Condi Rice: U.S. will never be "race blind"











Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, also appearing on the show, recalled how growing up in New Orleans during segregation gave him a heightened sensitivity to inequality in America.

"You really do have an antenna for race," he said. "I remembered a sign on the merry-go-round that said, 'White Only.' I was six years old, and so I'd never focused on what that meant. And, boom, it kicked me right then that, 'Oh my God, that's what that sign means.' And I kept insisting we not go there. Even in [New Orleans'] Audubon Park then, they had closed the swimming pool because it had been ordered integrated. And we led a group of young kids and forced them to reopen the swimming pool."

"I think we have some common experiences with segregation," Rice told Isaacson, laughing. "I didn't learn to swim until I was 25," because of Birmingham's segregated pools.