Asian/American picked for UN Ambassador post

Gov. Nikki Haley

REPRINTED FROM ASAM NEWS

SOUTH CAROLINA Governor Nikki Haley has been chosen by President-elect Trump as an ambassador to the United Nations.

The daughter of Indian immigrants who spoke harshly about the rhetoric of Donald Trump, but later said she would vote for him, has accepted. The announcement was made this morning in a news release from the Republican Party.

“Our country faces enormous challenges here at home and internationally, and I am honored that the President-elect has asked me to join his team and serve the country we love as the next Ambassador to the United Nations,” said Governor Haley.

Haley is the first woman and first Asian/American appointed to a cabinet-level post by Trump.

RELATED:

• Ban on Confederate flag led by Haley
• Haley bets against Trump; endorses Rubio

Haley received kudos about how she got her state through the tragic shooting in Charleston last year that left nine people dead at the Enuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She later successfully navigated a sensitive topic in her state by pushing for the removal of what many considered a racist symbol, the confederate flag, from state grounds.

“Governor Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation to move critical policies forward for the betterment of her state and our country,” said President-elect Trump. “She is also a proven dealmaker, and we look to be making plenty of deals. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage.”

Haley announced her intentions in her Twitter account saying she regrets not finishing the remaining two years of her term as South Carolina's governor but she accepts her new position out of a sense of duty to the U.S.

She will remain governor until her nomination is confirmed by the U.S. Senate early next year. (Views from the Edge contributed to this report)

Nikki Haley bets against Trump; endorses Rubio

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley endorsed the candidacy of Marco Rubio.

GOV. NIKKI HALEY's endorsement of Marco Rubio is one more move in the chess game of high stakes politics. 

"I wanted somebody with fight, I wanted somebody with passion, I wanted somebody who had conviction to do the right thing," Haley said during her announcement Wednesday (Feb. 17). "But I wanted somebody humble enough, who remembers that you work for all the people -- and I wanted somebody to go and show my parents that the best decision they made for their children was coming to America.”

RELATED: Nikki Haley needs to take an ethnic studies class

The Indian/American governor of South Carolina, the daughter of immigrants, puts herself in the Republican's "establishment" camp and may positioned herself favorably for her political future when her governorship terms out in 2019.

The highly popular governor was in the limelight last month when she was chosen to give the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address. In her speech she urged voters not to listen to the "angriest voices" in an obvious reference to Donald Trump. In followup interviews she criticized Trump for his campaign of fear mongering and opposed his proposals for banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. and his anti-refugee views.

RELATED: Time to bring down the Confederate flag

In her SOTU response, she received praise from both Democrats and Republicans as a voice of reason and may have put herself in a position as a dark horse candidate for Vice President - if not in 2016, certainly after her term as governor ends in time for the 2020 Presidential campaign.

While Donald Trump and Ted Cruz battle for the extremist vote, Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are going after the Republican moderates, if there are any left of that silent breed.

By endorsing Rubio as a moderate Republican, she positions herself with the GOP moderates, who she is betting will outlast the more extreme elements of her party beyond this year's election.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also coveted the governor's endorsement, said he will carry on despite expressing disappointment with Haley's decision to back his rival.

Haley's endorsement is not without risks. If Trump wins the GOP's nomination (which, more and more, looks like a very real possibility) you can bet that the businessman will have a long memory on his increasing list of winners and losers.

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For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

Gov. Nikki Haley needs to take an ethnic studies class to understand America's racial history

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union.

FRESH OFF her rebuttal to President Obama's final State of the Union on Jan. 12, during which Gov. Nikki Haley criticized some Republican's statements against immigrants, the Indian American South Carolina governor response to a reporter's question what prompted her statement. Haley  clarified that she was thinking about all the Republican presidential candidates. The last straw, she said, was Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.

"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.

Whhaa ...?? 

Haley should have known better considering last summer she had to make the decision to take down the Confederate flag in front of the Charleston courthouse after white supremacist Dylan Roof shot and killed nine African/American Bible class students.

There is a lengthy list of American laws based on race or xenophobia. Here are a few examples:

• We can began at the founding of the United States when slave-owners helped write the Declaration of Independence. When they used the phrase, "all men are created equal" they were not referring to their slaves, which they considered "property."
• The 1787 Three-Fifths Compromise was created to make the Constitution - the very foundation of U.S. law - palatable to the slave-owning South. Also written into the Constitution was a provision to make it illegal to assist a slave's escape to freedom, even if it is to a state forbidding slavery.
• The Trail of Tears is the result of the the Indian Removal Act of 1830 forcing Native Americans off their traditional lands. 
• The Jim Crow laws which states used mainly  against African/Americans. Laws that provided segregated schools, separate drinking fountains, separate bathrooms and separate entrances for Euro/Americans and African/Americans. 
• The Chinese Exclusion Act which later morphed into a ban against all Asians and  members of the "Mongolian" race. 
• There were laws in many states, including California, that prevented nonwhites to own land or to buy a home. 
• In the 19th century, there were laws forbidding Native Americans' spiritual practices such as "ghost dancing."
• Anti-miscegenation laws which, if they were still in effect, would have prevented the marriage of the child of Indian/American immigrants to a European/American.
• Executive Order 9066 mandated the internment of the West Coast's Americans of Japanese descent during World War II.
• Operation Wetback allowed federal authorities to deport over one million Mexican/Americans throughout the Southwest. Many American citizens were victimized by the sweeps and forced to leave the U.S.

Because our schools downplay these dark chapters in our history (if they are mentioned at all). The racist laws reinforced a sense of - let's be frank - white exceptionalism that is not wholly deserved. That belief of white American superiority impacts our actions throughout the world and affects the the treatment of foreign visitors, immigrants, refugees or anybody who is "different" from the what is generally perceived as the so-called (white) American image. 

Demographic shifts indicate that European/Americans will no longer be the dominant racial group in the U.S. by mid-century. The popular image of Americans solely being descendants of European immigrants perpetuated and reinforced by our media products (Motion pictures, television and Internet) needs to change, but I digress.

I often wonder why a person of color, including Nikki Haley, chooses to be a member of the current brand of the Republican Party with its hate-spewing rhetoric and xenophobic rants. A lack of historical context might be part of the explanation. That's a topic for another post.

Haley's performance after Obama's SOTU pumped her up in the eyes of the GOP. Her name is in the mix when considering candidates for Vice President. As the child of immigrants, raised as a Sikh, who reportedly experienced racial bias while growing up in South Carolina, Haley needs to brush up on her history to understand whose shoulders she stands on. 

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Asian/Americans will figure prominently in President Obama's final State of the Union address

TONIGHT'S State of the Union (SOTU) will be President Barack Obama's last and with nothing to lose and clearly fed up with the Republican efforts to stymie his proposals, could be one that most people will remember.

If you are familiar with previous State of the Union speeches, the President will often point to the gallery when trying to turn an important issue into a personal story. Seated around the First Lady Michelle Obama will be invited guests who will serve as the President's show-and-tell. This year is not exception. Among the guests will some who by their presence will raise the profile of Asian/Americans and their contributions to America: a formerly homeless veteran from Hawaii, a newly arrived Syrian refugee, a former U.S. soldier who is Muslim and an Indian/American tech engineer. 

* * *

"I'M STILL in disbelief. We're leaving tomorrow, and I'm still in denial," Cynthia Dias, 64, a Vietnam-era Navy hospital corpsman and registered nurse said Jan. 10 to the Las Vegas Sun. 

Cynthia Dias

"I was pinching myself. Am I dreaming? Really? This Hawaiian in Las Vegas is going to see the White House and meet with President Obama and his wife?" she said in astonishment.

Dias served during the Vietnam War on a hospital ship treating wounded soldiers.
"There were so many amputees I was helping when they came in, one after another," she said. "When you have helicopters dropping off wounded on a stretcher, you don't have time to think. You just go and do your job."

Dias said her "most impressionable moments" came later, however, when she was stationed stateside at Naval Air Station Lemoore, 30 miles south of Fresno, California.

"I had to go with the chaplain to tell families that a soldier had been killed in combat," she said. That alone was enough to trigger bouts later on with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Because of PTSD she had trouble holding on to a job. About a year ago, Dias says, she was able to move from a homeless shelter for women and children into a former Las Vegas motel that was renovated through private donations to provide 122 units of housing for veterans.

While staying in Veterans Village, residents like Dias get access to health care, job training and counseling. Now she is a volunteer helping veterans through their issues, help them receive assistance and eventually, stabilize them enough that they can stand on their own.

* * *

Satya Nadella

IMMIGRATION will most likely be a common thread throughout the SOTU citing the accomplishments of recent immigrants and children of immigrants. 

Satya Nadella is one such immigrant. Born in India, he is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, a position he’s held since February 2014 at the company he joined in 1992.  

In September, the Microsoft announced a new $75 million effort to expand computer science education, including opportunities for engineers from Microsoft and other companies with teachers to team-teach computer science. 

Originally from Hyderabad, India, Satya received a master’s in computer science and a master’s in business administration from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and University of Chicago, respectively.

* * *

Refaai Hamo

IN CONTRAST, Refaai Hamo's journey to America was more treacherous. He and his family spent two years waiting for approval to go to the U.S. before arriving in Detroit on Dec. 18.

He had fled Syria after a missile fired by Syrian government forces destroyed the complex where he and his family lived, the White House said. Hamo’s wife, one of their daughters and five other family members perished.

In Turkey, Hamo was diagnosed with stomach cancer. After being granted refugee status in the United States, he and his children are now trying to build a new life in Troy, Michigan, a Detroit suburb.

* * *

Naveed Shah

NAVEED SHAH, a Muslim and former U.S. soldier, who was a child when his parents immigrated to the country from Pakistan. Shah joined the army in 2006 and served in Iraq.

The symbolism there is also unmistakable, at a time when Donald Trump, the front-running Republican presidential candidate, has fanned anti-Muslim feelings among some Americans, proposing to temporarily ban all Muslims from the country.

* * *

In case someone doesn't get the President's broad drift on the benefits of immigrants and their role in making America great, President Obama will also introduce Oscar Vazquez, who arrived as a child in the United States before voluntarily returning to Mexico as a young adult and struggling to finally obtain legal status in the United States, will underline Obama’s support for putting millions of the undocumented on a path to citizenship.

* * *

STICK AROUND for the Republican rebuttal to Obama's farewell SOTU, it will be delivered by Nikki Haley, the Indian/American governor of South Carolina. 

Gov. Nikki Haley

Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina, on January 20, 1972, to an Indian Sikh family. Her parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, are immigrants from Amritsar District, Punjab, India. Her parents originally immigrated to Canada and then immigrated to the U.S., a roundabout, but well-known path by immigrants who to want to forego the long waiting period for most immigrants from Asian countries. 

Last summer, Haley received national attention when she advocated for the removal of the Confederate flag from her state's capitol after a Euro/American terrorist gunned down  African American in a Charleston church prominently displayed his admiration for the secessionist banner on the Internet. The move gained her respect from both Democrats and Republicans.

In contrast to the GOP candidates running for President, she may appear as a moderate, but everything is relative. However, the wannabes have moved so far to the radical right, that Haley's positions (she's for a more restricted immigration policy and against allowing Syrian refugees into South Carolina) are still far to the right.

Perhaps, the fact that she is from a religious and ethnic minority and a woman, the GOP hopes to appear more inclusive to counter the largely anti-immigrant, anti-woman positions taken by the frontrunners for the Republicans' presidential candidates.

The State of the Union will air live from various television stations, at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Ban on the Confederate flag gains momentum, thanks to Indian American Gov. Nikki Haley

Obama praises Haley during eulogy for the Rev. Pinckney; what to say to defenders of the controversial flag

Gov. Nikki Haley's political stock has risen since she took a stand to remove the flag from state grounds.

“FOR TOO LONG we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens," said President Obama at the funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people killed by the gunman Dylann Roof.  "It’s true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats now acknowledge — including Gov. Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise — we all have to acknowledge the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride."

South Carolina's Gov. Nikki Haley's politics is not - to put it mildly - my cup of tea. If I was a resident of South Carolina I most likely would not vote for her. So, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with her when she came to the belated realization that the Confederate flag is too divisive and needed to come down from in front of the state capitol after a Confederate flag-loving loony shot and killed nine members of a black church. And I find myself siding with her when she is being attacked for being an Indian American.

When Haley announced her change of position on the flag last Monday, she knew she would be drawing the wrath of many of her constituents, who still think the pre-Civil War South was a land of gentility and charm and "old times there are not forgotten."

“I’d really like to like Nikki Haley since she is a Republican, but on the other hand, she’s an immigrant and does not understand America’s history,” conservative firebrand Ann Coulter told the host of a Fox TV show.

RELATED: Time to bring down the Confederate flag

Ann Coulter

Haley's parents are Indian Sikhs who came to the United States before she was born in Bamberg, S.C. Yup! She's American through-and-through; educated in South Carolina schools where they teach southern history like the Gospel.

Coulter continued to show her ignorance: “Anyone who knows the first thing about military history knows that there is no greater army that ever took the field than the Confederate Army.”

Does Coulter know who won the war? What history is she studying?

Here is what the Vice President of Confederacy said was the cornerstone of the secessionist government."Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition," Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens said. "This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth."

That pretty clearly states what the Confederacy - and that darn flag - is all about. The South Carolina legislature still must vote on the issue of the flag's removal from state grounds. Two-thirds of the lawmakers must approve that action before it can be taken down.

“For many - black and white - that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation,"  Obama said in his moving eulogy for the Pinckney. "We see that now removing the flag from this state’s Capitol would not be an act of political correctness, it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers, it would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.

'For many - black and white - that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation.'

- President Barack Obama

It's ridiculous that 150 years later and the Civil War is still being fought. The flag has become a litmus test of sorts for the Republican candidates for president as they are being forced to take a position, one way or the other. It's a lose-lose proposition. Side with the flag and you lose what's left of the moderates in the GOP. Vote against the flag and you lose the radical right that has become the base of the conservative party.

Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other chain stores said they would stop selling Confederate paraphernalia, including the flag. It is not against the law to display or own the southern banner, Haley only wants it removed from state grounds as if the state sanctions what it represents. People can still have their Constitutional right of freedom of expression by displaying it on their bumpers, t-shirts and wherever they want.

The popular use of the pro-slavery symbol, the Confederate flag, speaks to the current state of  racial inequality in America, particularly. We - as a nation - cannot fully move forward until it rids itself of pro-slavery symbols disguised as historical artifacts and the ideology it represents.

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What would you tell all those folks who believe that the flag is simply a historic symbol of the South's heritage and pride? On the Nightly Show, actor Joe Morgan issues a perfect retort in his monologue as "Papa" Pope, the character he plays on the television series Scandal.