Lessons of Might and Right (Condi Rice)

The Washington Post ^ | 9/9/2001 | Dale Russakoff

[Utah Girl]

LONG AGO, in segregated Birmingham, on the children's floor of a downtown department store, a white saleslady spotted an exquisitely dressed black mother heading with her young daughter for fitting rooms reserved for whites only. The year was 1961, and downtown Birmingham was an apartheid society, with blacks assigned inferior status in where they ate, where they relieved themselves, even where little girls tried on pretty dresses. The saleslady stepped into the path of the mother and child, took the dress from the little girl and motioned to a storage room. "She'll have to try it on in there," she said.

[Utah Girl]

Excellent article.

[BunnySlippers]

Thank you for posting this.

[Utah Girl]

I admire Condi Rice so much. This article gives great insight into who she is and how she became the way she is.

[BunnySlippers]

"I think that black Americans of my grandparents' ilk had liberated themselves," she says. "They had broken the code. They had figured out how to make an extraordinarily comfortable and fulfilling life despite the circumstances. They did not feel that they were captives."

What an extraordinary story!

[Askel5]

Is this the same woman who takes pride in the fact the administration calls attention always to their brainy Black Woman cabinet member that -- along with all the Hispanics, Gays and Wimmen -- they've used to round out the Diversity Quotient of the same group of white men who've been in charge since the Nixon administration?

[Utah Girl]

Condi Rice got there on her own merits. I don't care if people are white, black, purple, or spotted as long as they are qualified.

[BunnySlippers]

Condi Rice got there on her own merits. I don't care if people are white, black, purple, or spotted as long as they are qualified.

And this is what riles the Demo's ... Condi IS qualified and not a token. She is a fine example of Americanism at it's very best.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Why does the left have so much hate for blacks and Hispanics (Cubans for example) who achieve success on their own without becoming dependant on government programs?

[dbbeebs]

...the same group of white men who've been in charge since the Nixon administration?

You mean, like Pat Buchanan?

[Askel5]

Condi Rice got there on her own merits.

One of the primary being (one suspects) the fact she sat at Korbel's OTHER knee ... the one "opposite" Maddie Albright.

[Askel5]

Cheney comes to mind.

Along with Kissinger, Scowcroft and Schultz ALL of whom were behind Bush in the chorus line with Condi as he announced on May 23, 2000 that indeed he can-can do foreign policy.

[Aerial]

Bump! That's my concern...not her color.

[Askel5]

Ding dong ... it's celebrating the "diversity" of the Bush cabinet -- announcing this Hispanic or that Woman or this Black who's got laurels galore -- which only PERPETUATES the "diversity" agenda of the left whereby folks are judged FIRST and FOREMOST by whether they fit a quota.

Merit hasn't got anything to do with it. You'll notice this is the case when folks shrug off the more excellent also-ran by observing that with a [black|woman|Hispanic|homosexual] Bush'll be in a better position to beat the left at their own game.

This is not quite as breathtakingly transparent as a Lillian Hellman "recollection" of riding the streetcar up front WITH her black maid but it's still a nice way to appeal to those very folks and that very mindset that judges FIRST and FOREMOST by externals.

Don't we have any white guys on the cabinet who've a civil rights past suitable for feature or is this -- quite naturally -- left for the Black Woman who was, what, ten years old in '64?

Quite the prepubescent civil rights warrior compared to the Old White Men who evidently did nothing to end segregation, much less slavery. Black Women are just superior that way, I guess. I'm so glad we have a black woman on our cabinet. Maybe she can teach these guys a thing or two when she's not body-blocking Rooskies in the basement.

[Askel5]

Hey ... her color's PERFECT ... don't you forget it. We'll let Clinton take the monied white hag and save the beautiful brainy black woman for ourselves.

'Cause we're top dog when it comes to matters of breeding and taste and "sending a message".

[DallasMike]

And this is what riles the Demo's ... Condi IS qualified and not a token.

So are you implying that Joycelyn Elders might have been a token? I'm shocked.

[esmith]

Thank you. It was a wonderful read.

[headsonpikes]

Thank you.

[rabidralph]

I'm so glad we have a black woman on our cabinet.

the only black woman I know of in the cabinet is Aunt Jemima. National Security Advisor is not a cabinet position.

[rabidralph]

Quite the prepubescent civil rights warrior compared to the Old White Men who evidently did nothing to end segregation, much less slavery. Black Women are just superior that way, I guess.

If you read the article, it cleary states that Dr. Rice's family chose education as their way out of segregation, and not marching in the streets with MLK.

[dodger]

GW BUSH-CONDI RICE 2004!!!!

A great admirer, here, of Dick Cheney, but the Beat goes on ....