As to be expected, Ed Schultz didn't catch it. Then again, perhaps he did and let it go anyway.
On his last podcast before Thanksgiving, Schultz was talking with Marcia Fudge, Democrat congresswoman from Ohio, about violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., after a grand jury decided against indicting police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.
Fudge tried to make a point about racial tensions in America by citing a quotation allegedly stated by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It wasn't long before the quote sounded decidedly dubious (audio) --
SCHULTZ: You can't legislate somebody's feelings, you can't legislate somebody's heart. What changes this environment?
FUDGE: Well, I think you have to talk about it. No one, I mean, the president tries to bring up race, he's vilified. I watched my friend (Georgetown sociology professor Michael Eric) Dyson with the former mayor of New York (Rudy Giuliani, Fudge alluding to their contentious exchange on "Meet the Press" last week) and the mayor was defending the fact that it's OK to profile black boys because they live in certain neighborhoods that have a certain crime rate. (More accurately, Giuliani suggested that police inevitably go to places where many crimes occur). We all know that poor neighborhoods have higher crime rates and we do know that, disproportionately, young black boys are involved. (Fudge paraphrasing Giuliani's argument). But you cannot condemn an entire race of people because of these actions. (Fudge distorting Giuliani's remarks beyond recognition).
But you need to talk about it, Ed (unless your name is Rudy Giuliani). We don't ever want to really have a true discussion on race. We need to have it. Let me just give you a quote from Condoleezza Rice, one of the best known Republicans in this country, and I quote, this is what she said -- she said, "America was born with a birth defect, slavery, and that defect hobbles our nation and causes us to limp, a limp that is increasingly becoming more pronounced day after day. We have to get to the root of the problem and no one is willing to do it."
SCHULTZ (after a pause): That's a tall mountain to climb.
At best, Fudge gets Rice's remarks about one-quarter correct; at worst, she's deliberately misquoting another woman of color, and an influential conservative, to bolster her own weak argument.
Yes, Rice did describe slavery as America's "birth defect" and did so after candidate Obama delivered an abrupt damage-control speech on race in March 2008 after videos surfaced of unhinged rants from the pulpit by his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Later that month, Rice sat down with The Washington Times' editorial board. Here is how it was reported in the Times on March 28, 2008 --
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."
"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today."
Yeah, that sounds like the Rice I've come to know over the years, if only through the news. Turns out Fudge wasn't quoting Rice -- she was quoting an author, columnist and ex-con named Mansfield B. Frazier. Here's what Frazier wrote at coolcleveland.com on Nov. 26, the same day Fudge appeared on Schultz's podcast --
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put it so succinctly: "America was born with a birth defect: slavery." And that defect hobbles our nation, causes us to limp, a limp that is increasingly becoming more pronounced day after day ... year after year.
Just a hunch, but I'm guessing that the congresswoman whose district includes a huge swath of Cleveland is more familiar with what's posted at coolcleveland.com that what's been said by Condi Rice.
