Condoleezza Rice in My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family, by Condi Rice
On Civil Rights:
I would rather be ignored than patronized
When I was asked about my decision to become a Republican, I first explained quite honestly that the choice reflected my disgust with Jimmy Carter's foreign policy and my attraction to Ronald Reagan's worldview. But, pressed about the domestic agenda
of the 2 parties, I gave an answer that came directly from my experience with the many forms racism can take. "I would rather be ignored than patronized," I said, pointing to the tendency of the Democratic Party to talk about "women, minorities, and the
poor." I hated identity politics and the self-satisfied people who assumed that they were free of prejudice when, in fact, they too could not see beyond color to the individual.I'd grown up in a family that believed there was no room for being a
victim or depending on "the white man" to take care of you. Despite the gross inequities my ancestors faced, there HAS been progress, and today race no longer determines how far one can go. That said, America is not color-blind and likely never will be.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p,158-159
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Scars of slavery include black preoccupation with skin color
You will notice that I have described the skin color of each of my relatives. Unfortunately, it mattered. One of the scars of slavery was a deep preoccupation with skin color in the black community. The lighter your skin, the better off you were.
This bias extended to other facial features: thin and "Caucasian" was preferred to thick and "Negroid," just as straight hair was "good" compared to kinky hair, which was "bad."
The repercussions were significant in my parents' time, when no self-respecting black school would select a dark-skinned homecoming queen.By the time I came along, skin color and other physical features were less important, though not irrelevant.
One can imagine, though, what it was like for my very dark-skinned grandfather in the first half of the 20th century. He was given the worst land to work and not much encouragement from his father.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 18
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Participated in 1962 Alabama anti-segregation boycott
For me, the first shock of recognition was learning of the boycott of the downtown stores in 1962. The action was organized to bring pressure on the stores to hire black clerks and to take down racial signage. That Easter everyone made sure to wear
old clothes just to demonstrate that they were supporting the campaign.But it was Christmas when I realized that something truly serious was under way. I was terribly disappointed [because the boycott precluded toys] but old enough to understand
the larger issues at stake.
Clearly, the boycott was succeeding. Sales declined 11% that year, leading the city of Birmingham to threaten to cut off a surplus food program servicing about 19,000 poor black families if the boycott didn't stop.
The churches responded by conducting a food drive.
Though they supported the boycott, my parents didn't want to go without toys that Christmas, so they arranged for Aunt Gee to bring them from her home in Norfolk, Virginia.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 89-90
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
First black in Birmingham-Southern conservatory of music
I was almost 10 and had begun to tire of the piano. Mother and Daddy decided that I needed a change to reinvigorate my interest. As it happened, Birmingham Southern College had a very fine conservatory of music, but to date its student body had been
exclusively white. My father called and I was granted an audition.On the day of the audition I admitted to my parents that I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass anyone. I'd be the first black student in the Birmingham-Southern program.
I felt that I was carrying the weight of needing to be twice as good. They reassured me that I was indeed twice as good. Looking back, it is striking that they didn't say, "You don't have to be twice as good."
The audition went very well, and
I was admitted. I was soon reenergized in my pursuit of a career as a concert pianist. Years later, my father said that he was really glad that he and my mother took the chance of letting me try to break this color barrier.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.107-108
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
On racist IQ theory: "I'm better in white culture than you"
In my freshman Introduction to Government course, the professor had given a lecture on theories of racial superiority professed by social scientists such as William Shockley, who posited that blacks had lower IQs because of nature, not nurture.
The professor had given the lecture under the guise of simply introducing us to the literature, but I sensed that he bought into some of the theory. I was the youngest person in the class, but I challenged him. "I speak French and play Bach.
I'm better in your culture than you are," I said. "That shows that these things can be taught!" He was angry and said the next day that I had tried to silence him. The professor asked to see me and then went on to compound the problem by drawing a little
graph charting black IQs along the bottom, with those of whites above them. "But sometimes there are people like you," he said. He then showed my IQ line positioned above both, saying that I was special. Clearly, he didn't get the point.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.157-158
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Fierce defender of affirmative action
Stanford's Political Science Department wanted to hire me. I got a call from Stanford's affirmative action officer. If a department was willing to hire a minority professor, the university would provide half the money for the position. Even with that
incentive, departments were reluctant. But this time the department had come to her. "How did this happen?" she asked.Years later, after having been on the other side of faculty hiring, especially as the provost of Stanford, I understood exactly what
had happened. Stanford, in an effort to diversify its faculty, had made it possible to hire minorities without going through the normal processes. The Department of Political Science saw a young, black, female Soviet specialist and decided to make an
affirmative action hire.
Contrary to what has sometimes been written about me, I was and still am a fierce defender of affirmative action of this kind. Why shouldn't universities use every means necessary to diversify their faculty?
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.199-200
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
1985: First woman on grounds of Japan's military academy
I accepted a 3-week visiting professorship at the National Defense Academy of Japan, in Yokosuka. I had never been to Japan, and it was a somewhat hard place to be. The academy, their West Point, had never had a woman teach there. In fact, I don't think
they had ever had a woman on the school grounds before I came. One clue was the absence of a ladies' room. The school solved the problem by making one of the men's rooms off-limits to everyone else but me. Later I would be pleased to learn that the
academy admitted its first female cadet in 1992.All military academies are hierarchical, but in Japan this is exacerbated by cultural customs. The language, which is hierarchical, made it difficult to find an appropriate greeting in a case where a
female of higher status addresses a male of lower standing. When one of my host professors invited me to his home for dinner and his wife served us but ate in the kitchen, I was just appalled. In general, I found the whole experience stultifying.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.224-225
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Supporter of affirmative action, if done in the right way
Issues of affirmative action are tricky in a university, whether in admissions, in faculty hiring and tenure, or in selecting a football coach. There is probably no single issue on which I've felt more misunderstood. For instance, I have been called an
opponent of affirmative action. In fact, I'm a supporter of affirmative action--if done in what I consider to be the right way. No one can doubt that years of racial prejudice produced underrepresentation of minorities and women in all aspects of
American life. That is not acceptable in America, which is the world's greatest multi-ethnic democracy.Yet the question of how to remedy that situation is a delicate one. I've always believed that there are plenty of qualified minorities for these
roles. But the processes of selection, the networks through which people are identified, can very easily be insular and produce the same outcomes over and over. The answer lies in looking outside established networks and patterns of hiring.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.275-276
Jan 10, 2012
On Civil Rights:
Affirmative action: look for prospects in minority places
In student admissions it is necessary to take race into account. I don't know why, but minorities continue to score lower on standardized tests. Even after we adjust for socioeconomic status, this disparity holds.
But as my own story about the results of my PSAT in high school shows, these tests are not fully predictive of a student's success or failure.
Over the years I have had students with perfect records at entry fail and students who were thought to have been marginal succeed. Yet the idea that minority students are getting a break at the expense of white students is one of the most toxic issues
of our time.The key to affirmative action, I believe, is not to lower standards but to look for good prospects where you would not ordinarily find them.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.277
Jan 10, 2012
On Education:
Grandfather funded Rice Schools from rich white community
Granddaddy Rice worked mostly in Louisiana, founding a church and a school next door.The Rice schools were even more successful than the churches. My grandfather believed that his schools could better educate black children than the miserable public
schools of the day, and he sought funds from any source he could, whether it meant a few cents from parents in the community or $50 from rich white people across town. Granddaddy Rice once told Daddy that "white guilt" was his best ally in funding his
schools. But when a white church collected a bunch of old textbooks and "donated" them to my grandfather's school, he politely declined. It was important, he explained, that his kids have the most up-to-date reading materials,
just like the white students.
Granddaddy's educational evangelism compelled him to go door-to-door in the poor neighborhoods around him and impress upon the parents the importance of sending their kids to college.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 20-21
Jan 10, 2012
On Education:
Ad hoc participant in homeschooling in 1960s
We "graduated" from kindergarten in a ceremony complete with white robes and diplomas held in the church sanctuary. All of the other kids were on their way to 1st grade, but I wasn't. I was very sensitive about this. The problem was that I would not turn
6 until November, too late to meet the October 31 cutoff.My parents were determined to see that I did not miss an entire year of school. The Board of Education would not budge, so they came up with another idea. Perhaps I could test into
2nd grade the following year. Having received permission for this unusual maneuver, they set about making certain that I would pass the test.
My mother decided to take a year's leave from teaching to coach me in preparation for the exam. Years later
when the homeschooling movement became more visible, I belatedly realized that I had been a part of it, if only in an ad hoc way. I was very proud when I passed the test, scoring at a 3rd-grade level in arithmetic and at a 5th-grade level in reading.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 53-55
Jan 10, 2012
On Education:
Suspicious of the predictive power of standardized tests
After doing poorly on the PSAT (I wasn't then and am not now good at standardized tests), the guidance counselor at St. Mary's called me in to review the results. "You didn't do very well," she said, ignoring the fact that I was 2 years younger than my
schoolmates. "Perhaps you should consider junior college." I just laughed at her, thanked her for her advice, and left. But when I went home and told my parents, they were NOT amused. I have told that story many times, when I was provost at
Stanford, for several reasons. First, my own experience has led me to be rather suspicious of the predictive power of standardized tests. Second, I realize how lucky I was that my own sense of self--developed through years of parental affirmation--
shielded me at that moment from self-doubt. I have always worried that there are many young people, particularly minorities, who might internalize negative messages like that and simply give up.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.138
Jan 10, 2012
On Education:
Center for a New Generation: reduce poverty in E. Palo Alto
In 1991 [I delivered] the commencement address for the Ravenswood schools in East Palo Alto. Ravenswood is an elementary and middle school district. The superintendent said, "70% of these kids will never finish high school."I was stunned, and realized
that I knew very little of the poverty and lack of opportunity just a few blocks from my house. "Stanford has been running its own programs and its own agenda in East Palo Alto. It's about time that someone ask the people there what they need."
We launched the Center for a New Generation (CNG). We had no idea how hard it would be. Stanford had a well-deserved reputation for giving the help they decided the community needed without asking the community what it wanted.
But by 1992 we were able
to launch the program for children in grades 5 to 8. Each summer 250 kids were exposed to hands-on math and science instruction, language arts, instrumental music, dance, and art. The curriculum was repeated as an after-school program for 150 kids.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.262-264
Jan 10, 2012
On Foreign Policy:
Castro should pay for '62 Cuban Missile Crisis until he dies
One of my most vivid childhood memories is the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, in which the US and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense standoff over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. We were glued to the set every evening during those
13 days. It was a very scary time. In school, we went through duck-and-cover drills.But the crisis in Cuba was no drill. I could tell that my father was worried, and I realized that this was something my parents couldn't save me from.
It was the first time that I remember feeling truly vulnerable.
The whole episode had a surprisingly strong impact on me.
I once told an audience of Cuban Americans that Fidel Castro had put the US at risk in allowing those missiles to be deployed. "He should pay for it until he dies," I said. Even I was surprised by the rawness of that comment.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 39-40
Jan 10, 2012
On Foreign Policy:
Joined Republican Party when Carter boycotted 1980 Olympics
In the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, everyone was worried about growing tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. I'd previously registered as a Democrat and voted for
President Jimmy Carter in my first presidential election in 1976; I had this narrative in my head about reconciliation of the North and South and how he was going to be the first Southern president.
Now I watched him say that he had learned more about the Soviet Union from this Afghanistan invasion than he had ever known. "Whom did you think you were dealing with?" I asked the television set.
When Carter decided that the best response to the invasion was to boycott the Olympics, he lost me. I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and a few years late I joined the Republican Party.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.188
Jan 10, 2012
On Foreign Policy:
Berlin Wall fell thanks to bureaucratic screw-up
The unthinkable happened: the Berlin Wall fell. The most momentous event in 40 years of international history occurred thanks to a gigantic bureaucratic screw-up in the GDR. To stem the exodus of its citizens, the East German government developed new,
liberalized travel policies that would give East Germans the ability to leave the country. The hope was that in making it easier to travel back and forth, people would visit other nations but ultimately return home. Officials intended to have these
relaxed restrictions apply to the border between East and West Germany, but NOT in Berlin. That point, however, was somehow left out of the draft regulations.The new policies were written on Nov. 9, 1989, but the internal security forces didn't yet
have clear instructions on how to implement them. People began to flock to the Berlin Wall. Faced with the flood of people, the commander made a historic decision: he ordered his troops to withhold fire. The Berlin Wall collapsed in joyous celebration.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.250-251
Jan 10, 2012
On Gun Control:
Right to bear arms comes from fear of the government
[In "Bombingham" of 1963], after the first explosion, Daddy just went outside and sat on the porch with his gun on his lap. He sat there all night looking for white night riders.Eventually Daddy & the men of the neighborhood formed a watch. They would
take shifts at the head of the entrances to our streets. Occasionally they would fire a gun into the air to scare off intruders, but they never actually shot anyone.
Because of this experience, I'm a fierce defender of the 2nd Amendment and the right
to bear arms. Had my father and his neighbors registered their weapons, Bull Connor surely would have confiscated them or worse. The Constitution speaks of the right to a well-regulated militia. The inspiration for this was the Founding Fathers' fear of
the government. They insisted that citizens have the right, if necessary, to resist the authorities themselves. What better example of responsible gun ownership is there than what the men of my neighborhood did in response to the KKK and Bull Connor?
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 94
Jan 10, 2012
On Health Care:
Mother's 1970 cancer became a constant unwelcome presence
In March 1970, Mother had surgery [for breast cancer]. In 1970, cancer was considered a death sentence. I could tell that she was scared. I could tell that Daddy was scared. And I was terrified.[When] the surgery was over, the doctor was mildly
encouraging that the cancer had been caught early. She'd need to undergo radiation therapy.
When your mother is diagnosed with cancer you have to find a new normal. Once cancer enters your family's life it is a constant and unwelcome presence.
I prayed every night that Mother's cancer would not come back.
As the daughter of a mother who had breast cancer, I can confirm that the perpetual anxiety caused by a parent's disease is passed on to a child very directly.
When Mother was first diagnosed in 1970, the genetic implications of the disease weren't as well understood as they are today. But over my lifetime the fact that my mother had breast cancer has persisted as a dominant factor in my own health prognosis.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.143-146
Jan 10, 2012
On Homeland Security:
1989: NSC disastrously over-involved with Iran-Contra affair
I quickly learned that work at the National Security Council is hard and not very glamorous. Generally, NSC staffers write memoranda to prepare the President for phone calls and meetings, take notes to create a permanent record, coordinate
with other government agencies to keep them on track with the administration's priorities, and just take care of whatever the President needs to do his job, whether it's whispering the facts in his ear or photocopying his papers.
In the past, though, NSC staff had sometimes gotten too involved in carrying out the nation's foreign policy. The Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s had been one such case, in which the NSC staff had secretly cooked up a plan to
divert funds from covert Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan resistance (the Contras)--apparently without the knowledge of the secretary of state, let alone Congress. The fallout was disastrous; the affair almost brought down the Reagan presidency.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.238-239
Jan 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Named after musical term "con dolcezza" or "with sweetness"
My father had worked out a deal with my mother: if the baby was a girl, she would name her, but a boy would be named John.Mother started thinking about names for her daughter. She wanted a name that would be unique and musical.
Looking into Italian musical terms for inspiration, she at first settled on Andantino. But realizing that it translated as "moving slowly," she decided that she didn't like the implications of that name.
Allegro was worse because it translated as "fast." Finally she found the musical term "con dolce" and "con dolcezza," meaning "with sweetness."
Deciding that an English speaker would never recognize the hard c, saying "dolci" instead of "dolche," my mother doctored the term. She settled on Condoleezza.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 1
Jan 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Two white great-grandfathers, one on each side of family
We came to this country as founding populations--Europeans and Africans. Our bloodlines have crossed and been intertwined by the ugly sexual exploitation that was very much a part of slavery.
Even in the depths of segregation, blacks and whites lived very closely to each other.We still have a lot of trouble with the truth of how tangled our family histories are.
These legacies are painful and remind us of America's birth defect: slavery. I can remember being asked how I felt when I learned that
I apparently had 2 white great-grandfathers, one on each side of the family. I just considered it a fact--no feelings were necessary. We all have white ancestors, and some whites have black ancestors.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 11
Jan 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Grandmother gave Condi piano lessons starting at age 3
The activity that I enjoyed most was watching my grandmother teach piano. Grandmother Ray had about 20 students, ranging from beginners to quite advanced pianists, charging 25 cents a session. I'd ask to take some sheet music home so I could "practice."
Each day I'd leave with music, usually forgetting to bring it back the next day. To preserve her music collection, Grandmother finally gave me a regular book to take home. "Grandmother, this isn't music!" I told her.
Grandmother Ray decided that it was unusual for a kid to know the difference and asked my mother if she could start giving me piano lessons. I was 3 years old, and they wondered if it might be too early but decided to give it a try.
Unlike the early experiment with 1st grade, this worked. I loved the piano.
I'd play for hours. It was hard to get me to do anything else, including read books or watch television.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 42-43
Jan 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
Father brought 1960s black radicals to dinner table
[In Denver in 1970], the parade of speakers my father assembled for his seminar was extraordinary by any measure. Academics and educators, artists and activists, politicians and athletes all came together to provide their perspective on the state of
black America. There were also some civil rights leaders, such as Julian Bond, one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. And many of the speakers were on the radical end of black politics, such as Louis Farrakhan.
And, of course, Daddy invited his friend Stokely Carmichael to the podium several times.My father was fascinated with the radical side of black politics. I was never taught that Farrakhan was a traitor or that the Black Panthers were terrorists.
They were to be taken seriously on their merits. Years later, when so much attention was paid to then-Senator Obama's radical associations, I wondered what might have been made of the people who sat at our dinner table.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.134-135
Jan 10, 2012
On Principles & Values:
1986: Suffered myomectomy surgery for uterine fibroids
My time in Washington was interrupted by a health crisis. A doctor told me that I had uterine fibroids--a nasty condition that can afflict as many as 80% of women. He recommended that I have a hysterectomy.This was terrible news. In the back of my
mind I had always assumed that I would get married and have kids. I wanted to find that special man because I had been inspired by the wonderful example my parents had provided through their marriage. I was not at all concerned that marriage might hold
me back professionally. And frankly, I'd always hoped to marry within my race. If the right man does not come along, it is better to enjoy a fulfilling and happy life as a single person. But in 1986, at the age of 30, the prospect of not even having the
OPTION to have kids was devastating.
I asked whether there were other approaches. He was having great success with myomectomy, which removed the fibroids and left the uterus intact. Several days later I had the surgery, which took more than 7 hours.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p.229-231
Jan 10, 2012
On Technology:
Few blacks on TV until 1962
My parents didn't set limits on how much TV I watched. To be fair, television was a lot more wholesome in the late 1950s. The only black people regularly on TV were the characters on "Amos 'n' Andy," and while we watched their antics, my parents went out
of their way to point out and correct their butchered English. Mostly I watched cartoons such as "Popeye" and situation comedies such as "I Love Lucy." "The Popeye Show" took place in a studio with
Cousin Cliff, a big white man in a sailor suit, hosting an audience of schoolkids. Sometimes kids would bring their friends and celebrate a birthday on TV.
The studio audience was all white, of course, until about 1962, when the show started devoting a few days each year to "Negro day." I actually got to go when I was about 7 years old and one of my friends had her birthday party there.
Source: My Extraordinary Family, by Condi Rice, p. 37-38
Jan 10, 2012
Page last updated: Jun 30, 2013