She is arguably the most powerful woman in the United States and she can accurately be counted as one of the major leaders of the free world. She occupies one of the highest positions within our government. Whatever her critics may think of her policies, no one will argue the fact that she is intelligent, strong and successful. She is also a minority and the first black woman to occupy one of the highest positions within a presidential administration – secretary of state.
One would think that such a successful and powerful woman as Condoleezza Rice would immediately catch the eye of the political left. After all, she is what some would refer to as “doubly marginalized,” being both black and a woman – two groups that are traditionally identified with the Democratic Party. If the party truly stood for the advancement of such groups, they would have been able to set aside their opposing ideas, if just for a single press conference, to laud the Bush administration in its selection of the first-ever black female as – secretary of state.
Yet Rice has enjoyed none of the admiration and respect heaped upon such figures as Madeleine Albright, the first female to occupy the position. On the contrary, she has been slapped in the face with such labels as “race traitor” and “the devil’s handmaiden.”
Clearly, the left’s stated goals and their actual ones are quite different. They are happy to embrace politicians that currently constitute a gender or racial minority of the government, but only if they conform to the party’s ideas. Apparently, it is difficult for them to believe that a black person’s thinking might be fiscally conservative or that a woman could be anti-abortion, thus aligning her (at least in those respects) with the Republican Party.
Assuming that a person will think a certain way based solely on their gender and ethnic background completely defies liberal thinking, yet such prejudices persist in our society. It is such prejudice that has resulted in Rice being dubbed a “traitor to all blacks” based primarily on the fact that she is a Republican.
The daughter of a reverend, Rice grew up during the height of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Ala. By the time she was 26 years old, she had already earned a doctoral degree in political science from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, after having earned her bachelor’s degree at just 19 from the University of Denver and a master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame.
In addition to her work at the State Department and various other government positions, including national security advisor, she has served as professor and provost at Stanford University. Rice’s résumé also includes a great deal of experience in the business world, including membership on the boards of directors at such companies as Hewlett-Packard and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She speaks four languages in addition to English, with varying levels of fluency.
Through the strength of her own merit, Rice has climbed to the highest government position ever held by a black woman in the United States. She does not deserve to be called a “race traitor” simply because she has not forced herself to conform her thinking to that of the mainstream left. In fact, she should be praised – not only for being a strong, successful woman and a positive role model for young women, but also for having the strength of character to do what she believes is right, in spite of being constantly ridiculed for doing so.
Chenin Simi is a senior Spanish and comparative world literature major and a copy editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
