Wool & Words

Read if you like--I love Shelby Steele and wanted to share.

Of Condi Rice, Steele writes:

Despite a childhood in the segregated South that might entitle her to a grievance identity, she has clearly chosen that older black American tradition in which blacks neither deny injustice nor allow themselves to be defined by it.

I don't want to dwell on the topic of the piece--I'm not interested in discussing the 2008 elections and won't be until after I'm married--but I want to dwell in the delicious truth of this statement. This is how I was raised and how I live my life--not defined by injustice, but not denying it either. It's a hard row to hoe, but I try to maintain a positive outlook and to pass that on. Since I teach and work in a bastion of whiteness, I'm largely shielded from the day to day struggles, but I know that they are there and I try to shed light on them when I can in conversations.