Posted on 03/26/2006 9:09:21 AM PST by doesnt suffer fools gladly
Condoleezza Rice Forgives 'Slur' Radio Host
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that she forgave St. Louis talk radio host Dave Lenihan, who was immediately fired last week after he referred to her as "a big coon."
Asked if she was surprised that "this kind of thing still happens" in America, Dr. Rice told "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace: "My understanding is that he apologized, that he didn't mean it."
"I accept that," she said. "Because we all say things from time to time that we shouldn't say or didn't mean to say. And so I accept it."
Broadcasting on KTRS, Lenihan got into trouble on Wednesday while discussing Rice's often-stated ambition to one day become chancellor of the National Football League.
"She's been chancellor of Stanford," he argued, praising Dr. Rice. "She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."
Within 20 minutes KTRS's program director announced on-the-air that Lenihan had been terminated, calling the slip "unacceptable, reprehensible and unforgivable."
Dr. Rice said the episode showed that "even mature democracies like the United States have our difficulties" with race.
On the other hand, she insisted: "Anyone who says that we haven't come a very, very long way and that for the most part Americans interact with each other as Americans, I think is also not giving you the full picture."
Of course she responds with total class. I'm not surprised.
Ms Rice is definetly one cool lady.
I am 100% positive that this idiot talk show host would never have said such a thing if Rice was a Democrat.
Absolutely right. She didn't play the victim. Talk about a classy woman.
Dr. Rice is a true lady.
"coon was orignally a short form for raccoon in 1741.then by 1832 meant a frontier rustic, and by 1840 a Whig. The 1834 song 'Zip Coon' (better know today as 'Turkey in the Straw') didn't refer specifically to either a White or a Black and the 'coon songs' of the 1840s and 50s were Whig political songs. By 1862, however, coon had come to mean a Black and this use was made very common by the popular 1896 song 'All Coons Look Alike to Me,' written by Ernest Hogan, a Black who didn't consider the word derogatory at the time."From "I Hear America Talking" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976), Page 54.
Totally classy as always.
Her biggest fault is she is too damned nice.
It was a verbal typo. Who here has not committed a verbal typo?
Condi is terrific. She has already gone far- hopefully, she'll go farther.
I don't think that she has presidential ambitions, but I'd vote for her in a second if she did.
I never expected anything less from her.
Leni
He was on Hannity and it appears that this was simple a slip of the tongue. He was trying to say that it would be a big "coo". He did not appear to be an idiot to me, it fact he said he is a Condi supporter and would work on her campaign should she run for President.
I think the professor that called her an "Aunt Jemima" during the last election should have been fired for a racial slur, not this guy.
"He was just crackering a joke. I mean, cracking a joke."
You've never seen a picture of the Condi Rice Death Stare, have you?
He's not an idiot. What this report didn't tell you is that Lenihan, the reporter, was attempting to say that Dr. Rice wants to be a coup in the NFL. "Coup" and "in" were run together and it came out 'coon'. A faux pas! It could happen to anyone.
He has always been a supporter of Dr.Rice's ambitions.
Exactly. And not all of them are "Freudian" either. Sometimes your tongue just trips over itself.
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