Rice on race: It matters and always has

The Huntsville Time ^ | November 22, 2002 | Dave Person

[where's_the_Outrage?]

NASHINGTO- Teddy Roosevelt, sitting proudly on his oil-W painted horse in the White House room with his name, must have been horrified at Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

As President Bush's national security advisor, she should have known better. She wasn't supposed to say that. Not in a White House peopled with conservative Republicans. Not to a group of black columnists representing major newspapers from around the country.

Not in the Roosevelt Room.

''Race matters in America,'' Rice said. ''It has, it always has. Maybe there will be a day when it doesn't, but I suspect that it will for a long time to come.''

For the record, Rice didn't stutter or backtrack at the end of her interview with the Trotter Group. Instead, she did something that black conservatives aren't known for: She publicly acknowledged the reality and validity of the race question.

Now before you right-wingers get your boxers in a bunch, take a breath. She didn't go Al Sharpton on us, pledging to support reparations. She didn't say that Bush would apologize for the U.S. government's role in the slave trade.

But Rice did increase her credibility with us by affirming her place in the continuing cultural and political struggle that black people in the United States are engaged in - and she did it on her own terms.

Black conservatives, take note: It's OK to admit that race is still a problem in this country. You don't have to sink into denial. The sky won't fall down. The ground won't swallow you up.

It doesn't mean that you have to join Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, take Congresswoman Maxine Waters to lunch or join the NAACP.

It's safe to take your heads out of the sand and face the truth: While the United States has made tremendous progress on race, it still has a long way to go.

The December 2002/January 2003 edition of Savoy magazine has an extensive article on a class-action discrimination lawsuit that has been filed against Xerox. The plaintiffs contend that sales territories are segregated, promotions are race-based and harassment can take the form of hanging nooses being displayed in some Xerox facilities.

Xerox denies any discrimination, but there is plenty of reason to doubt its denial. According to Savoy writer Marjorie Whigham-Desir, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismisses about 80 percent of the complaints lodged by citizens against employers believed to be discriminatory. But Whigham-Desir reported that the EEOC has affirmed the group and individual complaints against Xerox, finding that ''reasonable cause exists to believe'' the charges that the plaintiffs have made.

And in case you Bill Clinton-haters out there are wondering, this is the 2002 Bush EEOC, not that old, tired Clinton-era model.

So maybe Rice isn't alone in the Bush White House. Maybe the GOP is slowing veering away from the Republican Party of 1964, which dealt a fatal blow to race relations during the GOP Convention led by Sen. Barry Goldwater's Cow Palace Republicans in San Francisco. These Republicans were so hostile toward blacks that Hall-of-Famer and convention attendee Jackie Robinson said: ''I now believe I know how it felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany.''

At least we can take comfort in knowing that the Bush administration, whatever it's other faults may be, doesn't buy into the lies that have blocked qualified blacks from serving at the highest levels of government. Certainly, it's a good sign that Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell hold two of the top four slots in the Bush White House, a point not lost on Rice.

''I think it says to people that there aren't boundaries in which black Americans are not supposed to play,'' she said. ''I think that's an extremely important message to the rest of the world.

''I am African American and proud of it,'' Rice said later. ''I wouldn't have it any other way. I do not believe that it has limited who I am or what I can become.''

Conservative or not, I can respect that. And frankly, it's easier to respect people with whom you disagree when you know you share an appreciation for your common experiences. And so under Teddy Roosevelt's watchful, if skeptical gaze, Condoleezza Rice - a fan of Motown, Clarence ''Gatemouth'' Brown and Kool and the Gang as well as Brahms - gave and gained a lot of respect last week.

David Person's column appears each Friday on the Commentary page. E-mail: davidpe@htimes.com; phone 532-4362.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

''Race matters in America,''

DUHHHHH! Of course is matters, the issue is whether excuses need to be made on the basis of race; or despite race, we are all Americans.

[vbmoneyspender]

"Race matters in America,"

I know one thing -- it sure matters to liberals.

[A_perfect_lady]

How insulting. This person has obviously never even spoken with a black conservative before and is astounded to find they aren't just white people with black make-up on.

[Cacique]

For your perusal and ping lists

[Holden Magroin]

While the United States has made tremendous progress on race, it still has a long way to go.

Horsebleep. Since 1964, it has been a federal crime for a white-owned restaurant not to serve a black person. In the old days, forcing someone to work for someone else was called slavery. Today, it's called a civil right.

[mike_9958]

I know she is right, but I hate the why the left will interpret what she said, or how left wing black leaders might say "SEE!! she affirms what we have been saying".

I think she could have done better to perhaps elaborate a little more. No person can deny their physical, or mental, state. They can live with it and be proud of it or agonize over it and blame someone else. I believe Dr. Rice was stating the obvious about how we all should feel about ourselves.

ya gotta love this lady.

[Notforprophet]

Where's the barf alert? Condi Rice is where she is today because of hard work, and character. Race has nothing to do with it! The writer is so eager to recall Goldwater... what about recalling Senator Byrd - the only member of Congress to have been a member of the KKK?

[hoosierham]

The Cincinnati Post printed an excerpt from some poll today asking if you had ever shared Thanksgiving with people of another race.

People who described themselves as very liberal were LEAST likely to have done so !

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Actually, I think the most important "race-matters" point is what Charlton Heston uttered to Michael Moore on his recent guns documentary "Bowling for Columbine". That Americans support widespread gun ownership and the cause of gun violence is because we have "mixed ethnicity".

Call it the truth that no one dares to utter, but everyone believes. Its amazing the hypocrisy this produces on the part of the loud chorus crying out "Me? Racist?"

For all the supposed non-Racist whites here, lets get an honest answer to a couple of questions. Would you have a problem with your white daughter marrying someone of a different race, especially a black man? Would you have a problem moving to a middle class all black neighborhood? Or with your neighborhoods suddenly becoming 50% black as a bunch of middle class blacks moved in?

And please don't play us for the fool. If you really think in non-Racist ways, lets see your actions. Go buy a house in a mixed race neighborhood.

[sinkspur]

What's the racial mix in the neighborhood you live in?

Me? If a black family can afford to live in my neighborhood, I welcome them. In fact, we've got six in a three block area.

Everybody's got nice homes and clean yards, except for the old white couple behind me.

[cryptical]

The Cincinnati Post printed an excerpt from some poll today asking if you had ever shared Thanksgiving with people of another race.

People who described themselves as very liberal were LEAST likely to have done so !

That's almost a trick question. I was about to say no, then I recalled my time in the Navy. Pretty decent turkey with all the fixins, then hanging out in the day room watching football and passing a bottle of Wild Turkey.

Not that I spend a lot of time in the service worrying about the next guys race. If he pulled his weight, he was ok.

[Chi-townChief]

I guess this columnist forgot that Rice (and, likewise, Colin Powell) aren't really black. Just like Larry Bird's not white - that's just what "they" want you to believe.

[Republican Wildcat]

This is an absurdity. Dr. Rice's comments have little to nothing to do with the point the author is trying to make in the article. Her comments shouldn't even be included.

[mafree]

ping.

I think Condi said the right thing to this group. Most of them think that Black conservatives are little more than wannabe whites pretending that race doesn't matter. She effectively dispelled that notion and that no doubt endeared some of them to her. I think it'll soften any tendency on their part to attack her.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

This person has obviously never even spoken with a black conservative before

What amazes me is how much he seems to have researched, but how little he seems to have concluded.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

ya gotta love this lady Maybe I am racist, but the term African American pisses me off.

All of us are Americans. I don't think of myself as Polish American.

I can't begin to express how through luck of birth I was born in the U.S. I'm American, race has nothing to do with it.

[A_perfect_lady]

And so full of himself. Just tiptoed and eyebrows arched.

[Atchafalaya]

Hard work and appreciates "Gatemouth" Brown. Doesn't get any better.

[section9]

I think Condi said the right thing to this group. Most of them think that Black conservatives are little more than wannabe whites pretending that race doesn't matter. She effectively dispelled that notion and that no doubt endeared some of them to her. I think it'll soften any tendency on their part to attack her.

Firstly, most of these black liberal columnists are at the beck and call of very white, very liberal newspaper editors who share with them a common fidelity to the Democratic Party. If it helps the Democratic Party for these columnists to attack Rice, they will do so. Condi is simply trying to make it difficult for them to do that with any honesty.

Dr. Rice knows what's coming at her: the Hildebeast and the DNC Agitation and Propaganda apparatus. So let us dispense with Mr. Pearson's sense of integrity and fair play: when the chips are down, Condi could be the Risen Christ and Pearson and his ilk will still tell everyone to vote straight Democratic.

Now then, Condi didn't intend to dispel anything. One thing I like about her is that she tends to say what she believes. Carefully, and with style, but she says what she believes.

All she was doing was stating a truth: race matters.

What the columnist did was to create a straw man to use as part of a general assault on black conservatives. To wit:

Black conservatives, take note: It's OK to admit that race is still a problem in this country. You don't have to sink into denial. The sky won't fall down. The ground won't swallow you up.

It doesn't mean that you have to join Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, take Congresswoman Maxine Waters to lunch or join the NAACP.

It's safe to take your heads out of the sand and face the truth: While the United States has made tremendous progress on race, it still has a long way to go.

Understand that there are very few black conservatives in this country who don't believe that "race matters". This columnist just decided to pull that straw man out of his ass because he wanted to make a cheap, rhetorical field goal from the five-yard line.

If Pearson can marginalize black conservatives in his own mind, then he doesn't have to deal with the serious questions they raise about the Great Society consensus that exists in the black community. When Condi was talking to that group of black columnists, it's as if what she was saying, and why she was saying it, soared over Pearson's head.

Race does matter. The difference is that black liberals like Pearson are obsessed by it; black conservatives are not.

Be Seeing You,

Chris