Condoleezza Rice: ‘I don’t need you to tell me what it is to be black’
On Tuesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel, in an appearance promoting her new book, “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington,” former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tackled the issues of race and black conservatism, explaining how she’s dealt with liberal attacks where she was challenged on the subject
“I always told everybody, ‘I’ve been black all my life,’” Rice said. “’You can’t tell me what it means to be black, I don’t need you to tell me what it is to be black.’ And so I simply ignored it. And actually, I would say to people that blacks have to think a particular way, ‘You are the one who is actually prejudiced. If you were looking at somebody who was white, you would not say well, you have to think a particular way. And so if you look at somebody who is black and you say that about them, then check your own prejudice.’”
Rice did say she didn’t prefer the use of the term “high-tech lynching” to describe recent attacks on Herman Cain and past attacks on Clarence Thomas.
“I just think the language is extremely evocative,” she said. “Clarence Thomas is a friend of mine. He’s a very good friend of mine. He was incredibly supportive of me the whole time that I was in government and I think the world of him. I’m sorry that he went through what he went through, but I think we need to get past the language of race on both sides. My view is that I try very hard to give people the benefit of the doubt, and if I give them the benefit of the doubt, then I’m actually empowering myself because the minute that I give into racial stereotype or to your high profile language about me, now I’ve lost — I’ve lost control. And so, I just don’t engage in it.”
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Rice put the onus on the critics, saying that they are the ones unable to look beyond race.
“No one can tell me how to be black,” Rice said. “I know how to be black. I’ve been black all my life. And again, if you look at a black person and you say that person has to think in a particular way, I don’t care if you are white or you are black and you say that, then you’ve got a prejudice. You can’t see beyond race to give that person the dignity, the ability to think as they might. So I really don’t engage in this. I simply say to people, ‘You know, I’ll think what I think and if you have a problem with that, it’s your problem, not mine.’”
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