Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s failure to identify slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War has created a firestorm. But the press is missing an important issue when reporting on the brouhaha — how the inclination of some Republicans to avoid recognizing facts of racial history can foster a subtle messaging of “colorism” in our politics.

Haley, for example, likes to speak of “freedom” and “rights” in the American experience, but neglects to include that they were once exclusive to white people. As such, she tends to overlook the experiences of the millions of Africans held in bondage — and how their labor and bodies made America an economic powerhouse.

In regards to the Civil War, her omission of slavery distorts the history of the state she governed, South Carolina, which proclaimed that slavery and its preservation was the central reason for its secession. In 1860, South Carolina leaders cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery” to justify secession. Other states of the Confederacy offered similar reasons for leaving the Union.

Haley’s reluctance to cite slavery as a primary cause of the war goes beyond political opportunism, however. It also creates a rationale for people to minimize the effects of racism today. And it can reinforce efforts to stigmatize the legitimate concerns of Black Americans in the eyes of voters.

Moreover, it can give sanction to the introduction of a politics of caste........

© The Hill