Nimirata knows enough about racism in America to have played her proximity-to-whiteness/whiteness well. When she wants to be a "person of color," then she brings her nominal brownness to the fore. She's "brown" enough for white Republicans to claim that they're not racist, and she's not brown enough to be much different from them. She also knows that colorism is rampant in the Asian community. Dark-skinned Asians don't get breaks, as you have pointed out from your own expriences.

Republicans know how to play "the race card" too. Knowing how desirable white status is, they are expanding "whiteness" to white-proximate peoples such as lighter-skinned Asians and Latinx people. If you can't beat 'em, then HAVE THEM JOIN YOU. We should never forget that the Irish, Italians, and Jews were granted "whitness." They were not "white" when they first hit America's shores.