The source of Nikki Haley’s racial blind spot

Nikki Haley is a child of immigrants. So when the former South Carolina governor stated that America has “never been a racist country,” she was right — if you look at it the way most immigrants see the promise of the United States.

But as someone who is seeking election to the highest office in the land, to lead the most diverse country in the world, Haley’s answer was dead wrong, and it makes her unfit to occupy such a position.

As an immigrant myself, whose family came to this country when I was 2 years old, I grew up with the same sentiments Haley described in her incomplete answer. My parents came here because they saw the potential to get ahead, for us kids to get a quality education, have a brighter future and do anything we set our minds to. This promise was not afforded to us in our home country of Colombia.

Growing up, my parents flew the American flag proudly every July Fourth on our front porch, voted in every election after becoming naturalized citizens and always spoke with admiration and awe about being blessed to be able to raise their children in the greatest country in the world.

Meanwhile, at work, my father, an engineer for the phone company, was called “wetback” behind his back and was resented when he got promoted over his peers. I was made fun of when I spoke Spanish in front of my friends and was often asked if my father was a drug lord. But my father never let that set him back or keep him from working twice as hard to prove he was just as good (or better) than his white counterparts. And he and my mother instilled nothing but pride in us about our language, our heritage and our culture — while at the same time never letting us forget how lucky we were to call ourselves American.

Haley missed a golden opportunity to lead smartly and boldly on the issue of race. She could have simply acknowledged that the country has had a brutal racist past that cannot and should not be ignored — but that what makes great leaders is doing better than those who came before and seeking to unify the country based on the ideals and idea of America.

She could have then spoken beautifully about how she was raised, the experiences she went through, the racism she encountered and how that gives her unique insight into how to bring people together on this issue, instead of dividing the country by weaponizing the very racism she is denying exists.

Haley also missed a unique opportunity to set herself apart from former President Trump, who uses racism and xenophobia to keep his stranglehold on his MAGA base. Real American leaders acknowledge our painful past and offer a different path to those who follow them and to those they are seeking to lead. Haley has not been able to do that.

For her own edification, she should remember that the Founders — many of whom were slave owners — wrote a Constitution that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. The leaders that followed passed many laws and edicts based on racism and xenophobia — the Fugitive Slave laws, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the “Greaser Act” of 1855, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Jim Crow laws, the Indian termination policy, the Japanese-American Internment Act of 1942, Operation “Wetback” in 1954, poll taxes — the list goes on and on.

Trump announced his candidacy by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. During his term, he imposed the Muslim Ban, eviscerated our asylum laws, reduced legal immigration to record lows and instituted the migrant child separation policy. He has promised to do all of these and more, including getting rid of birthright citizenship, if reelected.

This is the history — and future intentions of her main GOP rival — Haley needs to understand and acknowledge.

In fact, she has done the opposite. Even in the face of Trump’s xenophobic attacks — using Haley’s Indian birth name of “Nimarata” and misspelling it “Nimrata” — Trump is demonstrating that the country’s racist history is not history at all. If it were, those putrid antics would not work to rile up more support for him, and even get more people to vote against her.

Many think that if Haley had gone full throttle against Trump on his racism and xenophobia and had been honest about the country’s difficult racist past, she would not be in a position of (some) momentum going into the New Hampshire primary. I would argue the opposite is true.

When Haley was asked if she belonged to a racist party and answered that we do not live in a racist country, she opened the floodgates that now are drowning her. She could have simply answered that racism is a dark part of our history but that true leaders seek to rise above that past, unify the country around our shared values, not divide us based on our biases.

She could then have waxed poetic about her upbringing as a child of Indian immigrants and how she was raised — as my brothers and I were — to see the best in this country and in each other and always strive to be our best selves. She could describe how her parents, like mine, taught her to try to make this country better and the American dream more accessible for everyone.

Instead, Haley again tried to have it both ways: to kowtow to Trump’s MAGA base, taking care not to offend him or any of those who traffic in racism and xenophobia, while trying to differentiate herself from Trump in a milquetoasty but meaningful way.

Haley fails miserably at both and demonstrates why someone who cannot acknowledge America’s racist and xenophobic past, and its ongoing challenges with racism and anti-immigrant sentiment at present, is unfit to unify this great country in common purpose for a better future for all.

Maria Cardona is a longtime Democratic strategist, a principal at Dewey Square Group, a Washington-based political consulting agency and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her @MariaTCardona.