An Oldie but a Goodie

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004001-1,00.html

This is a very astute piece from back in 2003, when Senator Trent Lott was ostracized by his own party leadership for his comments praising Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat Presidential campaign. Though I hesitate to give credit to the modern Republican party for working in any active way to resolve racial divides, I do believe that the Bush Administration has symbolically improved the status of African Americans. He appointed both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice to serve as Secretary of State; Rice also served as National Security Advisor. Both had very high-profile positions; they were always in the newspapers and on TV as representatives of the Bush administration both at home and abroad. It may be that Powell and Rice have helped to make some Americans and world leaders feel more comfortable with the idea of African Americans serving in high offices; Powell and Rice may have helped lessened latent and blatant racism in the United States and around the world. Perhaps their high-profile involvement in the Bush Administration for the past eight years helped--at least symbolically--to prepare America and the world for Obama's candidacy, his victory and his Presidency.