A Kinder, Gentler Condoleezza
Only this morning, an intrepid emailer to Black Ivy, the listserve of black Ivy League graduates of which I am a part, posed a question to the list: "Does the Secretary of State date?" She was referencing United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's 60 Minutes interview last night with Katie Couric in which Couric devoted significant airtime to Rice's dating/personal life. The aforementioned emailer interpreted the line of questioning to be "inappropriate" at best, and (in a follow-up email) suggested that there may have been some gender bias. (Regarding the other big interview--Steve Kroft with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf--she states, "No one asked him about how he met his wife, or what he does to relax after being threatened with bombing by the US gov't. I suppose what's appropriate for Georgie's bestest buddy, doesn't work for a world leader.")
And she's right. No matter how far a male world leader's popularity rating falls or how many grimaces and expletives he uses within earshot of CNN, BBC, and Aljazeera microphones--albeit unwittingly--he's not being asked what he plans to buy his honey for Valentine's Day. Even when said hypothetical world leader offers an unsolicited massage to another world leader--a woman--at the G-8 Summit, there's no talk of the sweet nothings that he might whisper into his lover's ear.
So a question (actually multiple questions) about Condi's personal life can seem to smack of sexism. Even if she approved the questions herself--as other Black Ivy members were quick to assure us has most certainly happened--this desire to show Condi's kinder and gentler side when the same wouldn't necessarily be the case if Condi were a man, even an unmarried man, does suggest a double standard.
Then, why is it happening? Why do we now know her workout schedule (and that she likes to sweat--at 5:00am--to the music of Cream and Led Zeppelin)? Why did she speak with such passion about her experience growing up in Jim Crow Birmingham, Alabama and share that she was playmates with one of the four little girls, Denise McNair, who was killed in the infamous bombing of a Birmingham Baptist Church when Rice was only eight years old. Condi's not new to the political stage; why is her human interest story getting mainstream airplay now? (I should mention that Essence magazine has done a feature story on Rice for their upcoming October issue.)
I'll leave the political opinions to political pundits who can spin a story quicker than I can say Condoleezza. But I'll say this: Dr. Condoleezza Rice is one of the most powerful, educated, and professionally accomplished black women in the world. She's also fiercely loyal to a president that many would argue is one of the least insightful and most polarizing of American presidents in recent memory. An odd pairing at best. His [disgruntled] political base is disproportionately populated by social conservatives and those with large corporate interests (this century's landed gentry). In our president's first term in office, then National Security Advisor Rice had succeeded in presenting her staunch credentials and fierce loyalty to Bush in a way that was above reproach (for his supporters) despite her membership in the black race and female half of the species.
Now, in his second term in office, George and his team are focused on the end-game: how to position his legacy in way that doesn't lose Republican votes come November's House and Senate elections and that paints his presidency with a forgiving and patroitic hand. Therefore, as further proof of her loyalty, Rice has taken up the mantle of softening the cowboy edges of our president--along with First Lady Laura--and is now emboldened to share her own softer side. She is a woman, after all, and women are often called upon to display these aspects of themselves when their man--that is, their president--is having a rough go of it. What a woman. Even Condi's blackness has been able to do a little something to boost Bush's image: by bringing attention to her experience growing up in the segregated South and overcoming the obstacle of racism, we on the receiving end may end up feeling that George W. Bush does indeed care about black people, thereby debunking the myth that the people left to fend for themselves in the hospitals and on the rooftops of New Orleans' most underserved communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina just so happened to be black...and poor.
And she's right. No matter how far a male world leader's popularity rating falls or how many grimaces and expletives he uses within earshot of CNN, BBC, and Aljazeera microphones--albeit unwittingly--he's not being asked what he plans to buy his honey for Valentine's Day. Even when said hypothetical world leader offers an unsolicited massage to another world leader--a woman--at the G-8 Summit, there's no talk of the sweet nothings that he might whisper into his lover's ear.
So a question (actually multiple questions) about Condi's personal life can seem to smack of sexism. Even if she approved the questions herself--as other Black Ivy members were quick to assure us has most certainly happened--this desire to show Condi's kinder and gentler side when the same wouldn't necessarily be the case if Condi were a man, even an unmarried man, does suggest a double standard.
Then, why is it happening? Why do we now know her workout schedule (and that she likes to sweat--at 5:00am--to the music of Cream and Led Zeppelin)? Why did she speak with such passion about her experience growing up in Jim Crow Birmingham, Alabama and share that she was playmates with one of the four little girls, Denise McNair, who was killed in the infamous bombing of a Birmingham Baptist Church when Rice was only eight years old. Condi's not new to the political stage; why is her human interest story getting mainstream airplay now? (I should mention that Essence magazine has done a feature story on Rice for their upcoming October issue.)
I'll leave the political opinions to political pundits who can spin a story quicker than I can say Condoleezza. But I'll say this: Dr. Condoleezza Rice is one of the most powerful, educated, and professionally accomplished black women in the world. She's also fiercely loyal to a president that many would argue is one of the least insightful and most polarizing of American presidents in recent memory. An odd pairing at best. His [disgruntled] political base is disproportionately populated by social conservatives and those with large corporate interests (this century's landed gentry). In our president's first term in office, then National Security Advisor Rice had succeeded in presenting her staunch credentials and fierce loyalty to Bush in a way that was above reproach (for his supporters) despite her membership in the black race and female half of the species.
Now, in his second term in office, George and his team are focused on the end-game: how to position his legacy in way that doesn't lose Republican votes come November's House and Senate elections and that paints his presidency with a forgiving and patroitic hand. Therefore, as further proof of her loyalty, Rice has taken up the mantle of softening the cowboy edges of our president--along with First Lady Laura--and is now emboldened to share her own softer side. She is a woman, after all, and women are often called upon to display these aspects of themselves when their man--that is, their president--is having a rough go of it. What a woman. Even Condi's blackness has been able to do a little something to boost Bush's image: by bringing attention to her experience growing up in the segregated South and overcoming the obstacle of racism, we on the receiving end may end up feeling that George W. Bush does indeed care about black people, thereby debunking the myth that the people left to fend for themselves in the hospitals and on the rooftops of New Orleans' most underserved communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina just so happened to be black...and poor.
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