Nikki Haley has an American history problem

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Image: Sean Rayford/Associated Press

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address on Tuesday, has an American history problem.

Haley, the first governor in the history of South Carolina who is neither white nor male, suggested Wednesday that the United States has never "passed any laws or done anything based on race or religion."

Except that is exactly what the United States has been doing since day one.

"When you've got immigrants who are coming here legally, we've never in the history of this country passed any laws or done anything based on race or religion. Let's not start that now," she said.

Haley's comments to reporters in South Carolina were made in reference to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, at whom she took veiled swipes during her State of the Union response. Speaking to reporters in South Carolina afterward, she said she took issue with Trump's plan to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.

Even after listening to Haley's remarks in context — they were prompted by a question from a reporter — they suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of some of the bedrocks of American history and raises the question: Why didn't anyone call her out on this one?

There is a lengthy list of laws and decisions made in the United States based on race.

The 1787 Three-Fifths Compromise is a great example. Or the Indian Removal Act of 1830 signed by Andrew Jackson, which forced some Native American tribes to give up their land in the relocation commonly known as the Trail of Tears. Don't forget Jim Crow laws, which weren't repealed until the '50s and '60s which required black and white citizens to eat, go to school, use the bathroom and commute (and on and on) in separate facilities.

Sure, one could argue that Haley was suggesting the U.S. had never "done anything based on race or religion" with respect to immigration specifically. But even then she's still wrong. The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed in 1882, was considered the first federal law to exclude a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States. It wasn't repealed until 1943.

As many on Twitter noted Wednesday, Haley is also the governor of South Carolina — a state with no shortage of examples to draw from itself. It was the second-to-last state to get rid of its interracial marriage ban, which was on the books until 1998.

It was just last year that Haley signed the bill into law that brought down the Confederate battle flag that once flew over the grounds of the South Carolina State House, the most enduring and polarizing symbol of the Old South and the nation's checkered past with respect to race.

We've contacted Haley's camp for comment and will update this post with any response we receive.