Ava DuVernay Weighs In On Nikki Haley’s Civil War Remarks, Says They’re A ‘Wake-Up Call’

Can't just erase what you said...

Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay had some things to say about Nikki Haley’s controversial Civil War comments.

DuVernay talked with activist and civil rights leader Al Sharpton during an episode of MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” to offer her take on the presidential candidate’s remarks. During a town hall event in New Hampshire, a potential voter questioned Haley’s knowledge of the Civil War, and the former South Carolina governor didn’t identify slavery as the leading cause of it. While her lack of acknowledgement caused outrage nationwide, Origin director DuVernay said she wasn’t shocked at all, but described Haley’s comments as “real warnings that I think we should all heed.”

“Either she didn’t know that slavery was the reason for the Civil War beginning,” said DuVernay, “or she doesn’t want to say and wants to kind of continue the lies of omission that have become the hallmark of her party.”

Haley told the voter the “cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?” When the questioner noted that Haley failed to even mention slavery in her response, Haley said, “What do you want me to say about slavery? Next question.”

According to The Associated Press, Haley changed her tune several hours later. “Of course, the Civil War was about slavery,” she said during a radio interview, referring to it as “a stain on America.” However, some feel the damage is already done.

DuVernay hopes that comments like Haley’s will be “a wake-up call to the dangerous kind of deranged idea that history doesn’t matter anymore, and that’s one of the big reasons why I wanted to make [Origin].”

Starring Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, the biographical drama tells the story of Isabel Wilkerson, journalist and author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The thesis of Wilkerson’s groundbreaking book is that racism in the United States is a product of a caste system and often characterized by notions such as hierarchy and purity. DuVernay’s film covers Wilkerson’s calling to write the book.

Origin hits theaters on Jan. 19.