Rice turning a blind eye to racial divide in Washington

Former US national security advisor Susan Rice was in the spotlight earlier this week for calling Chinese diplomat Zhao Lijian a "racist" after the latter described on Twitter the racial divide in Washington. Rice's charge, however, shows her disconnect with reality.

Rice, born and still living in Washington, should know well the serious racial issues haunting the United States capital, although unlike most African-Americans there, she grew up in a well-to-do family and neighborhood and attended the National Cathedral School, an elite private girls' school. She later studied at Stanford and Oxford, where she obtained her PhD and has since had a successful career.

But her success story is not representative of the African-American population either in Washington or other US cities. The fact that Barack Obama, an African-American, was elected US president, something truly worth celebrating, does not mean the US is free of racial problems.