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September 13, 2005
Don't Change the Subject: Race is an Issue in the United States
You hear it all the time. Name any issue facing the United States and someone will almost always point out it is worse somewhere else or everywhere else. I was reminded of this the other night watching the Real Time with Bill Maher when guest Joe Scarborough tried to invoked this dodge. And today I read on the CNN website that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is using it with regard to race relations in the US.
Rice, the highest ranking black official in the Bush administration, defended national race relations saying the United States "is about 100 percent ahead of anyplace else in the world in issues of race.""And I say that absolutely, fundamentally," she said. "You go to any other meeting around the world and show me the kind of diversity that you see in America's Cabinet, in America's foreign service, in America's business community, in America's journalistic community.
"Show me that kind of diversity anyplace else in the world, and I'm prepared to be lectured about race."
Very often, these kinds of remarks are true enough but they are also intended to change the subject. If you don't believe me reread the last line of the quotation I just gave. Rice was, however, on point when she said,
"The United States should want to do something about that," Rice said in an interview Monday with the editorial board of The New York Times. "There are still places that race and poverty are a huge problem in the United States, and we've got to deal with that."
We may or may not be better or worse than other countries with regard to this issue or that but our problems are ours and we need to address them and not keep changing the subject. Because of the total context of her remarks, I cannot accuse Rice of doing this. But I often feel that pointing out that things are worse elsewhere is given as a reason to not do anything here. Still, Rice does seem to want to change the subject from race to poverty.
The two are deeply related. I believe that one of the reasons for the disparity between the perceptions of the black and white community over our government's response to Katrina has to do with the simple fact that poverty falls disproportionately on the black community. But this simple fact is rooted in a legacy of racism that we have not addressed and saying that things are better here than they might be elsewhere just doesn't get the job done.
Posted by Duane Smith at September 13, 2005 11:00 AM | Read more on Current Events |
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