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.
Beautifully said, Condi.
In my opinion, Rice does a great job of schmoozing a very liberal audience without saying anything controversial beyond showing that she is, as we know, extremely loyal to the boss. As far as I am concerned, she did everything possible to allow the audience to like her, without ever taking their perspective. Thus, she repeatedly threw out the phrase "race matters," which that audience mostly interprets to mean that America is a racist country, but Rice never remotely gave the phrase that meaning (or much meaning at all, really). And she clearly said that "the individual" matters more than race.
Right now, Rice has the conservatives mostly convinced that she is a conservative, and the liberals mostly convinced that she's a liberal. Heck, some of them are dreaming on the 'net that she'll switch parties and run with Hilliary. Ridiculous, but this just goes to show that she is a heck of a politician.
Is she one of us? Of course not. Three years ago she was provost of Stanford. On the other hand, "compassionate conservative" President Bush isn't really one of us either. Rice isn't an ideologue, but a party loyalist with a great future in American politics if she wants to grab it.
Dear Mr. Person,
With all due respect, I simply must take issue with your November 22nd article in which the above quote appeared. From what you wrote, I seriously doubt that you've actually spent any significant amount of time with any black Conservatives. Indeed, judging from intense level of hostility evident in your article it is quite obvious you are not exactly unprejudiced towards those of us who are black, Conservative and Republican.
One reason why I am convinced that you know far less about black Conservatives than you think you do is your actual astonishment that Condi Rice, an acknowledged Conservative actually made the above statement. I'm a black Conservative and I have not yet met a single black Conservative who would have disagreed with what Ms. Rice. A lot of us say it. Clarence Thomas has said it, so has Robert Woodson, Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter, etc. In fact, I believe there's hardly a single white Conservative I know who disagrees with this. We all know race matters. And we all know there's still quite a ways to go.
Where we differ with the black Left is how to get there. And what part race plays in our lives. I doubt you'd find a single Conservatism who would claim that racism no longer exists. But what I've discovered while debating many a fellow black person on the Left is the tendency for Leftists to assume that because we differ on issues like racial preferences, reparations and separate school dorms, Ebonics, etc. we are claiming that racism doesn't exist. What you did in your article was construct a straw man and vigorously beat it senseless.
Ms. Rice also said: ''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. 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."
This, in a nutshell, is what is at the core of being black and Conservative. We believe racism is not the hopelessly insurmountable barrier for black people the Left claims it to be. I do not accept that a black child should be told that his getting a 70% on a test is equivalent to a white child getting 95% on the same test (which is precisely what racial preference policies ask us to do. Look at this as an example: http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/1785140/detail.html and tell me that's not true). We're against racial preferences and other race-based programs not because we disbelieve that racism exists but because we believe that a policy of aggressive non-discrimination i.e. color-blindness, is actually better for all of us, black, white, blue, purple, etc.
There is so much more ... but what really surprises me is that I always find myself being the guy in a debate who actually talks up the potential of the black community for greatness while the so-called "Real" black guy on the other side is bloviating about how high crime, high illiteracy and a 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate is somehow a permanent fixture in the black community that we can do nothing about without the Democrats starting up some program (and sometimes not even then). This ignores the fact that this was not the case prior to the 1960s (check it out).
Have you ever noticed that there is no Republican on any of the inner-city school boards where a great deal of black children go to school? Have you noticed any Republican representing any significantly minority community district on city councils, state legislatures or Congress? After well over three decades in which the black community has exclusively and overwhelming given its votes to the Left (i.e. Democrats) most of which had the Democrats holding majorities in both Houses of Congress and six years in which the Democrats (Carter and Clinton) also had the White House, do we not have a right to expect a little more? To consider other options without being accused of treason by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and people like you?
I am tired of having some idiot getting up to ask me how much I am being paid to "sell-out" because I do not believe the GOP has a secret plan to re-institute slavery or have black children reclassified as food. I am tired of being accused of being an Uncle Tom because I don't believe Clinton was the greatest President there ever was and there ever would be.
I've been all over the world since Bush was inaugurated President and everywhere I've gone, in Europe, Africa and Asia, everyone regards Condi and Colin with respect. Quite a few others are enamoured of Clarence Thomas. I can honestly say that I've not yet met a single person outside America who considers any of them "tokens". But I hear that often when I'm Stateside. From other African Americans i.e. Belafonte, Jackson, Sharpton, Brazille, etc. It's really sad that after many years of struggling and hoping we finally have two smart brilliant people in the highest echelons of American government and we're their most vociferous denigrators.
Sincerely,
Martin Ahmad Knight