RSS | Sitemap | About TWT | Contact Us | Subscription Services | Real Estate | Auto Weekend | TWT Radio
Rice hits U.S. 'birth defect'
By Nicholas Kralev
March 28, 2008
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors yesterday at The Washington Times, says boycotting the Summer Olympics in China would be ineffective.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday 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.
"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "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."
As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "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," she said.
TWT Audio: Rice unplugged on race
Race has become an issue in this year's presidential campaign, which prompted a much-discussed speech last week by Sen. Barack Obama, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination.
Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was "important" that Mr. Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons."
But she spoke forcefully on the subject, citing personal and family experience to illustrate "a paradox and contradiction in this country," which "we still haven't resolved."
On the one hand, she said, race in the U.S. "continues to have effects" on public discussions and "the deepest thoughts that people hold." On the other, "enormous progress" has been made, which allowed her to become the nation's chief diplomat.
|
|
|
Search www.washingtontimes.com
1. Clinton: Michigan, Florida wins should stand
2. Conservative attack group riling Democrats
3. Once-secret memos question Clinton's honesty
4. Broken eggheads make no omelets
5. Bush ready for role as father of the bride
AP
- Myanmar seizes UN aid supplies, 'not ready' to let in US
- Hezbollah gunmen seize control of Beirut neighborhoods
- Tanks, missiles roll through Red Square on Victory Day
- Obama picks up 5 superdelegates, union endorsement
- Gas jumps above $3.67, oil passes $126 on Venezuela concerns
- Tornado knocks vehicles around in N. Carolina, kills 1
- Drugs, teens, pot are dangerous mix
- Judge: Jury selection can begin in R. Kelly pornography case
- Oldest gorilla in captivity turns 55 at Dallas Zoo
- Red Wings roll past Stars 4-1 in West finals opener
