Powell defends policies, challenges journalists

By Elizabeth Green and Chris Amos
Diversity Institute Fellows

08.06.04

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People of color should pay attention to the plight of other countries and international events, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.

“Because you’re a person of color does not excuse you from thinking about the rest of the world,” Powell said during on-stage conversation with minority journalists at the UNITY 2004 conference.

Powell addressed many of the 7,500 journalists attending the Washington convention, and his talk centered on subjects ranging from U.S. relations to China and Russia to the fallout from the continuing war in Iraq.

Powell said he was pleased that many nations were on the way to a solid path to democracy.

“Our value system has become more and more prevalent in other countries,” he said. “We should be proud that we have been a leader in changing the value system of other countries in the past 15 years.”

By Adithya Sambamurthy UNITY took advantage of Washington, its convention site, to add keynote speakers to its program. Among the speakers was U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still challenges to democracy, Powell said.

“We have an excellent relationship with China, even though there are tensions,” he said. “We have an excellent relationship with the Russian federation, an excellent relationship with all those nations who were behind the Iron Curtain.”

America has been an example to the world in many ways, Powell said, and now the nation must show other nations that diversity is one of its top priorities.

 “It is important for us to live our value system for real to show the rest of the world what America is all about,” he said. “I want my government to look like America.

 “We want minorities in the state department; we want to see more and more ambassadors, minority political counselors, minorities in every level.”

Convention participants had different reactions to Powell’s speech.

Vanessa Shelton, a director of a journalism program for high school students in Iowa City, Iowa, said she wished Powell would have given more details.

“I would have liked a little more regarding what’s going on in Iraq,” she said. “He didn’t have the opportunity and didn’t have much time, but he could have said it during his opening statement.”

Earlier, Powell said U.S. intelligence erred in making its case for war against Iraq, but that it made the best judgment at the time. He said the United States had not failed in Iraq.

“I’m pleased that that dictator is gone,” Powell said, referring to Saddam Hussein.

Beverly Lawrence, a graduate student from Queens, N.Y., said Powell gave a good speech.

“He is an impressive speaker who diplomatically tried to right the wrongs of the Iraqi invasion,” she said.

Related

UNITY 2004 coverage by Diversity Institute reporters
Summer fellows file dispatches from Washington, D.C., where more than 7,000 journalists of color are attending convention workshops, speeches, receptions.  08.05.04