Condoleezza Rice’s Extraordinary, Ordinary Look at the Role of Race in America
by Latoya Peterson
Condoleezza Rice is an intriguing figure to watch as she moves across the national stage.
She held two of the highest offices in the United States – National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.
She is a Republican, yet she doesn’t shy away from talking about race, as is the custom for many members of the party.
She was a young prodigy, gifted in the arts and sports, but chose a life immersed in public policy.
Her new book, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family traces her life, beginning with her Grandfather Albert Robinson Ray III, then the lives of her mother and father, then her own life, growing up in the segregated South. Her story flips between idyllic childhood memories of church picnics and piano lessons and terrifying memories of bombings and explosions, Rice chronicles the contradictions of the living in the land of the free, and still living with the legacy of what she terms “America’s birth defect.”Rice begins discussing race in the United States on page two, which sets the tone for the rest of the memoir. An ever present force, race is something to be understood and grappled with time and time again. She tries to paint a picture of life during that era, noting:
Certainly, in any confrontation with a white person in Alabama, you were bound to lose. But my parents believed that could could alter that equation through education, hard work, perfectly spoken English, and an appreciation for “the finer things” in “their” culture. If you were twice as good as they were, “they might not like you but “they” had to respect one. One could find space for a fulfilling and productive life. There was nothing worse than being a hapless victim of circumstances.
While doing the book rounds, she was cornered by one news caster who asked her to back up and explain what she meant by “twice as good.” I can’t find the clip now, but the interviewer seemed amazed at this turn of phrase, this implicit acceptance of the idea that in order to go half as far as a white person, a black person had to be twice as good as everything. If I remember correctly, Rice just smiled and explained the history of the adage – without bothering to explain how the policy is still in effect today.
Still, Rice refers to that adage, as well as a “no victims, no excuses,” mantra that permeates her story. Despite those convictions, Rice’s reflections on growing up are at times horrifying, when one realizes exactly how the threat of violence was always present in daily life. A simple car breakdown experienced by her father and uncles turned into a harrowing race to have the car fixed after a passing police officer said “you boys had better have your black asses out of here before I come back.” The story of Rice’s birth reveals a story of how public hospitals were segregated. Not only were patients denied private rooms, all black patients were forced down into the basement, where they stood shoulder to shoulder with patients who had other, potentially communicable, illnesses. Selecting a football team to root for was complicated by Birmingham’s refusal to allow integrated teams, the Redskin’s racist policies, ultimately choosing the Cleveland Browns. Joining the high school band provided an avenue to participation in black public life, when movie theaters and concert halls were closed to black patrons. A youth-to-youth religious exchange program revealed fifty-four sticks of dynamite stashed under a local synagogue. The only restaurant available to African-Americans in Birmingham was next to a funeral parlor. Roadtrips were carefully planned, as there were no hotels that accepted black travelers until you crossed the Mason Dixon line. One of Rice’s schoolmates was killed in the bombing of the 16th street Baptist Church.
Even a trip to see Santa Claus for Christmas turned into a racially charged moment, when Condoleezza’s father, John Rice, noticed that Santa would put the white children in line on his knee, but hold the black children away from him. Rice remembers:
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