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Our national “birth defect”: Condi Rice talks about race

By Carmen D. on Friday, March 28th, 2008, 7:10 am Comments

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke out about America’s state of race. And as you’ll see there’s not a lot of daylight between her and Barack Obama on this issue.

“Black Americans were a founding population,” she said. “Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That’s not a very pretty reality of our founding.”

As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, “descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that.”

“That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today,” she said.
…
Race has become an issue in this year’s presidential campaign, which prompted a much-discussed speech last week by Sen. Barack Obama, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was “important” that Mr. Obama “gave it for a whole host of reasons.”

But she spoke forcefully on the subject, citing personal and family experience to illustrate “a paradox and contradiction in this country,” which “we still haven’t resolved.”

On the one hand, she said, race in the U.S. “continues to have effects” on public discussions and “the deepest thoughts that people hold.” On the other, “enormous progress” has been made, which allowed her to become the nation’s chief diplomat.

“America doesn’t have an easy time dealing with race,” Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have “endured terrible humiliations.”

“What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn’t love and have faith in them — and that’s our legacy,” she said. Rice hits U.S. ‘birth defect’- Nicholas Kralev The Washington Times

I wonder how the bigots of the right will characterize these observations/comments made by their shining example of acceptable blackness. Because no matter how you spin it, Condi Rice lays the blame for America’s always constipated racial discourse squarely at the feet of the one historic event that most conservatives want to ignore: white enslavement of black people.

  • Hey Carm,

    This particular post was about Condi and race, hence my comments. But if this post focused on how the Dems seduce those pimps that we call preachers; who then lure their black sheeple, I would've laid the smackdown on them as well.

    The truth of the matter is: as a registered Independent, I can't stand the Democratic party. I detest them largely because they play off the emotionalism of black folks while doing very little (if anything) to address our concerns -- even when those concerns fall in line with those of the entire country. Meanwhile, black folks give them unmerited favor. I mean, I'd bet that black folks would even support a former Klansman like Sen. Byrd, just because he has a (D) by his name...

    Dems go around kissing babies, visiting our churches, and quoting Dr. King. But at the end of the day, they're just as full of BS as the GOP. The only difference is: at least the GOP doesn't conceal it.

    I've aired out my frustrations with the integration of church and state myself.
  • An Email Comment I received:
    I read Condi's interview. I respect her even more for verbalizing this. Her comments, as far as I'm concerned, bring additional legitimacy to the historic black quandry and situational state of affairs.
    At the same time, trying to bring black families to parity is a horrible problem which will continue due to the decades long struggle to give african american students the same opportunities and home stability which white children take for granted. Condi Rice, much to my chagrin, was not given a chance to be respected in this country. I thought the role model of Rice would help the problems mentioned above. But, no, the liberal Washington, D.C. media would never give her a chance and never played up her contributions though they fawned over Madelene Albright. Isn't that ironic, the same liberals who want to help blacks, hurt them by ignoring and making fun of the educated, brilliant Rice. Why? Because she's a Republican!! If she'd been a Democrat, the media would have built her a monument next to the Lincoln Memorial.
    I guess that's what I'd say. Her comments prove she is real, but unfortunately someone who was not elevated in the media simply because she is a Republican. So, who knows, maybe her words will be elevated and commented upon. But I doubt it. Though your blog throws it out there, where is the follow-up or the reporting on what she said?
  • Hey Andre. "Working in an administration who deliberately robbed thousands of blacks of the opportunity to vote? " Hmmm. Then what would do you say about the Democratic party and its draconian Florida and Michigan early primary penalties?

    Also, as I've written before, I have first hand knowledge of extensive voter suppression/manipulation efforts by the Democratic Party working through black preachers. Ever heard of "walking around money?" http://www.allaboutrace.com/2008/02/21/we-is-us/
  • Working in an administration who deliberately robbed thousands of blacks of the opportunity to vote? I'd call that being a sellout. Addressing the racist nature of this country only a few brief months before being set to get out of office? I'd call that being a sellout.

    I'm not tryin' to be the proverbial crab in the barrel by attaching such harsh labels on a black American who has made it in spite of racism. But dammit: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
  • Hey Section 9. Welcome to the Conversation!Wow. You really think McCain will go with Condi? I would love to see the liberal feminists wig out!!!

    "...Each in their own turn held Rice in deep contempt because she was both black and female. Washington is filled with movement conservatives (I know these people-I worked on campaigns with them) who thought that Rice was some token appointment. They have no idea how smart she actually is, because she plays her cards so close to her vest."

    This is a fascinating observation and makes a lot of sense.

    You now understand a secret many of us black folk know intimately. When you achieve a high profile position, sometimes you do play it "close to the vest" in the beginning so as not to be torpedoed by threatened white colleagues. I have lived this scenario several times.
  • section9
    Rice has been saying these things for years, and in this same phraeseology. Her opinions on race as an issue will become more important as the campaign goes on as I suspect McCain intends to pick Rice as his VP candidate.

    JMC's sole criterion for a VP candidate will be this: "who can replace me?" The guy is 71, and the Obambi people are already conducting a black propaganda campaign against the guy based on his age, while trying not to PO the AARP demographic. So, to lance that boil, Johnnie Mac needs someone young, female, with executive experience who can step into the Big Chair at a moments notice.

    A couple of things: as a young girl, Rice had experiences in Birmingham under the regime of Bull Conner that Barack, thankfully, never really had to experience. So she has built up an armor around her and knows how to "deal with white people" as it were, on their own terms. What most black voters who don't understand her don't realize is that this is the woman who has outlasted both Rumsfeld and Cheney because she outsmarted them and outwaited them.

    Each in their own turn held Rice in deep contempt because she was both black and female. Washington is filled with movement conservatives (I know these people-I worked on campaigns with them) who thought that Rice was some token appointment. They have no idea how smart she actually is, because she plays her cards so close to her vest.

    Barack is a lucky man. He only has to debate McCain.
  • ceecee
    "If my ideas about politics, life and love are not in lock step with the majority of blacks, does that really make me an Aunt Tom? That concept feels most unfair and stifling." - Chi Chi

    Which is exactly what I was trying to tell my friend!

    @Carmen I pretty much closed page two myself lol. But you know this article is a summary of an interview with a lot of reporters asking a wide variety of questions.
  • Chi Chi
    I don't believe that Condi Rice is a sellout because she's highly educated, is a conservative and a war hawk, no more than Collin Powell. Both know full well from whence they came and have reminded us in their writings and interviews over the years. Just for the record, I don't particularly care for either of them, but I respect Rice more in that she actually believes in what she's doing. Powell did not.

    As far as I'm concerned, being a conservative does not in any way mean that you've forgotten the prejudice as a black woman or man you've experienced and that you know other blacks struggle with on a daily basis. (Bet neither can compete with a white when hailing a cab.)

    True freedom for blacks is a good education and being able to believe and pursue happiness however and with whomever you want in America without being accused of forsaking one's obvious blackness. Too many of our children today are faced with doing well in school versus being called sellouts to whites if they are high achievers. (Blacks are supposed to not think and do poorly, and not expect to live beyond 19.) If my ideas about politics, life and love are not in lock step with the majority of blacks, does that really make me an Aunt Tom? That concept feels most unfair and stiffling.
  • fcg#p, those "bigots" have not been excoriating Obama and Rev. Wright or suggesting that black people should "drop to their knees" and thank God for being descendants of a savage/brutal American practice. I am talking about the people who have brazenly linked honest evaluation of America's racial landscape with being less than patriotic. Those are the people I am talking about here.
  • fcg#p
    how about the bigots on the left to whom she is Aunti Tom?
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