You Go, Girl!

Utilizing a phrase of brutal accuracy and ugly eloquence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- to some degree -- altered my negative opinion of her by stating in an interview last month with the Washington Times, that “the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national ‘birth defect’ that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding.” Those two words “birth defect” sums up the underlying cause of our continuing national dilemma over race in a manner most succinct and accurate, and I applaud Rice for her bravery (however belated) on this issue.

Rice continued: "Black Americans were a founding population. Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding. Descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that. That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today. America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race."

Rice concluded her brilliant interview by adding that members of her own family have "endured terrible humiliations. What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them — and that's our legacy." Whew, 'You GO, girl!' Very powerful, indeed.

Two things about Rice’s comments, however, give me pause: One, why is she speaking out now? Is she trying to snag the VPs slot on the Republican ticket as has been rumored? Or is she attempting to cotton up to the Obama camp with these decidedly liberal comments? Perhaps she’s angling for a position with what will most likely be a Democratic administration in Washington for the next eight or sixteen years.

Of course it just may be that Rice feels that -- with her tenure about to end -- she now has the freedom to speak out, in spite of the fact she might be labeled as disloyal by her conservative friends. The simple truth is, I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to those questions... what motivated her.

Nonetheless, in the end, her motives make little difference to me; what she said, and how she said it is what makes all of the difference. Indeed, I can almost forgive her for her seemingly blind support of Bush’s idiotic and wasteful war — almost. At least she knows how to make a graceful and honorable exit from the world stage ... too bad Colin Powell didn’t have the same skill or courage.

The uncorrected birth defect Rice spoke of has indeed left America crippled; a nation hobbled by a form of virulent racism that causes many Black citizens to limp along, handicapped in the race for employment parity, economic stability, and financial independence. And our lack of political will, our lack of dedication to attempt to solve the problems of minorities is now having a ripple effect. As more and more families of all colors tumble out of the middleclass and into the financial abyss of the underclass, we, as a nation, seem paralyzed as poverty spreads like cancer across America. Our nation’s “birth defect” is now hurting us all.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
Comments? Letters@CoolCleveland.com



(:divend:)