Condi Rice/Bush's Blacks

[ChronicleWorld Affairs]

From the national associaton of black journalists's internet forum


-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: "motik_1970" <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: [NABJFORUM] Re: Condi Rice
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 07:56:48 +0000


I did some research about Condi and I learned about her community
projects. I am a fairly avid reader and follower of the news and these
things have not been highlighted.
Next Condi question, I know that Condi was trained as a Russian
specialist, but what are her views about Africa?
Below is an interesting column about Condi from a left wing columnist
www.alternet.org/story/18363
Manny Otiko
PR specialist/writer
--- In [e-mail], "sheila stainback" <sstainback@n...>
wrote:
> Condi and her late dad actually tried to share what he provided in her
> upbringing by founding a program in East Palo Alto (the area's Black
> community) providing education assistance and (I believe) a school for
> "disadvantaged" youths. The program is about 12 years old now and has
> always been run by Black folks, including a sister who just retired
from the
> post this past year.
>
> On her 50th birthday, Condi was presented with a picture of the most
recent
> graduates--a reminder of her ongoing effectiveness and contributions
to the
> program. Until her father's death in 2001 (just as Condi formally
joined
> the Bush administration), he helped run the program.
>
> Admittedly, I'm vague on the details of the program but I know it
has been
> mentioned in profiles of Condi and a Google search might yield a lot
more
> info, including personal stuff on what she's done for Black folks. Using
> Google is always pertinent advice for journalists with questions....
>
> Is she the "real deal" when it comes to Black folks? Not according to
> traditional Black thinking. But as a daughter of the South, she
keeps Black
> folks around her in her most intimate settings.
>
> --Sheila Stainback
> <sstainback@n...>
> "If you don't tell the truth about yourself, you won't tell the
truth about
> others."
>

[ChroncileWorld Affairs]

> ----------
> >From: motik_1970 <motik_1970@y...>
> >To: [e-mail]
> >Subject: [NABJFORUM] Condi Rice
> >Date: Mon, Dec 6, 2004, 08:11 PM
> >
> > >
> > I have read a few articles by black columnists who say although they
> > do not agree with Condi Rice's political views they admire her
> > achievements.
> > Here are some tough questions about Dr. Rice. In all I have read about
> > her, I have never seen anything about her giving back to her
community.
> > Is she one of those upper-class GOP blacks who believes, I got mine,
> > so you should get yours?
> > Colin Powell has been pretty active with his mentoring organization,
> > he also spoke out in favor of affirmative action and also got his son
> > the hook up at the FCC. Say what you like, but he is taking care of
> > his own, white people have done this for years.
> > I believe that as a black person in a position of authority you have a
> > responsibility to reach back and help other less fortunate black
> > people. That could mean anything from mentoring, to opening doors, to
> > giving people the hook up on a job.
> > It's not just blacks who believe in this. Other ethnic groups such as
> > Asians, Jews, Latinos and even WASPs also network and help each other
> > out.
> > So what has Condi Rice done? Is she doing anything?
> > Or does she believe that it is not her job to help other blacks out?
> >
> > Manny Otiko
> > PR specialist/writer
> >

[ChronicleWorld Affairs]

In a message dated 12/6/2004 7:11:51 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[e-mail] writes:

Or does she believe that it is not her job to help other blacks out?

Manny Otiko
PR specialist/writer




Here's my answer, published late last month.....


Will Cabinet diversity make any difference?
(http://www.sptimes.com/columns/deggans.shtml)
DEGGANS
____________________________________
E-mail:
_Click here_ (mailto:[e-mail]) By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Op/Ed
Columnist
Published November 21, 2004

____________________________________
If the U.S. Senate gives President Bush the secretary of State and attorney
general he wants in Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales, this Republican
opponent of affirmative action will have assembled an impressive record of
diversity among his top officials.
The first Hispanic attorney general (Gonzales). The first black female
secretary of State and first black national security adviser (Rice). The first
black secretary of State (Colin Powell). And the first black education secretary
(Rod Paige).
So why doesn't Bush get more credit as a champion of ethnic diversity? Maybe
because it is tough to gauge exactly what ethnic diversity brings to the Bush
administration.
The logic of diversity is simple: When people from diverse backgrounds have
access to the levers of power in society, their decisions should be influenced
- at least, in part - by insights gleaned from their culture and heritage.
In the past, this brought us Thurgood Marshall, a Supreme Court justice who
dismantled institutional racism in America by promoting affirmative action and
other policies based on reversing centuries of race-based oppression. Along
the way, Marshall championed the idea of protecting the civil rights of any
minority from the tyranny of the majority's will, advocating policies that
helped women, children, other racial minorities, prisoners and even the media.
But it's tough to know whether the people of color who serve in Bush's
Cabinet have made many decisions that reflect similar sensitivities. Some
activists have flat-out accused Rice and Paige of acting as "race traitors" - turning
their backs on policies that might help less fortunate people of color in
their zeal to support their boss.
And nowhere has this issue burned brighter than in the debate about
affirmative action.
In the past, both Rice and Paige have echoed Bush's criticism of race-based
solutions to diversity issues, maintaining there are better ways to ensure
equal access to good schools, higher education and coveted jobs. That put both
of them at odds with a majority of black and Hispanic people, who favored
affirmative action programs at rates of 70 percent and 63 percent respectively in
a 2003 Gallup poll.
When President Bush decided in 2003 that the administration would join a
Supreme Court challenge to race-based admissions policies at the University of
Michigan, Rice performed a delicate two-step, bolstering her boss but stopping
short of condemning the concept of affirmative action completely.
She noted, "while race-neutral measures are preferable, it is appropriate to
use race as one factor" in diversifying a student body, if necessary - a
concession the administration's actual court filing didn't make.
Gonzales, who has alienated conservatives with moderate support of
affirmative action programs in the past, nevertheless worked on the University of
Michigan challenge as White House counsel. (He was, however, credited with
pushing the White House away from opposing affirmative action altogether). And
outgoing Secretary Paige has repeatedly pressed for race-neutral admissions
policies in higher education.
It all raises an important question: Does diversity of staffing matter when
the people of color mostly do what their white boss tells them to?
Notably, Powell seemed the exception to this rule among Bush's high-profile
minority staffers. He expressed open and largely unqualified support for
affirmative action during the University of Michigan case and pressed the
administration to pay more attention to crises in Africa during his tenure as the
nation's top diplomat.
But Powell is now on his way out the door, marginalized by a president who
never seemed to value his advice and treasures loyalty above all.
Which leaves supporters of diversity in a serious quandary. Will Bush's
high-profile appointees of color sufficiently challenge their boss' worldview? Or
will they mostly act as a smokescreen for the president when sticky issues of
race emerge?
Folks like Rice and Paige are shining examples of the first wave of
affirmative action babies - talented children of educated parents, raised in
segregated communities, they succeeded in the wider world after obvious barriers to
black achievement had been eliminated.
But they have left behind a less advantaged class who needs more. Held back
by the disproportionate effects of crime, poverty, AIDS and more, this group
needs help from those who have found success - especially those with the power
to bend government to serve the right causes.
Over the next few years, we shall see if the diversity of ethnicity in Bush's
Cabinet adds up to a diversity of approaches to issues affecting people of
color. If the president has simply drafted a rainbow coalition to rubber-stamp
his own ideas, the real point of racial and ethnic diversity will be lost.
Eric Deggans is a Times editorial writer. His e-mail address is
[e-mail]_ (mailto:[e-mail])


Eric Deggans
President, Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists
Columnist/Editorial board member, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
_http://www.freewebs.com/tampabaynabj/_
(http://www.freewebs.com/tampabaynabj/)
(727) 893-8521