Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the argument that race relations are “worse now” Thursday morning in an interview with NBC’s Sheinelle Jones.
Jones asked Rice about race relations in the age of the Trump administration and the belief “people” hold that it’s worse now than before.
“There are people who will say it feels worse now when we’re talking about race, or it just feels like a divisive environment,” Jones began.
“Look, it sure doesn’t feel worse than when I grew up in Jim Crow Alabama, OK? So, let’s drop this notion that we’re worse race relations today than we were in the past,” Rice answered. “Really? That means we’ve made no progress, really? And so, I think the hyperbole about how much worse it is isn’t doing us any good. This country is never going to be colorblind. We had the initial original sin of slavery.”
Jones responded, “So for people who say, you know what, it’s top down, it starts with the president, it starts with the words that he speaks.”
“Oh, come on, alright. I would be the first to say we need to watch our language about race — we need to watch we don’t use dog whistles,” Rice retorted. “But when we start saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s worse today,’ no, they’re not.”
Jones also asked Rice about Trump saying he would entertain the idea of accepting dirt on his political adversaries from foreign entities as well as the outcomes of the Mueller report and the special counsel’s investigation.
