AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice addresses the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
Condoleezza Rice’s speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night reminded me a lot of the feelings I have about the woman herself. If I simply ignore actual history and gloss over the facts, there’s a lot there to like.
For starters, she’s the first black female Secretary of State. Now, let me put aside for a moment my feelings about the guy she was working for at the time. God knows I wouldn’t want to be judged by my association with some of my past bosses. (I fully endorse, however, any and all associations with my current one).
As the President’s chief foreign policy advisor, the Secretary of State is among the most powerful, visible, and influential people on the planet. Should the President be unable to do the job, the Secretary of State is the fourth person on the list of succession to take his or her place.
And for four years, that person was a black woman. I couldn’t help but feel proud when she got the gig during George W. Bush’s second term.
But let’s put her political career aside for a moment. Secretary Rice is so much more than her ridiculously impressive resume. She’s also an accomplished concert pianist, poster-woman for ladies who dig football, loves shopping, and she allegedly has a mean shoe game.
Game recognize game. That's my kinda girl. (Or she would be, if I could somehow divorce that Condoleezza Rice from the Condoleezza Rice who holds such an infamous place in American history.)
That shoe-shopping habit? When it was revealed that she was was in New York, taking in a Broadway show and shopping for Ferragamo shoes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- while thousands in New Orleans were left by the Bush administration to fend for themselves against winds and floodwaters released into their city by broken levees -- it was not a good look.
Then there is The Lie. You know the one -- about the WMD’s that were M.I.A. It had Secretary Rice sounding a lot like Slim Charles.
Our nation fought a war in Iraq for over eight years on that lie. Thousands of soldiers and Iraqi civilians died for that lie. Billions of taxpayer dollars drained out of the U.S. economy, based on that lie.
You'd think that details would matter to Secretary Rice, who spoke to our Andrea Mitchell after her speech and dodged a question about The Lie. Although she'd just given a beautiful speech on Thursday night at the RNC, the devil was in the details of what she didn't say.
As encouragement to her audience that the men on the GOP ticket are up to tackling the challenges that face our nation, she offered this shortcut through great triumphs in American history. Then she ties the entire thing up in a neat bow with her own personal narrative:
Whenever you find yourself a doubting us, just think about all those times that America made impossible seem inevitable in retrospect... a civil war, brother against brother, hundreds of thousands dead on both sides, but we emerged a more perfect union. A second founding when impatient patriots were determined to overcome the birth defect of slavery and the scourge of segregation. A long struggle against communism with the Soviets even -- the Soviet Union's collapse and in the aftermath of 9/11, the willingness to take hard, hard decisions that toward us and prevented the follow on attack that everybody thought preordained.
And on a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the South where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced that even if she cannot have it hamburger at Woolworth's, she can be the President of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the Secretary of State.
Let's be clear. Slavery and segregation were not some random abnormality of America's birth. On the contrary, it is through the institution of slavery that America was born. Indeed, the very foundations of our national economy can be traced back to slavery, which attributed a market value to human beings amounting to nearly $4 billion in today's dollars.
Secretary Rice's hopscotch through history not only creates a speed bump out of what is in fact the road, it also detaches that past from our present. Yes, we did away with slavery and the scourge of Jim Crow, but not the systemic white privilege that was endemic to both, and that continues to fester in the racial and economic disparities that still plague our country today.
And adding her own American success story to her list of inevitable impossibilities, she pulls her own version of Clint Eastwood's "disappearing" act. She substitutes her own story of Black achievement as the end point to her abbreviated history of America's struggles with race: She grew up in Jim Crow; she experienced segregation; she became Secretary of State. Black Americans have overcome. The end.
It's Dr. Rice's own version of Eastwood's magic tragic. Poof! President Obama disappears. And poof! So, too, do the black Americans who failed to navigate the gauntlet of America's systemic racism as as successfully as she has.
That fairy tale is a neat little narrative to spoon-feed an audience that was almost entirely devoid of any diversity, and who spent the entire convention fattening itself on the all too convenient untruth about what, exactly they "built" in this country.
But then again maybe I'm just jealous and wishing I were as easily able to dupe myself into that kind of magical thinking. Because then I'd "Poof!" Condoleezza Rice out of infamy and into the history-making, NFL-loving, shoe addict that I wish she really was.
See below Melissa's "Did She Just Say That" today about the many women speakers featured at the Republican National Convention.
Did She Just Say That?: Melissa Harris-Perry points out the many female speakers who took center stage at the Republican National Convention, proving that the GOP is not just a boys-club.
Leave a Comment:
No need for Klansmen or neo-nazis or mean politicians. We have Condi!
So Keith...what do blacks call a female "Tom" pitiful....Racism inside the black community. You got your bedsheet on for this lynching?
Melissa,
Good points! I like Condoleezza too, despite disagreeing with her. I think she and the GWB administration, and really all of us, would have done better had they started off with General Powell as the National Security Advisor and Condoleezza as Secretary of State. That Condoleezza considered it unthinkable terrorists would fly planes into heavily populated American landmarks showed a naiveté about our enemies that I believe the General lacked. I can’t totally fault her for that though. She’s an academician who was ill-placed by GWB. The administration’s choice of a scholar on Russia/USSR evidenced a failure to understand who are enemies were. The fault was with GWB. Sadly, some who seek the highest office today are likely to repeat many of GWB’s errors.
Regarding the current presidential campaign, I thought you were making a very important point when you attempted to discuss Ann Romney’s miscarriage and I regret that one of your guests so rudely changed the subject. It’s important to have guests with divergent points of view, but whether it’s Alex Castellanos, or John Sununu, or your guest today, they really do need to learn how to behave like a guest if they want to be considered a guest. If they can’t, they should not be considered—in my opinion. I also appreciated your later expressed fury over those who only count the risks of people with lots of resources to put on the line, without realizing some people with few resources have their whole lives on the line and wake up every morning, go to bed every night, and live many moments in between in very real danger. Although I’m disgusted when people use anger as part of their schtick, when well-justified anger erupts as it did with you today (and did with Dylan a while back) it is a glorious thing that speaks to and for us all. Thank you. Melissa, it is soooo wonderful to have a scholar and educator such as your self placed so well to reach so many. Your bosses are wise indeed.
By the way, I would love to see Ann Curry and Eugene Robinson co-host a weekend program. I think those two fun-loving intellectual humanitarians would have wonderful chemistry together. I hope you agree and will forward this vision of mine so that it will become a reality. I believe if Ann and Eugene joined you and Chris and Alex, MSNBC would have the best, most solid, unbeatable daytime weekend programming anywhere.
Speaking of visions becoming a reality. I was glad to hear you and yours came through the hurricane safely, but sad to see you lost your dream house. The Lord works in mysterious ways. The old house may have developed too much mold and critter scat to be a healthy place for you and yours. Best let the home that was inspire a new incarnation. Stay flexible and keep the faith.
Blessings,
Devorah Ann Fox, PsyD
Having people with divergent views is impossible? Only to narrow closed minds capable of holding only one thought at a time. A remarkable statement....
Devorah ~
So WELL SAID. Condi was an academician, NOT suited for the rough and tumble of international diplomacy, let alone NSA Chief.
Also, You are spot on with your suggestion of a Curry/Robinson teamup for MSNBC. That would be EPIC, In My Humble Opinion.
Also agree that Isaac essentially cleared the land for MHP and her husband to start with a clean slate, build something totally new from the ground up.
FWIW
Can't figure how to comment on Melissa's "loosing" her temper on this subject! It was fabulous! Go Melissa! You'd think that we need to stop discriminating against the rich! We are hardly even a democracy any more. We are ruled by the CEOs,
the billionaires, the off-shore corporations in the Cayman Islands. They are robbing us of our benefits, our retirement, our health care, our Medicare, and especially our Medicaid. Get rid of the unions, get rid of the early voting, make them pay for their voter IDs, the new poll tax. I am ready to go to the streets, the last call for democracy. Go Melissa! We are all slaves now in this new America. Without our MBAs what can we claim for ourselves? Jobs? Only minimum wage,..as long as there still is one!
We're all captives of the men and women of The Grove, the Bilderbergs, the Club of Rome, etc. There's no escape just a bigger thumb coming.
It was Condi's interview with Lawrence O'Donnell that finally killed it for me.
Btw, Melissa, is there a video clip of your "riskier" comment at 1:45 minutes of today's show? I'd like to share it on facebook. Pleeeeeeeze. Best wishes, --mike
09/01/2012
Melissa Harris-Perry, hands on hips, to Invisible Mitt: "What else you got!!?!"
"Don't fight with a person who is irrational, because from a distance you can' tell which one is irrational."
1:45 minutes into today's show, Melissa Harris-Perry gets really angry, responding to Republican "entrepreneurial" BS:
"What is riskier than, what is riskier than living poor in America!?! Seriously, [pounds the desk] What in the world is riskier than being a poor person in America!?!
I live in a neighborhood where people are shot on my street corner.
I live in a neighborhood where people have to figure out how to get their
kid into school 'cause maybe it will be a good school and maybe it won't.
I am sick of the idea that being wealthy is risky, no!! There is a huge safety net that whenever you fail will catch you and catch you and catch you. [pounding one hand into her other hand]
Being poor is what is risky! We have to create a safety net for poor people,
and when we won't because they happen to look different from us, it, it's,
it is the pervasive of ugliness!
[others, interrupting, irrel.]
We can NOT do that!
[as powerful as the Elizabeth Warren clip.] --mike
Sorry, didn't dig far enough. It's the next story on the blog page at, 8:20 into the clip following an instructive lead-in:
http://mhpshow.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/01/13609897-what-is-riskier-than-living-poor-in-america
Great show! As another commenter pointed out, it's important to have varying viewpoints but that woman who kept interrupting and seemed to feel she was under attack was awful. I kept imagining a wooden crook coming out of stage left, snagging her and pulling her off the set. Please don't invite her again.
x2. Thank you. And TY Melissa for, "What is riskier than being poor in America?!"
Walking the streets of urban America is indeed a risky business...The Welfare society has bred a slave society and this President has expanded it at an alarming rate. It's not a black or White issue it's a Government run amok issue.
A longer version of her story might have been like: After the Civil War, Reconstruction was a failure. The task of Reconstruction was impossible for America. Women fought America's laws and traditions in order to have the right to vote. The vote was still denied to African-Americans with poll taxes. Some community leaders fought and formed organizations, but America said that change was impossible. Every step of the way people said that change was impossible. Segregation was the law of the land. It was impossible to do alot of things for entire lifetimes. People lived and died knowing only segregation and/or slavery. During WWII, Europe was liberated from racist Nazi's, and Blacks served proudly, only to return home to America and live through the rest of the 40s and the decade of the 50s in a segregated, racist society. During the 60s through the civil rights movement finally forced the issue and Blacks won some voting rights from White controlled government, but alot of people told Martin Luther King that the time wasn't right for change and to be patient and wait. He wrote a book entitled "Why We Can't Wait." Now, Voter I.D. Laws are disenfrancising minority communities again, and racists are are using politics to divide people. Monied Interests have now had control of both political parties for decades, wages are stagnant, education is not a priority, drugs and gang violence have effected communities for decades, even before movies like "Colors" and "Boyz N The Hood" and "New Jack City". Barack Obama will be outspent in this election cycle because wealthy donors speak with their money while poor people are left to speak with whatever resources they have available, while never having the chance to buy time on TV. The Republican Party is against everything solution the other party presents, and goes on to lie and distort in order to make themselves seem like they have the answers to America's problems. And look at Condi, she is one person who made it out of the ghetto, while millions and millions remain living in the ghetto. Three Cheers for America. So don't worry, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect.
You say that Voter I.D. Laws are disenfranchising minority communities again. How so? When I was growing up in NYC in the 60's I had to have a picture ID for the Library. Police departments can issue ID cards and in some places the DMV can do this as an extra job. When one goes to the hospital they must show ID. Now in this new age of terrorism we all must show some form of ID at times. To say a Voter ID is wrong is to open a possible door to election fraud. You might as well say that people are also disenfranchised who cannot afford a passport but wish to travel to Canada or Mexico.
first of all what hospital won't treat you without ID? Tell me? It doesn't exist, you know why because its illegal for them to refuse treatment. They ask for it you don't have to give it. Just like you don't have to go to the hospital that will ask for your ID. You don't have to buy the cold medicine in the states the require ID for certain ones there are other brands. See healthcare is a RIGHT that can't be denied because of ID neither should voting.
I do not know where to begin with her. She wants to bring in color as equal to being poor and that america was built on slavery. America was built on the backs of indentured servants, both white and black. The Spanish baptized the slaves in Africa so that they would be indentured servants in British Colonies. It was only after 50 or so years that slaves became a institution. So America was not built by slaves as she says! She talks about being poor is a risk in a area where crime is like she lives in. She also forgets that the reason crime is high people do not help the police as that is "ratting out". Crime would go down if more people would do the right thing. She also rants about being a business owner one is rich. That is not the case in the majority of businesses. She needs to go out to the Ozarks and see how many rich white people there are. It may change her mind or to Enid, Oklahoma. No, she stays in NYC area where all she sees is her color and believes that is how the world is.
How does Melissa respond to the fact that Saddam Hussein did use chemical weapons to kill Kurds by the thousands? He had them but where did they go? This is not a lie. Many have said at the time they went to Syria. Now Clinton has spoken about these weapons. So was it a lie about WMDs in Iraq or not?
This is one of the best blogs I've read in a long time. It hurts my soul that Ms. Rice can get up in front of God and do something like this. The way she glosses over America's love affair with racism is baffling. Thank you Melissa Harris-Perry for on point commentary! (Didn't mean for that to rhyme)
Condi Rice is a disappointment. I don't think she knows where is a lie ends and the truth begins anymore. I don't even respect her anymore. She has lost all touch with reality and losing what creditability she once had.