Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that Republican 2024 presidential hopeful former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) should not deny the history of racism in the United States.
Co-host Ana Navarro said, “At a time when the Democratic Party is losing some support among Latinos, among black voters, Nikki Haley, who like you is of southeast asian descent said this week that this country has never been a racist country. So let me ask you directly, do you agree that America has never been a racist country?”
Harris said, “You know, first of all, I think everyone agrees we all agree the issue of race in America is not something that should be the subject of a sound bite. The history of racism in America should never be the subject of a sound bite or a question that is meant to elicit a one-sentence answer, but there is no denying that we have in our history as a nation racism and that racism has played a role in the history of our nation.
She added, “When I think about it, I think we all would agree that while it is part of our past and we see vestiges of it today. We should also be committed collectively to not letting it define the future of our country, but we cannot get to a place of progress on the issue of race by denying the existence of racism, by denying the history of racism, to suggest that enslaved people benefited from slavery. We will not grow as a country to push that kind of approach and doctrine of misinformation. It is not in our best interest to evolve on the issue of race in America to suggest that the Civil War was prompted by anything other than slavery in America. It is not in the best interest of our progress as a nation to ban books and deny our children the ability to benefit from the knowledge of America’s full history so that we can move toward progress. So it’s unfortunate that there are some who would deny facts or overlook them when, in fact, moving toward progress requires that we speak truth.”
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