Eugene Robinson had a live discussion at the Washington Post, and Dr. Rice was the topic of the day. It gives me the opportunity to dismiss a line of nonsense that has annoyed me for quite a while.
Rice's Lack of Focus on Diversity: So let me get this straight: Rice, because of her skin color, is supposed to focus more on other people's skin color instead of their talents and abilities?
Maybe, instead, you and your ilk should focus less on skin color and more on individuals.
Eugene Robinson: I believe diversity is good for this country, and when done correctly it improves organizations and makes them much more capable, not less. First of all, diversity is a process. It's not enough to say, "Oh well, there aren't any black or brown or yellow people in the pool of qualified applicants to be Undersecretary of This or That." You cerate a more diverse pool by bringing talented people along and grooming them until they are ready to take these jobs. The point I made was that this isn't brain surgery. It's not easy to do, but it's easy to understand. Secretary Rice has been prominent in the foreign policy business for many years, and I would have hoped that she would bring along brilliant minorities ... just as she herself was brought along by mentors.
Mr. Robinson's answer was fine, but you know this "skin color" thing is nonsense. As evidence, I present Toi Derricotte, author of The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey.
Passing
A black poet and teacher chronicles life in a white world.
By BENJAMIN DEMOTT
In ''The Black Notebooks'' a light-skinned black woman, Toi Derricotte, examines in journal form her recurring longings for ''escape from blackness'' -- and her indulgence of those longings during intervals of ''passing'' for white. The book's achievement lies in the telling light it casts on how white skin functions in a multiracial world, what whiteness sees and can't see and why whites harm themselves as well as blacks when they dismiss black claims that white vision is defective.
...An example: newly resident in Upper Montclair, Derricotte chooses to ''pass'' in the local drugstore and thereby undertakes a project to learn to live with unaccustomed consumer rights and freedoms: the right to initiate conversation with a stranger; the right to tease a salesclerk; the right to assume she can charge merchandise without asking whether charging is permitted; the right to show her nature, friendly or otherwise, in a public place -- to shop ''without thinking,'' to walk ''down the aisle like a known customer,'' with ''a smile on my face,'' assured by virtue of her whiteness that she's safe and valued.
Derricotte watches herself explore these rights, uncertainly, over weeks and months. ''Slowly,'' she writes, ''I began to bring my self into the store -- my friendliness, my neighborly questions. 'How is your wife doing?' I asked for advice, 'Can you suggest a cold pill?' All the time I was charging, paying my bill on time, building bridges I walked on tentatively, holding my hat, watching for the escape route.''
Inevitably an escape route is needed. When the crisis comes -- when Derricotte is found out in her lie of whiteness -- she nearly loses a beloved friend.
You see? Toi's skin was white. But when it was discovered she "is" Black, everything changed.
It's not about skin color. Never has been, except to mainstream folks.
Ms. Derricotte says a lot white folks need to hear and understand.
“People would like inspiring books that tell them what to do, something like Five Steps Not to Be a Racist,” she says, laughing raucously. But then, as always, she becomes sincere about the matter at hand: “That’s just not the truth. The easy solutions don’t really prepare one for the hard work that needs to be done.”
