http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H19sMQgHE7Y&feature=related
While doing research for my final project, I stumbled across this video that depicts Condi Rice defending her beliefs of women in politics. The interviewer is somewhat degrading towards her about the topic, categorizing her in one role or another. Dr. Rice's belief is very geared toward individuality and uniqueness and so she did not take kindly to the containment of her achievements to simply being that of a woman or African American.
I find it very interesting that while she is discussing the topic of the empowerment of women, all her interviewer can do is capitalize the struggles she faced in a male-dominated environment (not to mention older and white). He makes it sound as though she was outside of herself when serving in her position and that she didn't truly fit in where she was - she just persevered through the post.
The assumptions that were taken from other books and sources that Dr. Rice denied were also all examples that would have shown her as "weak" from a patriarchal perspective. Rice immediately dismisses the "boxing" that the interviewer does with his questions and presents the subject from a more middle-of-the-road perspective. She emphasizes the collaboration instead of giving the idea that the men did all of the work in government decisions (proportionally).
Katy, very interesting post, since I too did my final project on Condoleezza rice, I thought you might be interesting in something that I didn’t know about her until reading her autobiography. Since her aggressive military tactics are often considered “uncharacteristic” for a woman, her political views are often questioned. In researching how Condoleezza adopted many of her views, I stumbled upon a chapter in her book that at least describes how her view of the second amendment, the right to bear arms was shaped.
ReplyDeleteWhile growing up in Birmingham in 1963, her neighborhood was bombed by “night riders” or members of the KKK for the sole reason that they knew her neighborhood was mostly African American. Condoleezza’s father and some of the other men in their neighborhood got together to start a watch, they lined the end of each street and armed themselves with guns. Condoleezza said they often just fired shots into the air to scare off intruders. She claims that her view on the right to bear arms was based of this experience when she was young in that if her father and the other men would have registered their guns, they would have been confiscated or worse (Rice, p.93) .
Rice, Condoleezza. Extraordinary, Ordinary People: [a Memoir of Family]. United States: Random House, Inc, 2010.