Apparently, race is a birth defect.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding.

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

Source.

Now, I realize she was attempting to be satirical. At first glance, this seems at first like a great line.

But it's really not, because it places the idea of "race" into the neutral ground of happenstance, of nature, when in reality race is really nothing more than a social construct. The average person can attempt to argue against this point (I gladly welcome the challenge; please, try it) but it isn't the main point of this post.

Please note the bolded section, and the two main points: "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start," and "[she] think[s] [we] continue to see some of the effects of that." To which I say: understate much?

This pairing truly infuriates me, for a few reasons. One: she said this at the behest of another, as the token minority in our administration, in response to Barack Obama's smashing speech. This is a politically correct, useless-in-reality comment.

Two: It implies that African-Americans gota head start... this is patently false. Ever hear of Jim Crow? Yeah... and how that didn't really come off the books until the 60s? And how it's still in effect on a de facto basis? Ms. Rice, what's the deal here? Furthermore, by putting it in the past tense it implies that "head start" was enough to essentially equalize things, and is no longer necessary. Once again, appallingly incorrect.

Three: She thinks we see some effects of that? Thinks?! Where the hell did she grow up so that she completely missed out on the whole racial reality of America? Who is spoon feeding her this shit? Does she really believe what is coming out of her mouth?

The blatant, probably willful ignorance of many of the leaders of this country is still astounding to me, even though I try to expect it.