The GOP in black and white: Racial denial or racial optimism?

Is Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) running for the GOP vice presidential nod? Is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley looking at the same runner-up prize?

It sure looks that way.

A high-profile person of color could be a lifesaver for the Republican Party, as its leading presidential candidate works to distract swing voters from the ugly appeals to white grievance that are currently central to the GOP identity.

A telegenic person of color will be especially useful in a debate against the first vice president of color, Kamala Harris.

Having someone on the ticket who is not white will also be useful because Democrats are sure to hammer Republicans in the upcoming general election for their abysmal record on race relations in the age of Trump.

To win the presidency, Republicans need to expand their appeal to the nation’s growing minority population. Exit polling implies that non-Hispanic whites comprised about 83 percent of the Trump vote in 2020.

So far, the only strategy from the two South Carolinians is to comfort white Republicans by saying American is no longer a racist country.

“I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression,” Scott says in a TV advertisement run in overwhelmingly white Iowa, the first contest for GOP candidates vying for the party’s presidential bid.

Haley recently told an Iowa audience that one major threat facing America is “this national loathing…where people are saying America is bad…it is racist.”

“In Nikki Haley’s experience, America is not a racist country, and she is proud to say it,” Haley’s campaign spokeswoman recently told the New York Times. “The only people who seem bothered by that,” the spokeswoman noted, are “liberal race baiters.”

Without a doubt, both Scott and Haley are impressive, accomplished people.

Scott is the first Black Republican from the South to win a seat in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.

Haley has a similarly outstanding record. She was the first woman to serve as governor of South Carolina. Her stellar resume also includes serving as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

In today’s GOP, their inspiring stories are welcomed as armor to protect against the racially explosive baggage attached to their party’s leader, Donald Trump. But there are big holes in the armor.

Personal achievements by Scott and Haley can’t hide GOP opposition to policies designed to help blacks, Latinos, immigrants and the poor. Even a majority on the conservative Supreme Court agreed last week that Republicans are guilty of engaging in racial gerrymandering. And Republican state legislatures continue to undermine minority voting rights.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans agree with “Replacement Theory,” according to Yahoo polling, the lie that Democrats are conspiring to replace white Americans with minorities and immigrants.

Gov. DeSantis (R-Fla.), running second in polls for the nomination, has signed legislation to stop diversity and equity training in Florida colleges.

And Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to hold up promotions in the military in part to protest diversity training. Tuberville also made news recently when he was asked if he supported having white nationalists in the military, responding, “We call them Americans.”

Meanwhile, the Republican majority in the House is opposed to policies that would help racial minorities. They stand against increasing the minimum wage, increasing Education Department funding to help public schools and increasing aid to give students relief from college debt.

That record of hostility to the political interests of Blacks, Latinos and other minorities is hard to deny, even for people of color who, like Scott and Haley, have outstanding records of personal success. At best, their candidacies highlight the deep racial divisions that continue to exist in America.

And when they claim that no racism exists in America, it backfires on Republicans by shining a spotlight on how far they are from representing mainstream thinking among most people of color in America. 

Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, has been unable to bring his party along on even modest criminal justice reforms proposed after the disturbing video of a policeman killing a Black man by kneeling on his neck.

Scott tried to score points with white Republicans on the campaign trail by going on the popular television show “The View” to say race is not a big deal.

Host Sunny Hostin challenged Scott by pointing to the spike in white supremacist violence under Trump, and continued disparities between Blacks and whites in education, income, health care, housing and incarceration.

Scott answered that Hostin was wrong to conclude that “the only way for a young African American kid to be successful in this country is to be the exception and not the rule…That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people today,” he said.

Hostin’s stern questioning is only the beginning. Scott and Haley must be prepared for more tough questions about their party’s role in perpetuating racial disparities through policies that ignore minority needs. They must also be prepared for their lofty answers to turn off most voters of color.

Scott and Haley are potentially trailblazers in opening the GOP to racial minorities. But to succeed, that new GOP has to be a home for racial optimism, not racial denial.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.