Nikki Haley invokes her Indian identity at RNC 2020 to prove America is 'not racist'

Top Republican leader Nikki Haley invoked her Indian identity at the party’s national convention to make a strong case for US President Donald Trump’s re-election in the polls scheduled in November. California Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat with Indian roots, has been nominated as a vice-presidential candidate and Haley’s pitch was seen as an attempt to counter the emerging support for the 55-year-old lawmaker.

Democrats have come in the support of Black Lives Matter protests and questioned the systemic racism faced by people of colour in the US. Haley’s speech at the Republican National Convention was aimed at discrediting the rising concerns of racial discrimination and police brutality, especially after the death of George Floyd in custody.

“In much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country,” said Haley without giving specific details on which Democrat explicitly called the US a racist nation.

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'This is personal'

The former South Carolina governor then went on to talk about his family roots and said that though they faced discrimination and hardships, they never gave in to grievance and hate. Haley said that her mother built a successful business and father dad taught 30 years at a “historically Black college.” 

"This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. 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," she told the largely virtual convention.

Earlier in the day, Donald Trump Jr accused Joe Biden of putting political correctness ahead of the safety and security of the American people. He followed his father’s line of attack by calling the policies of Democrats as “radical leftwing”. Trump Jr claimed that Democrats have spent the entire pandemic trying to sneak a tax break for millionaires in Democrat states into the coronavirus relief bill.

“They attacked my father for suspending the payroll tax for middle-class workers. In fact, if you think about it, Joe Biden’s entire economic platform seems designed to crush the working man and woman,” said Trump Jr.

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