What does Susan Rice think about slavery?
As you probably know, Biden’s picked the former national security advisor to head his White House Domestic Policy Council.
RedState’s Bonchie’s not a fan — on December 10th, he made that clear:
Only in Washington D.C. could you be as abject of a failure, and as terrible of a person, as Susan Rice and still be in line for a top administration role the next time around.
But speaking of the past, as we watch the increasingly pro-reparations party pack positions, it’s worth looking at Susan’s comments on America’s Greatest Shame once upon a time.
2020 can’t get enough of talk about privilege, history, the Confederacy, the Civil War, and slavery.
But where was America in, say, 1998?
And where was Susan Rice?
The Daily Caller looked back and found quite the quotes from her time serving beneath President Clinton.
Twenty-two years ago, Bill delivered a speech outside the Ugandan capital.
As reported by The Washington Post, he confessed to America’s sins:
“Going back to the time before we were even a nation, European Americans received the fruits of the slave trade. And we were wrong in that.”
Bill connected that to the plight of Africa at the time:
“In our own time, during the Cold War, when we were so concerned about being in competition with the Soviet Union, very often we dealt with countries in Africa and other parts of the world based more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own people’s aspirations to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities.”
Purportedly, some in Clinton’s camp were worried how his words might play in the States.
At a press conference, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan waxed philosophic.
To hear her tell it, we should be moving on:
“I’d like to make the point to all of you that you ought to be, I would argue, not focused on the past, not focused on the Cold War, not focused on slavery, which, as an African American, is largely irrelevant to what we’re about here, but focus on the future.”
She wasn’t interested in dwelling on what’s behind:
“You asked a question of Reverend Jackson, how do you feel — or how did you feel hearing the comments of the President or experiencing the slave castles as an African American. Let me just speak for myself — I felt, one, a sense of reverence and a sense of history, but far more interested in the future. What is going to be the fate of my 8-month-old son, what is going to be the fate of the young children we saw today in Jinja — that’s what’s relevant.”
Susan said Bill was trying to express a need to keep eyes on the prize.
And again, she uttered the “I” word:
“So I hope that we can increasingly stop talking about slaver(y), which is, frankly, largely irrelevant to most of us here today. and talk about how we can overcome our history, both positive and negative, in a fashion that builds a brighter future for Americans and Africans alike.”
But who was responsible for the scourge?
Per the Caller, she pointed out there were different kinds of individuals on both sides:
Rice had previously said that there were both “buyers and sellers” in Africa who participated in the slave trade, the Post reported, and emphasized during the press conference that she stood by these remarks.
“I stand by my statement,” she told a reporter during the 1998 White House Press Briefing. “There were buyers and sellers. That’s a historical fact. That’s not to cast blame.”
Here’s her idea — let go of the past:
“That’s simply to say that the past is past, and buyers and sellers are now on both sides of the Atlantic and it’s our task together to build a brighter future. We can spend the rest of this trip and the rest of our time while we’re in government talking about the past, or we can seize an opportunity and build a better future for American young people and African young people. To me, that’s a no-brainer.”
Does that sound very 2020ish?
How about modernly Democratlike?
These days, I’m not sure it would play the same with the Left.
For more, see my July 15th article “North Carolina Town Makes the Move: City Council Votes to Award Black Residents ‘Community Reparations.’”
Or how about Monday’s “Law Professor Calls for All Black Votes to Be Double-Counted From Now On.”
In fact, America’s so attentive to its history, Abe Lincoln’s name’s been axed by public ed. — as it turns out, the man who signed the Emancipation Proclamation “did not show through policy or rhetoric that black lives ever mattered.”
Indeed, according to anti-racism, the mere mention that one is colorblind is a microaggression, .
These days, people seem to think until the past is avenged, no present can exist.
So how can Susan contemporarily provide good government? According to the apparent rules of the woke, she’ll need to change her mind about separating the sheep from the wolves.
And the enlightened from the color-blind.
Will her words come back to haunt her?
Perhaps.
It’s a new day, like she wanted. But now — like the nation — she may have to focus on fixing her past.
-ALEX
See more pieces from me:
Just Like Mama Used to Make: McDonald’s Unveils Its Spam and Oreo Burger
Law Professor Calls for All Black Votes to Be Double-Counted From Now On
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