Condoleezza Rice During Katrina: 'We Clearly Have A Race Problem'

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said President George W. Bush had a "race problem" during Hurricane Katrina, but she defended him against his critics who, she said, tried to use the "race card" against him, according to excerpts from her upcoming memoir, No Higher Honor, published in Newsweek.

In the book, Rice recounted how she went shopping at the expensive Ferragamo shoe store in New York and returned to her hotel:

The airwaves were filled with devastating pictures from New Orleans. And the faces of most of the people in distress were black. I knew right away that I should never have left Washington. I called my chief of staff, Brian Gunderson. "I'm coming home," I said.

"Yeah. You'd better do that," he answered.

Then I called the President. "Mr. President, I'm coming back. I don't know how much I can do, but we clearly have a race problem," I said.

Rice, who grew up in racially segregated Birmingham, Ala., said in September 2005 that race and poverty came together "in a very ugly way" in the "Old South."

However, in the memoir, she defended Bush against some who used the "explosive 'race card' to paint the President as a prejudiced, uncaring man." "It was so unfair, cynical, and irresponsible," she wrote.

It's not the first time she has defended Bush's handling of Katrina. In a 2009 appearance on "The View," she said, "What really did make me angry was the implication that some people made that President Bush allowed this to happen because these people were black."

Rice has expressed regret for the New York City trip before Katrina, especially for shopping at an expensive shoe store. She again wrote about the trip to New York, where she saw the show "Spamalot" and the Drudge Report noticed. "I wasn't just the secretary of state with responsibility for foreign affairs; I was the highest ranking black in the administration and a key advisor to the President. What had I been thinking?"

Comments

[airbreaks]

04:35 PM on 12/02/2011

George W. in my opinion is not racist and I think he truly cares for all people regardless of their skin color but unfortunately a caring nature coupled with ineptitude is still a bad recipe for dealing with hurricanes or wars or financial disasters.

[buckcameron]

10:42 PM on 10/31/2011

George Bush has sooo many problems and did blow the whole Katrina response, but, I never saw any evidence of racism beyond the typical upper crust insensitivity. Let's be fair with mih on this one.

[zeutern]

05:32 AM on 10/27/2011

"We have a race problem" but Bush did everything right. Oh yeah, and Browny did a good job.
What is it with this woman? She has some serious denial issues and can see a mushroom cloud from her backyard.

[Charles Mcgee]

10:00 PM on 10/26/2011

Interesting. There is no NEW South. What was in 1956 with the Southern Manifesto remains today. I have shared this with Herman Cain and suggested that his presidential aspirations are tied to his ability to articulate the substance of Alabama culture today in light of its history wherein some key players from 1956 remain influential. Our present governor was a student at University of Alabama the day George Corley Wallace stood in the door of Foster Auditorium and said to Vivian Malone and James Hood, "SEGREGATION FOREVER!!!" Nothing has changed and Condi Rice knows that. The present group who call themselves Republicans are merely dixiecrats in cheap suits and bleached blond hair.

[Kathy Levittown]

10:39 PM on 10/26/2011

wow...3rd fan..

[JM Brodie]

05:14 AM on 10/27/2011

#5

[JPETERB]

09:21 PM on 10/26/2011

What we have, Ms. Condi Rice, is a sever honesty and abuse of power "problem" in the US and yet you are in permanent denial about your role. For all the tens of thousands of innocent persons who met an early and violent death because of deceit and the abuse of power you willingly facilitated, their shin tone had little to do with why they were murdered. It was done for the love of black oil by your masters.

[skippythepinhead]

06:25 AM on 10/27/2011

I love your comment, but I REALLY like your typo. Makes me think of a world in which we'd have to base our exclusionary thinking on actual tangible actions if piddling genetic differences like skin tone could be confined to easily covered up areas.

[JPETERB]

01:20 PM on 10/29/2011

Thanks. It was a typo. But, for you and maybe a few others, it works out to be a sharp Freudian 'tip' about the common nature of all mortal beings, we humans included.

[Vote2bfree]

07:33 PM on 10/26/2011

Yeah the race problem started in 2000 when Bush won that race.

[sharmaine73]

06:38 PM on 10/26/2011

This just goes to show, no matter how much people like Herman Cain and Allen West try and say otherwise, race is still a very big issue in this country, even among black Republicans who may not discuss it while they are in office, who may tow the party line so as not to offend, lets face it, a mostly white Republican base, but they are keenly aware of it none the less. It's impossible not to be.

[mr whiteffolks]

12:35 PM on 10/27/2011

Race will always be a big issue because Whites have systematically gone out of their way to discredit Blacks whether they are poor Blacks or well to do. How often has a Black man walking toward a White woman, experience her clutching her price and dialing 911 for no reason !

How many times has a Black man pulled up at a stop light and immediately the doors in the other car start locking tighter than Fort Knox !

How many times has the media and tv in general shown images of Blacks that were unflattering ! I mean if you tell me something bad about people over and over and I see negative images of those people, sooner or later I will start to fear those people.

[LeahinBR]

02:23 PM on 11/04/2011

I agree with you 100 Percent...We as Black people will always have a problem no matter what we do are how much Education we have, Whites will always have the upper hands on everything in life....We are all here as one but the color of our skin will always be there to divide us. Yo know that people say that we all bleed red, and that we do, but what color is that skin on top of your hand....We ALL just have to continue to PRAY and leave it up to GOD. Have a Blessed 1!!!

[Puzzlr]

06:07 PM on 10/26/2011

"we clearly have a race problem"

What?! Is that the first thing she thought of? Not the people dying and suffering, but the fact that the President would get the blame for letting black people suffer. She truly has his back, no matter what.

[luziannagirl]

08:25 AM on 10/27/2011

Yep, all she thought about was how it would play out in the media. Quite telling, isn't it?

[didereaux]

03:51 PM on 10/26/2011

Condoleezza Rice has some very, very serious mental health issues. I am no psycho-babblist, but it doesn't require one to research her life, what and how she did things, to come to the conclusion that serious intervention via medication and therapy should have been applied.

[skippythepinhead]

06:27 AM on 10/27/2011

Amen. The chick is nucking futz.

[madcityy]

03:18 PM on 10/26/2011

WE LOVE HER AND TRUST HER WORDS IN HER BOOK.............

[didereaux]

03:52 PM on 10/26/2011

Your comment is either superb sarcasm, or you need medication.

[Pleroma]

11:11 AM on 10/26/2011

This is the blathering of a war criminal. Perhaps she should play more Brahms while she waits for the coming trial.

[Eric Daniels]

05:09 AM on 10/26/2011

I never looked at Rice or Powelll hating Black People, they may be black conservatives but at least you can break bread and will listen to a Black Liberal's side without calling you stupid or brainwashed. The modern Republican party practices a policy when to comes to African- Americans as benign neglect, they think since most African- Americans will not vote for the GOP positions regardless it's best to ignore their concerns so there is an utter contempt for Black Liberals and considering that much of the GOP support is in the far West and South there has always been an ethnic hatred of African- Americans.

So Katrina was Bush's and the GOP's waterloo so to speak, it opened a lot of wounds of poverty racial animus and political posturing that remains to this day. Rice was correct to say 'We have a Race Problem" Frankly my view is that African- Americans and the modern GOP are politically incompatible because they don't really trust Blacks who have a concern for their race and are Republican like Rice and Powell. The GOP would rather court the Hispanic, Asian and Arab votes because they will assimilate into WASP Conservatism.

[mr whiteffolks]

10:45 AM on 10/26/2011

I disagree ! I won't hate but I will say they played a little game called "look the other way and pretend this isn't happening" !

[JM Brodie]

05:18 AM on 10/27/2011

Ism makes that possible for them, my friend.

[luziannagirl]

08:27 AM on 10/27/2011

The GOP doesn't actively hate blacks. They just callously cater to and use the groups who do.

Which is worse?

[Aurical]

12:11 AM on 10/26/2011

I never looked at her, Bush, or any of them hating African-Americans. They have no regard for anyone regardless of color that is not in their circle. If you can't DO favors for them or if they don't owe you favors done, you don't register on their worksview. It's not hate they have, it's disdain. They don't care enough to hate. The reason 5th ward was allowed to submerge was because there were very few Bush votes there. They don't see them as citizens needing help, they only know to do for those that do for them and the calculus was that those folks weren't their kind of folks pure and simple.

[mr whiteffolks]

10:46 AM on 10/26/2011

I did and they were hating ! You do not waste time and put lives at risk during a catastrophe like katrina ! The white folks didn't get treated in that manner !

[Aurical]

03:51 PM on 10/26/2011

There was no political downside to them. To them it didn't matter that there was a black backlash, we didn't vote for them anyway. It's easy for Republicans to govern, they only have to serve the rich and powerful. Democrats have to serve ALL of us.

[Kathy Levittown]

10:43 PM on 10/26/2011

wow....aurical...wow..fanned.. ;)

[SevenUPtheUNCOOLA]

10:47 PM on 10/25/2011

i cant tell if shes trying to be bush's apologist or if she is trying to absolve her guilt for taking a trip during a hurricane everyone knew when and where it was going to hit. we HAD a race problem? we did then and we still do now.

[mr whiteffolks]

10:47 AM on 10/26/2011

A bit of both ! It must be on her conscious heavy because she felt a need to same somthing !

[peacenique]

09:19 PM on 10/25/2011

This article should have had a longer shelf life on the front page IMHO