Condi on Race In America

Okay... I admit it, I am a Condi Rice fan. She's razor smart, unflappable and stylish. I wish she was not repping for Bush and Cheney, but it is what it is. She's gotta take her lumps along with them regarding her record and policy initiatives (or lack thereof). I treat Condi (or the concept of her) like a relative whom I disagree with...I still respect her and have her back although we don't see to eye. Mind you, I don't have a problem with her being a Republican, just with her propping up those guys.

One area where I think Rice has been woefully misunderstood has been on race. As a daughter of the South, Birmingham to be exact, she had a sense of the danger and brutality of racial discrimination. I heard that she had been friendly with one of the four young Black girls who were killed in the 1963 church bombing. Consequently her parents left the South and continued to instill in her the idea that she could surmount any obstacle, racial or otherwise through excellence. The path of her parents as well as their social circle in effect was foundation for her political beliefs.

People want Condi to march in the street and wave placards as if there is only one right way to speak out against injustice. Condi believes that Black folks have the mettle to do want they need to do to succeed without depending on the government. Given her own life experiences Condi knew (as Hurricane Katrina attested) that had she and her family waited on the government to intervene and directly improve their circumstances, her life would have turned out VERY differently...and probably not for the better.


In a March 27, 2008 interview with the editorial board of the Washington Times, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was quoted as saying:
"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."--

The nation's most prominent Black Republican, acknowledged that she had listened to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race relations in America. Moreover, she said that it was important that he gave it. Condi Compliments Obama on Race Speech

In commenting on the fact that Blacks didn't come to this country voluntarily, she gave the following take on the position of Blacks in American society: "We may call ourselves African Americans, but we're not immigrants. We don't mimic the immigrant story. Where this conversation has got to go is that Black Americans and White Americans founded this country together and I think we've always wanted the same thing. And it's been now a very hard and long struggle to begin to get to the place that we can all pursue the same thing."