Framing Condi(licious): Condoleezza Rice and the Storyline of “Closeness” in U.S. National Community Formation

Abstract

Using an interdisciplinary integration of insights from Black studies, the study of women and gender in politics, and narrative analysis, I examine the politics of representation animating the political career of Condoleezza Rice. I analyze variants of the dominant storyline of “closeness” that frame discussions of her as a political actor, specifically in light of what it reveals about the gender, race, and class dynamics embedded in imaginings of community within contemporary public discourse. I show how the dominant storyline of closeness paradoxically works both to create and undermine the U.S. national narrative of color(difference)-blind integration. My central argument throughout is that Rice signifies the liminality of Blacks in general and Black women in particular and that this liminality is contrary to the triumph of integration she is said to represent. © 2008, The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.