|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 Askia At-Large
Askia Muhammad
Columnist Page
Friday, November 26, 2004; Page 14
Condoleezza Rice: Secretary of State, not “Aunt Jemima”
Black folks who disagree with President George W. Bush’s foreign policy or who disapprove of his nomination of his National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice to replace Gen. Colin Powell as Secretary of State should not result to name calling to make their point.
The nation’s first Black man to serve as the U.S. “Foreign Minister” will be replaced by the first Black woman in the post whether they like it or not..
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume denounced critics of Dr. Rice who have resorted to school yard racial stereotypes to describe her. A Madison, Wisconsin radio show host recently called Dr. Rice “Aunt Jemima,” apparently suggesting that she is a subservient player in the administration.
“Her counsel is respected and valued in her field and in the upper echelons of her political party,” Mfume said in a statement obtained by BlackAmericaWeb.com. In fact, the former Stanford University Provost “is an example of how far hard work, education and determination can take one to new heights,” said Mfume.
“Race” will be a negligible factor in future U.S. foreign policy, despite the fact that the Secretary-designate grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, which gave her a firsthand taste of segregation and White supremacy. She did draw an important lesson from the experience. It was, as she put it, to be “twice as good” as Whites in order to succeed.
She has been “twice as good” throughout her career. Now an avid pro-football fan, she was a child piano prodigy and remains a concert-class performer with a fondness for Brahms.
She graduated from the University of Denver at age 19, and became a professor just seven years later. At 34, she was a senior White House official under the first President Bush, before being named provost of Stanford University in California. When George W. Bush was elected she became the first female national security adviser in the history of the organization created by Harry Truman in 1947.
She will take to her new post the benefit of a very close relationship to the President, Dr. Susan Rice (no relation), former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa in the Clinton administration told this writer. She could be a real “policy leader,” instead of simply a “caretaker” said Dr. Rice if she chooses to use her access to the President. Otherwise she will just keep the State Department “in line”.
Secretary-designate Rice can “actually to be a significant policy leader within the U.S. government as well as on the international stage,” Dr. Susan Rice said. The new Secretary of State can “make progress on some critical national security challenges that have been neglected in the first term of the Bush administration.
“Particularly the peace process in the Middle East and the nuclear threats that Iran and North Korea pose,” said Dr. Susan Rice. “I don’t know whether she will choose to use her influence and her access to try to move our national security agenda forward, or whether she will see her role as basically being there to keep the department in line for a President who views the State Department as traditionally hostile to him.”
But she is being sent to keep the department in line, according to Dr. Ronald Walters, Professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland.
“She is being sent over to the Department of State to be Bush’s enforcer,” Dr. Walters, told this writer. “To bring the building into line with his foreign policy. Primarily because they’ve been one of the most recalcitrant elements. It wasn’t just Colin Powell. It was pretty much the foreign service sources over there [that] are very dubious about his policy and some other aspects of it, and so they haven’t been on board.”
Dr. Susan Rice agrees, “Her record to date has suggested that she will do whatever it is the President wants her to do, and will serve him but not necessarily take the difficult steps and decisions that are necessary, or force the difficult decisions that are necessary to resolve contentious issues” facing U.S. foreign policy makers.
“I don’t think one knows which role she’ll play. If past is prologue, it suggests that she’ll be more focused on serving the President as a loyal staffer and adviser, rather than a policy leader. But she certainly has the ability and the potential to grow into the role that the Secretary of State traditionally plays as a policy leader. She’s got all of the smarts and all of the skills and I hope very much that she’ll choose to do that.”
And while it’s unfair to compare Dr. Condoleezza Rice with Aunt Jemima, it is too soon to compare her to U.S. diplomat Dr. Ralph Bunche, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 when he negotiated a truce which ended the first Arab-Israeli war, unless there is peace in the Middle East on her watch, that is.
“Well I think Ralph Bunche was a unique leader in a unique time, a Nobel Prize winner. A very difficult act to follow,” said Dr. Susan Rice.
“Colin Powell brought to the job a tremendous personal stature and experience. Condoleezza Rice comes in from a different perspective. She’s younger. She’s not served in a Cabinet-level position prior to her time at the National Security Council. And I think it’s questionable, what elements of her background and experience she will bring to that job.
“What we’re learning though is that there isn’t one take on how an African American might approach the position of Secretary of State. We can argue about Colin Powell viewed it, I think clearly Condoleezza Rice has distinguished herself, in her own words as somebody who views herself first and foremost, as I think she one said, as an individual, not as a member of a group. And that may prove to be telling,” Dr. Rice concluded. |
|
|
|