Nikki Haley, the Trump administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations, spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) Monday night, criticizing Democrats for making it “fashionable” among some segments of their Party “to say that America is racist.”
The former ambassador, whom some believe holds White House aspirations, told the RNC that the issue was “personal.”
“I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants,” said Haley, who was the country’s first Indian American elected to state governorship. “They came to America and settled in a small southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world.”
Haley admitted that while her family had faced “discrimination and hardship” growing up in South Carolina, they never “gave in to grievance and hate.”
“My mom built a successful business. My dad taught 30 years at a historically black college,” she said. “And the people of South Carolina chose me as their first minority and first female governor.”
The former ambassador added that America “is a story that’s a work in progress” and it is incumbent on everyone to make the country “freer, fairer, and better.”
“The American people know we can do better,” she said. “And, of course, we know that every single black life is valuable.”
Haley’s comments come as former Vice President Joe Biden has frequently urged voters on the campaign trail to view the upcoming general election as a means to rip out from the country “the roots of systemic racism.”