South Carolina Senator Knotts Calls Gubernatorial Candidate Haley "Raghead"
The heated race for South Carolina’s governership turned racist when State Senator Jake Knotts referred to Representative Nikki Haley as an “[expletive] raghead.” He later attempted to rectify his slur by saying he didn’t mean the expletive. As for “raghead?” Senator Knotts defended the word by arguing, “We need a good Christian to be our governer. […] We’re at war over there.”
Rep. Haley identifies [1] as Christian, but was raised by Sikh immigrants from India [2]. I’m not making any accusations or presumptions about Haley’s faith, but I think it’s a fair assumption that, in a number of religious bastions, ascribing to a non-Christian (even the wrong denomination of Christian) faith is the kiss of death for a political career. Despite this, the accusation that one is a false Christian is used sparingly for white politicians, even those who embody less [3]-than [4]-Christian [5] ideals. The charges levied at Haley, however, mirror similar [6] accusations aimed at Bobby Jindal, another Indian American political star, and, of course, President Obama. The ugly truth is that, while white politicians have skied to political heights under a bevy of religious banners -- Mormon [7], Catholic [8], Jewish [9] -- brown folk get two choices: Christian or enemy.
Of course, this isn’t really a story about religious discrimination. Again, Haley identifies as Christian, despite Knotts’s attempts to smear her faith. His blanket assertion that the United States is at war “over there” -- implying, presumably, any region where the people don’t look like himself -- demonstrates that this is, at its heart, a racist slur implying that all individuals of brown skin are Islamic fundamentalists. And that is a dangerous assumption, one that has implications reaching far beyond even the highest office of a state.
You can voice your displeasure at Sen. Knott's statements by sending his office a message here [10].