I think Condi said the right thing to this group. Most of them think that Black conservatives are little more than wannabe whites pretending that race doesn't matter. She effectively dispelled that notion and that no doubt endeared some of them to her. I think it'll soften any tendency on their part to attack her.
Firstly, most of these black liberal columnists are at the beck and call of very white, very liberal newspaper editors who share with them a common fidelity to the Democratic Party. If it helps the Democratic Party for these columnists to attack Rice, they will do so. Condi is simply trying to make it difficult for them to do that with any honesty.
Dr. Rice knows what's coming at her: the Hildebeast and the DNC Agitation and Propaganda apparatus. So let us dispense with Mr. Pearson's sense of integrity and fair play: when the chips are down, Condi could be the Risen Christ and Pearson and his ilk will still tell everyone to vote straight Democratic.
Now then, Condi didn't intend to dispel anything. One thing I like about her is that she tends to say what she believes. Carefully, and with style, but she says what she believes.
All she was doing was stating a truth: race matters.
What the columnist did was to create a straw man to use as part of a general assault on black conservatives. To wit:
Black conservatives, take note: It's OK to admit that race is still a problem in this country. You don't have to sink into denial. The sky won't fall down. The ground won't swallow you up.It doesn't mean that you have to join Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, take Congresswoman Maxine Waters to lunch or join the NAACP.
It's safe to take your heads out of the sand and face the truth: While the United States has made tremendous progress on race, it still has a long way to go.
Understand that there are very few black conservatives in this country who don't believe that "race matters". This columnist just decided to pull that straw man out of his ass because he wanted to make a cheap, rhetorical field goal from the five-yard line.
If Pearson can marginalize black conservatives in his own mind, then he doesn't have to deal with the serious questions they raise about the Great Society consensus that exists in the black community. When Condi was talking to that group of black columnists, it's as if what she was saying, and why she was saying it, soared over Pearson's head.
Race does matter. The difference is that black liberals like Pearson are obsessed by it; black conservatives are not.
Be Seeing You,
Chris