Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thinks some are too quick to assume how black people should think politically, adding that such conclusions are made especially among liberals.
In a Tuesday interview hosted by the Aspen Security Forum, Rice said while she doesn’t believe the United States will ever be “colorblind,” she hopes one day people won’t assume black people should think a certain way because of their race.
“I would like to get to the place that when you see somebody who is black, you don’t have preconceived notions of what they’re capable of, who they are — by the way, what they think, which is, I think, a problem of the Left,” Rice told moderator Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times. “You look at somebody who’s black, and you think you know what they think, or you at least think you know what they ought to think.”
“Is there systemic racism?” Asks @peterbakernyt. Yes, @CondoleezzaRice responds, but we have to break it down into more detail. Listen to her full answer and tune in LIVE: https://t.co/BPJS3x933w #AspenSecurity pic.twitter.com/wLCRpfnMQK
— Aspen Security Forum (@AspenSecurity) August 4, 2020
Rice, a proponent of school choice, also argued for broader definitions of “systemic racism,” such as academic disparity in schools or understanding the differences in policing across various neighborhoods.
“There is something in the system that is part of the explanation for the persistent, the stubborn achievement gap between black students and white students,” she said.
Rice’s comments come as the country continues to grapple with a national reckoning on race that has been persistent since the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Rice, who grew up in the segregated South, became the first black woman in U.S. history to serve as the country’s national security adviser and later the first to become secretary of state under former President George W. Bush.
