Nikki Haley claimed that America wasn’t founded as a racist country, and Steven Colbert responded with a brutal and historically accurate joke.
Colbert said in response to Haley’s claim that America is not a racist country, “Okay, so, the argument is that there is racism, but it’s not a racist country? That’s interesting. If you make a lemon chiffon cake that has even a little bit of poop in it, I got some bad news for you. That’s a poop cake. Gotta label it. Gotta label it right there at the deli. It’s gotta say poop cake.”
After playing a clip of Nikki Haley saying that America wasn’t founded on racism, Colbert said, “If you think America was not founded as a racist country, I’d say you have three-fifths of a brain.”
Stephen Colbert refuted Haley’s claim by referring to the three-fifths compromise, in which the founders agreed that slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person.
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Why does the Republican Party struggle so much with anything involving slavery or racism?
These should be settled questions. Slavery is the reason why the nation fought a Civil War, and racism is bad. Americans used to be able to agree on that until Republicans slipped into a fantasyland where racism doesn’t have a long and ugly history in the country.
White Trump voters want to hear that there is no systemic racism, and that is what Nikki Haley is telling them, but Stephen Colbert was right. Racism has been in this country since before the settlers arrived.
To claim that the nation wasn’t founded on racism is a damaging delusion that only harms Americans who are still being discriminated against today.
It also reveals the unseriousness of Nikki Haley’s candidacy.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
