Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared on The View this week to discuss one of the controversial and divisive issues in American Society—Critical Race Theory.
Secretary Rice’s remarks against the education concept that pits children against one another over the color of their skin, were direct and forceful as she told the story about her own upbringing in segregated Alabama.
“Let me be very clear. I grew up in segregated Birmingham AL. I couldn't go to the movie theater at a restaurant with my parents. I went to segregated schools till we moved to Denver,” said Rice. My parents never thought I was going to grow up in a world without prejudice, but they also told me, “that somebody else's problem, not yours, you are going to overcome it and you are going to be anything you want to be.”
Rice’s rebuke of the education concept falls in line with the mindset that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds about the theory, who contends that CRT teaches kids that “America is a rotten place.”
Christina Pushaw, Gov. DeSantis press secretary told The Floridian that “No child should judge themselves, or others, by their skin color” and that “Children of all races and ethnicities should have access to high quality education, and opportunities to learn and thrive, without being stereotyped or subjected to the divisive, baseless ideology of race.”
Powerful remarks by Condi Rice on CRT. pic.twitter.com/wUarfHQtcy
— Andy Grewal (@AndyGrewal) October 21, 2021
At a recent press conference in Titusville, Florida, Gov. DeSantis reiterated that CRT “violates” the education standards that have been put in place and implemented around Florida.
“We see major movements in states like Virginia and others, where parents are protesting curriculum around things like critical race theory, which is very negative about American history, treats kids differently based on race. In Florida, that violates our standards and we don't allow it, but there's a number of school districts that have tried to do that. There's been a lot of parents who very much objected to that,” said DeSantis.
DeSantis continued, saying that parents were “frustrated” that their children were having this ideological curriculum was being forced upon them.
“We move very quickly against things like critical race theory, but there is a movement across this country to take, to move away from this being focused on the core things that we need people to be educated in and try to impose a certain orthodoxy or a certain worldview on the kids. That's not an appropriate use of a school system, but when that's being done, you can understand why parents are going to be frustrated with that and are going to want to speak out against it because that's not the right thing to do. And so that you see, so making sure we're focusing on the basics, don't get sidetracked into try trying to impose ideology through the curriculum. And if we're doing that, then man, you're going to have much more harmony as a result,” concluded DeSantis
Rice said that the positive message of perseverance and overcoming life’s obstacles was “the message that I think we ought to be sending the kids.”
Rice then expressed her concern over the education concept’s teaching of putting black children against white children because of the past wrongs committed against the Black community.
“One of the worries that I have about the way that we're talking about race is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past, I don't think that's very productive, or black people have feel disempowered by race,” added Rice.
“I would like black kids to be completely empowered to know that they are beautiful in their blackness, but in order to do that I don't have to make white kids feel bad for being white.” —Condoleeza Rice
