IN A WORLD of staunch political correctness, especially in the arena of race and gender politics, one would think that the recent degradation of two prominent African-American political figures would be inconceivable. However, once you realize that they are directed at two prominent African-American Republicans, then it all makes sense.
Two weeks ago, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was labeled an "Aunt Jemima" by Wisconsin radio host John "Sly" Sylvester. Sylvester also branded Secretary of State Colin Powell as an "Uncle Tom."
Sylvester received some complaints and decided to apologize (sort of) for the "Aunt Jemima" comment, but still maintained that Rice was dim-witted and subservient in the Bush administration. His Web site provides a detailed response, which reads in part: "I'm concerned that I have offended many African Americans by using a crass term to describe an incompetent, dishonest, political appointee of the Bush administration, I apologize."
In his online statement, Sylvester also depicted Rice as a "lackey for Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld" and a "black trophy" of the Bush administration. Sylvester even went so far as to apologize to Aunt Jemima for equating her with a "self-serving hack politician."
First, putting aside politics, Condoleezza Rice is far from incompetent. Her intellect, by any definitive standard, is far superior to the vast majority of Americans, let alone Sylvester's, who can't even edit his own Web site for grammatical errors. She earned a masters and a Ph.D. by age 27, and she holds seven honorary doctorates. She has been a member on boards of directors for six major corporations, the University of Notre Dame, two service organizations and eight other companies. She also held several positions in George H. W. Bush's administration. Oh, and she was an award-winning political science professor at Stanford University and the Provost of Stanford for six years. Yes, she's certainly a bumbling idiot.
This dig at Rice is not the first; rather, it is just one out of the barrage of demeaning and discriminatory rhetoric, political cartoons and inflammatory statements directed at her since she took the national stage. In July, Washington Post cartoonist Ted Rall drew a caricature of Rice saying, "I was Bush's beard! I was his house [the "n" word]." In the cartoon, a black character wearing a shirt that reads, "You're not white, stupid," scolds Rice with, "Now hand over your hair straightener."
Outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell has also received his share of racially charged declamations, aside from the Uncle Tom comment. Singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte lambasted Powell in a 20-minute rant during a radio interview in 2002. He stated, in part, "Colin Powell is permitted to come into the house of the master, as long as he will serve the master according to the master's plans."
The First Amendment protects this kind of speech, but the relative lack of indignation and anger shows a tremendous double standard on the part of the left. Sylvester, who is white, stirred some trouble in his home town of Madison, but the outrage was by no means widespread. Where was the NAACP, Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton declaring Sylvester's ludicrous statements as blatantly racist? Imagine if Rice and Powell were Democrats, and they were besmirched with racial epithets by a conservative white male radio talk show host such as Rush Limbaugh. Obviously, he would be unanimously decried as a racist -- and rightfully so -- and the backlash would be so immense that he might be forced to resign. However, Rall and Sylvester are still employed, and no one, except for some of those "crazy right wing nuts," has demanded their resignations.
These ad hominem attacks on Rice and Powell strike at the heart of a larger issue -- the liberals' problem with the black conservative movement. In a fashion befitting sheer hypocrisy, the so-called party of tolerance consistently rails against dissent within the African-American demographic. In July, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume condemned black Republicans, or, as he put it, "ventriloquists' dummies." In response, Education Secretary Rod Paige, an African American, wrote in a Wall Street Journal piece, "You [Mfume and NAACP chairman Julian Bond] do not own, and you are not the arbiters of, African-American authenticity."
When renowned African-American figures are essentially written off as sellouts to whites for embracing ideologies different from the majority of their race, intellectual and political independence -- the basis of civil rights -- are regrettably suppressed and undermined.
Whitney Blake is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at wblake@cavalierdaily.com.
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