So we’ve gone from “I can’t be racist because I have black friends,” to “I can’t be racist because I used to have black friends?”
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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She went to Orangeburg Preparatory School, a private school that was formed by the merger of two private schools that were segregation academies. Ask her how many black classmates she had. If the answer isn't zero it was in the low single digits in a county that's 60% black.
The answer is zero. I went to a school like this on the west coast, the same graduating year. We did have a black foreign exchange student, at least one year. To be fair, Nikki's father taught at Voorheers college (a historically black institution), and her mom taught at a public school. Her mom started a boutique woman's clothing store that Nikki worked in.
Yeah, I went to a similar school very close to the one she went to. Knew people from there, had friends that transferred over from there, etc.
It certainly wasn't my choice to go there, and I don't think my parents reasoning was out of racism in sending me there so I'm not about to conclude the same for her. But it's just realistically thinking, how many black friends is she going to make going there? On top of recognizing the same horseshit whitewashing of history that got her into this whole defense. The same one I was taught originally as well.
I wonder how many Indians went there?
Just fucking embrace being a racist, it’s perfectly acceptable for a Republican. Hell, she’d probably take votes from Trump.
I hate to say it, but you’re right. She’s handling this issue like it’s 2012 and Republicans still have to pretend not to be racist. Keeping the mask on is not doing her any favors in the primary.
Yeah, I'm sure holding a clan rally would boost her numbers quite a bit.
You know it's getting bad when they get to "...but I have black friends!" She so desperate, she's reaching into her past.
You're actually giving too much credit. Had not have. Past tense
In my experience anyone who is in a situation where they feel the have to say "I have black friends" has no black friends. Same with "I'm not racist", 100% that sentence calls you out as racist. Non racist people and people with a diverse friend group don't find themselves in situations where they have to say things like that.
She couldn't even manage to say "I have black friends." She had black friends growing up, which could mean she had a black friend in preschool and another one in first grade, if that is even true.
But she couldn't even lie about having a black friend now. I mean for fuck's sake, she's a Republican politician. Just get a Republican black lady from North Carolina from the 3 who exist and have her pretend to be Nikki's best friend. They couldn't even do that. Because apparently even that would be a step too far.
During a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, Haley was asked to respond to criticism made by fellow GOP White House candidate Chris Christie after the former U.N. ambassador initially omitted slavery in her answer about the cause of the Civil War. Christie claimed she had answered the way she did because she was “unwilling to offend anyone by telling truth.”
“What I will tell you is Chris Christie is from New Jersey." [She said.]
I'm sorry, wtf does New Jersey have to do with this?
He's a damyankee and doesn't understand, obviously
/s
No, she's right, jersey is a shithole and Christie is a giant piece of shit. The bad news is that he is a much more reasonable candidate than her.
While I agree about Christie, have you ever lived in New Jersey, outside of the immediate New York suburbs? Or do you just drive through on the turnpike and think you've seen it?
Camden/Cherry hill area ain’t so nice either 😅
Cherry Hill is actually fairly wealthy, though the 70 and 38 corridors are typical suburban shopping areas. Camden has some rough areas, but they've really been working on turning things around for well over a decade now. For example, Camden had no violent George Floyd protests: the cops and the police chief marched with the protestors, listened respectfully to the people who gave talks and speeches, and ended the entire thing with a huge community barbeque and ice cream.
Fair, I haven’t been up that way in more than ten years.
See New Jersey is one of them librul states, so by the transitive property, Chris Christie is a goldurn librul.
“Chris Christie is from New Jersey. He can describe the civil war accurately and not have every single one of his white in-state supporters desert him. I’m from South Carolina. I can’t.”
Yeah, that makes more sense.
This doesn't even make any sense. Is she saying she didn't bring up slavery as a cause for the civil war because she ~~has~~ had black friends? They won't mind. Go ahead and bring it up.
"Some of my best friends are n---s" goes back a long way.
Oh, yeah, I get that. I just don't get why she's using the black friend defense it in this context. Her imaginary black friends were not the ones she was trying to placate by failing to list slavery as the cause for the civil war.
Having a black friend, in Republican eyes, excuses you from all racism forever.
Yeah, that's still not what I'm talking about. Whatever.
You're looking for reason in her statements, but the fact is that it's a dogwhistle kind of emotional code, and she's not speaking to reasonable people, she's speaking to consumers of propaganda for whom these dogwhistle statements are tailored to incite an emotional response. Squid's correct in referring you back to the social origins of the phrase, because in that context it has a very strong meaning, yet one devoid of apparent reason.
Not trying to argue with you, because your question and reasoning are solid. The people you are speaking of, Nikki Haley and her base, are . . . not.
This is pretty cool, because she’s backing herself into a corner. Ordinarily Nimarata Randhawa could of course fall back on her Indian heritage, but she’s spent most of her life distancing herself from it .
Awkward.
“I had black friends growing up until said friends got old enough to realize what a racist asshole I was.”
No, more like, "I sat next to a black person in class and spoke to them when necessary."
Oh, she played the "Some of my best friends are black" card, I guess we have to go home now.
*were
Isn't this issue a positive for her in the GOP primary?
Used to be, but now she's got to get non-white conservatives. The GOP's worst nightmares have come true.
she also basically told people who lose children in school shootings to get over it. why do people continue to call her a moderate?
Because moderate is a relative term, especially with the GOP going off the deep end.
Does that mean she doesn't have black friends anymore?
And has she asked those black friends she had when she was growing up what they thought about her Civil War answer?
But did her black friends have Nikki Haley for a friend?
Had.
LOL, this is like some kind of shit out of Veep.
Go ahead. Name one. Just one.
So...the paid servants were the only ones who would talk to her?
“I had Black friends growing up”
“...but now that I've shown my true face they don't like me anymore!”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley is finding herself on defense again after she said “I had Black friends growing up” during a town hall as she sought to clean up remarks she made around the cause of the Civil War.
During a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, Haley was asked to respond to criticism made by fellow GOP White House candidate Chris Christie after the former U.N. ambassador initially omitted slavery in her answer about the cause of the Civil War.
Haley’s response prompted jabs from fellow Republican White House hopeful Ron DeSantis’s campaign and criticism from pundits and political observers.
‘I had black friends growing up,’” the DeSantis War Room account on X, formerly Twitter, wrote, attaching a clip of her remarks at the CNN town hall.
During a joint interview with journalists from NBC News and The Des Moines Register on Friday, Haley defended her comments from the CNN town hall, saying she knew firsthand the pains of racism and that it was a “source of pride” to say she had Black and white friends.
The gaffes come at a critical moment for Haley, who has been seeing some momentum in New Hampshire polling, just a week out from the Iowa GOP caucus.
The original article contains 751 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
It’s like watching a stormtrooper furiously trying to shove a lit stick of dynamite up their ass, and failing.
Well they do have spectacularly bad aim.