ABC’s Hostin: Nikki Haley Used ‘Tokenism to the Extreme’ — She Is Insulting Black People

ABC legal analyst Sunny Hostin told her co-hosts Friday on “The View” that GOP presidential hopeful former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) used “tokenism to the extreme” when she said she has black friends at her CNN town hall Thursday night.

On CNN, Haley said, “I should have said slavery right off the bat. But if you grow up in South Carolina, literally in second and third grade, you learn about slavery. You grow up and you have, I had black friends growing up. it is a very talked about thing.”

Co-host Ana Navarro said, “Some of my best friends are black.”

Co-host Joy Behar said, “That never works.”

Co-host Sara Haines said, “And that applies to every minority group. People do it with the LGBTQ community, fill in the blank, with Jewish people, everyone.”

Hostin said, “Can I do a public service announcement as the black person on the panel? Non-black people, when you are trying to convince someone that you are not racist, do not say, I have black friend ever.”

She added, “It’s tokenism to the extreme, and the fact that you are trying to convince me that you have black friends just tells me you don’t. It’s insulting. She also said during this that, although she is the daughter of Indian immigrants, she doesn’t really feel any kind of race. I was troubled by that because the Indian culture is a beautiful culture. It’s an inclusive culture. It’s a strong culture. It’s an old culture.”

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