is the strategy behind these comments.
According to a report Monday by USA Today, Haley’s hopes for winning New Hampshire depend largely on voters who are officially independent of either party — or “undeclared” — but have Democratic leanings.
“They make up a critical voting bloc that Haley has to turn out in the Tuesday primary if she is to have any hope of wrestling the GOP nomination away from Trump,” the newspaper reported.
Voters who are officially registered as Democrats are unable to vote in the Republican primary.
If Haley thought her interview would bring her any pity votes, she’s not looking to her own party for them — she’s pandering to the Democrats, whatever they call themselves.
