Charlamagne tha God presses Haley on America’s racism

Radio host Charlamagne tha God pressed GOP presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley about systemic and structural racism in America on his radio show Wednesday.

“When you look at the inequalities in America, in education, you know, homeownership, employment and wealth, health care,” Charlamagne asked the former South Carolina governor during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club.” “Can you admit that America is, systemically and structurally, a racist country?”

“I think culture has a lot to do with it, right?” Haley responded. “But it’s more of — if you look at that, how do you fix it, right?”

The radio host then referred to the Three-Fifths Compromise, ratified in 1787, which stated three-fifths of a state’s enslaved population would be counted towards its total population in matters of legislative representation and taxation.

“Right, and we made that wrong right, and we’ve got some more rights that we have to do,” Haley said.

Charlamagne then asked Haley again if she thought the U.S. is a racist country, “systemically and structurally.”

“I don’t think America’s racist, I think we have racism in America,” Haley responded.

Haley has been caught up in a few controversies in the past month for her statements on racism and slavery. The former United Nations ambassador faced backlash for her answer to a voter’s question on what the Civil War was fought over during a town hall event in New Hampshire.

“Well, don’t come with an easy question, right,” Haley said at the time. “I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.”

The voter then criticized her answer and said it was “astonishing” that in 2023 she did not mention slavery when discussing the cause of the Civil War.

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she asked.

Haley said she had assumed it was a “given” that the Civil War was about slavery during a Fox News interview the following week, when she was pressed further about her response to the voter’s question.

“What I should have said immediately was that the Civil War was about slavery, but I just assumed that that was a given, and I went on and said it was also about the role of government and about the rights of people economically, socially and otherwise,” Haley said during the Fox News appearance.

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