South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley wants the GOP to do a better job at reaching out to minorities and calming racial tensions – and used her own state as a model of how communities came together after racially fueled violence.
"It's all about working together," Haley said in comments following her speech to the National Press Club.
In her remarks to the Press Club, Haley, an Indian-American who
Politico points out is often discussed as a potential pick for VP, said the GOP has trouble discussing issues of race, and that it often seems "cold and unwelcoming to minorities, that's shameful and that has to change."
But she turned an especially critical eye on the Black Lives Matter movement.
"Black lives do matter and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the movement that has laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore," Haley said in her speech, Politico reports.
In later comments, Haley elaborated on how her state had dealt with the shooting of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, by a white officer
in April, and the slaughter of nine black churchgoers by a white gunman
in June.
"We don't think we get anything done by yelling," Haley said. "We get everything done by communicating. Any group who wants to talk about violence, there's no place in South Carolina for that. We will listen to you and work for you and try to bring you together. It's not just black lives matter, we've got lots of groups that want to yell and scream. You can do that, but it's not going to get you anywhere."
Mediaite posted a portion of her remarks.
She noted after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, black people were frequently the most injured and suffered the worst property damage, and police became wary about doing their jobs.
And ironically, the movement born of those incidents, Haley said, had the effect of "disgracefully jeopardizing" black lives.
Haley said violence can't be tolerated and the Black Lives Matter movement must be ready to condemn any aggression toward law enforcement in the name of the group.
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