Posted on 11/20/2002 10:05:47 AM PST by Temple Owl
A lesson from Condoleezza Rice
By Derrick Z. Jackson, 11/20/2002
WASHINGTON
CONDOLEEZZA RICE was reminded of her decision to become a Republican after the 1984 Democratic National Convention. She said the Democratic Party's speeches to ''women, minorities, and the poor'' really meant ''helpless people and the poor.'' In a profile in The Washington Post, Rice said, ''I decided I'd rather be ignored than patronized.''
The national security adviser to President Bush was asked if she thinks the Democratic Party still patronizes ''women, minorities, and the poor.'' Laughing, she declined to answer the specific question last week before the Trotter Group, an organization of African-American columnists. But her answer was as riveting as if she had actually gone on to trash the Democrats.
''The fact of the matter is, race matters in America,'' Rice said. ''It has, it always has ... It is not that I mind being associated with the group. I am African-American and proud of it. I wouldn't have it any other way. And it has shaped who I am and it will continue to shape who I am.
''I do not believe it has limited who I am or what I can become. And that's because I had parents who, while telling me what it meant to be African-American and exposing me to that, also allowed me to develop as an individual to be who I wanted to be.''
Rice said the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that killed four girls, including friend Denise McNair, shaped her views on the war on terrorism. ''If you've been through home-grown terrorism,'' Rice said, ''you recognize there isn't any cause that can be served by it ... Because what it's meant to do is end the conversation.''
In profiles, Rice talks about being hollered at as a child by a white store clerk for touching a hat. Rice's mother told the clerk ''Don't you talk to my daughter that way!'' Her mother then said, ''Now, Condoleezza, you go and touch every hat in this store.''
That reminded me of around 1965 when I was about 10. I bought comic books and ice cream in a drug store in DeKalb, Miss. Later, my grandfather informed me that was the ''white folks'' drug store. He could have berated me for breaking white folks' rules. Instead, he smiled and said, ''Good.''
For me, not accepting racial barriers would mean going on to little things like being on the first integrated child championship bowling team at a particular alley in Milwaukee, then bigger things like sportswriting when there were few African-Americans covering pro teams for major newspapers.
For Rice, it meant parents who ''didn't say to me, `You know, it's really weird for a black girl from Birmingham, Ala., to want to be a Soviet specialist.''' Rice said that she liked Motown, the blues, and funk music like most of her friends, but her parents drove her to learn Brahms. Rice has often said bluntly that she had to master the white world better than a whole lot of white people to succeed.
''Sometimes when we say to our kids, `You are a minority,' we don't say it in a way that says it is part of who you are, we say it as if it's an impediment that cannot be overcome by hard work and access to education and all of those things,'' Rice said. ''And I just think the messages are wrong when there is only focus on what group you happen to belong to, rather than the group is part of who you are, but also, who you are is who you are as an individual.
''We don't talk about it very much, but, yes ... it is a very good thing for the rest of the world that when Colin Powell and I walk in with the president of the United States, we are there as secretary of state and national security adviser, because I think it says to people that there aren't boundaries in which black Americans are not supposed to play ... I think it's an extremely important message to our kids. That's why I talk so much about the individual. It's not to deny the group, but I really think it's important that we appeal to each individual's worth and capability.''
Such reflections do not make Rice's political views and America's global arrogance any more appealing to me. But those who dismiss her as a hotheaded cold war queen miss a chance to dwell on her focus and drive. Unlike many black conservatives who shout louder than white ''color-blind'' conservatives that race no longer matters, Rice has no problem saying race matters, and since it is so, black folks had better work to get the most out of their individual talents.
In a Newsweek interview last year, Rice said, ''It wasn't as if someone said, `You have to be twice as good' and `isn't that a pity' or `isn't that wrong.' It was just, `You have to be twice as good.''' One does not have to like Rice's politics to appreciate how being twice as good has made her the most powerful woman in the world.
Oh - so that's why Rice is the National Security Advisor.
But what about 9/11?
There was a huge difference between 1964 and 1965 in the South, thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
There you go!
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation in the United States.
Laws are broken every minute of every day so what is the point of your post?
Is that why the White House doesn't want an independent commission to investigate what went wrong?
The "whole attitude" of the South did not change, but there was a huge difference between 1964 and 1965 because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Not so, prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation was legal and the segregated person had no legal recourse.
So, why would I even try to intimidate someone here? Your paranoia is unbecoming. Don't go crying victim. That's so, what's the word? Leftist maybe?
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Coming soon: Tha SYNDICATE.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
Perhaps because you are unable to put together a resonable argument?
Your paranoia is unbecoming. Don't go crying victim.
I don't cry victim!
I also don't become intimidated easily!
Hillary is a big, fat-legged liar...so, the angelic Ms. Rice must also be exposed as a liar! (like he knows anything about the town Condi grew up in--hahahahaha)
Tuco and his fellow party members have been horribly maimed. He's a zombie troll.
Some people would rather cherry-pick posts than to debate rationally.I'm done dealing with your lies and skewed vision of reality. Let's just suffice it to say that you have some sort of personal problem with Dr. Rice. Whether it's political, ideological, or racial, I don't know, nor care. You have made a determination that you will manufacture evidence to support your fallacies. And you truly are someone worth pitying. I pity you because you'll never grow beyond your pettiness.
Good day, Mr. "Ugly."
He's not supposed to, mhking. Tuco is a troll. Cherry picking posts and manufacturing nonsense arguments against Rice is what he does for fun.
Tuco is not a serious poster. He does not come here and present serious argument. That is not what he is here for. He is a troll. Period.
He decided to jump ugly on another Condi thread yesterday. Same style. Same bullshit. His style is to present an assertion, then avoid the counterargument by restating the original assertion as if it was fact.
This is the hallmark of the Usenet Troll. I saw plenty of them back in the nineties when I posted on Usenet. Anyway, yesterday I figured out the Tuco was projecting. Here's my take.
Condi Rice is the woman that Tuco can never have because he simply doesn't rate a woman like her. I would be surprised if any of us here could even rate a second look from her. So why get pissed off about it when we get to vote for her someday? Unfortunately, Tuco doesn't think that way. Anyway, most of us are married and middle class, so we're out of the running. So I figure that he's got a Condi Rice Blow-Up Doll somewhere that needs to be confiscated.
In the end, when he tires of trolling on Condi posts, he'll go to other threads and post there. Think of Tuco as a polite version of Eschoir.
But remember, my black conservative friend, you're dealing with a troll. And there's one rule that should always be remembered.....
Don't Feed the Troll!
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Coming soon: Tha SYNDICATE.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
As someone who grew up in the South and worked as a drug store soda fountain waitress in a small town in the South one summer, let me simply say you are wrong.
Mothers can dream, I guess.
Thus, Con dolceza, "With Sweetness" in Italian piano music instructions, became Condoleezza.
You two share a rich heritage in bestowing names.
Maybe because you both came from backgrounds where dreams had to be built into the name in order to overcome future obstacles in life.
No. Dr. Rice said she had bought a comic book and an ice cream there, and had not been refused service. Thus she was not segregated in her purchases.
However, what you may not be aware of is that "pickaninnies", black children, were often given leeway and allowed to buy in "white only" drug stores before 1964 as long as they remained standing and didn't sit at the counter. The white only waitresses wouldn't serve grownups or sometimes even teenagers, but often would serve children coming to the end of the counter and quietly requesting to buy an ice cream cone and take it outside to eat it. This was a common practice where I worked, and the white waitresses liked to prove they were kind by acquiescing to the little children while giving the older children and adults who knew better only a cold stare of dislike.
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