Those who don't want to see U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice nominated to become the next secretary of state have pulled out all the stops when it comes to their criticism of her. Until now, regardless of whether they were expressed out of sincere concern or were politically motivated, the issues Republicans have raised have related to characterizations that could be construed as negative, if one believed them.
So hopefully no one will be silly enough to latch onto what conservative outlet the Daily Caller dug up today: Rice's writing from 1986, in which she recommended black-history education for all students. From MSNBC:
The conservative outlet The Daily Caller dug deep into the supposedly incendiary archives of Rice's past to unearth a book she wrote in 1986 while interning for the Black Student Fund. In the Caller's article, the book A History Deferred is used as evidence against Rice's character for advocating black history education to all students, even (gasp!) white Americans.
The Caller's headline blares: "Susan Rice in 1986 book: Make white students learn black history."
We're confused as to why this is breaking conservative news. OK, that's a lie — we live in the (heavily racialized) world, and are not actually confused at all.
But we'll be watching eagerly to see if anyone actually tries to argue with a straight face that Rice's completely reasonable and mainstream view reflects badly on her. If the idea was just to remind everyone that Rice is black, they could have skipped the black-history "exposé" and just run the old photo of her with natural hair that they chose to accompany the piece.