The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America [Paperback]

Shelby Steele (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 1991

In this controversial essay collection, award-winning writer Shelby Stelle illuminates the origins of the current conflict in race relations--the increase in anger, mistrust, and even violence between black and whites. With candor and persuasive argument, he shows us how both black and white Americans have become trapped into seeing color before character, and how social policies designed to lessen racial inequities have instead increased them. The Content of Our Character is neither "liberal" nor "conservative," but an honest, courageous look at America's most enduring and wrenching social dilemma.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From the sight-lines of the university setting, Shelby Steele gives an account of race that is nothing if not controversial. Steele's nine essays derive their messages from personal experience dosed with broader social psychology. The value of this book, which won a 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award, lies in its introspection, rather than its distant calculation. Steele weeds the individual out of the group and argues for personal responsibility. He offers a unique look at the African-American experience and points a questioning finger at the children of affirmative action. The knee-jerk identification he observes "presupposes a deep racist reflex in American life that will forever try to limit black possibility."

From Publishers Weekly

Steele, seeking to improve strained race relations, demonstrates how social policies intensify rather than lessen racial differences, how blacks and whites tend to see color before character, and how blacks are often oppressed more by doubt in their abilities than by racism. This won a National Book Critics Circle award. (Sept.)no PW
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 9th printing edition (July 19, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006097415X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060974152
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound Sociological Insights, December 9, 2001

By 

S. M Marson (Lumberton, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America (Paperback)

Prior to reading THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER, one will find it helpful to know something about Sheby Steele's background. He has a Masters in Sociology and a Doctorate in English Literature. As a result, we find a well-written book with profound sociological insights. Generally speaking, sociologists are not well known for being good writers. Steele is clearly the exception.

From a sociological perspective, Steele employs an ecological system model as a tool to capture his personal experience enabling the reader comprehend his emergence into manhood in a racially biased society. Yes, I admit my description sounds like a bunch of academic hogwash. However, Steele masterfully strips away the academic jargon to create a meaningful book that everyone can grasp without being diverted by theoretical language. His use of a theory as a backdrop provides the reader with a connection - a meaningful experience.

For several decades, sociologists have been attempting to link personality with the social structure in a manner that has some practical and meaningful application. Up to this point, all attempts have been miserable failures. Here lies Sheby Steele's great success. He created this important theoretical linkage hitherto unseen in American social science.

What value does THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER offer us? Steele brilliantly portrays race relations as a connection between the micro and macro human experience. In many ways, Steele succeeded to do what Parsons dreamed about in the 1940's. Steele identifies that racial problems cannot be solved merely by instituting (macro) policy change. He states that everyone has a personal (micro) responsibility to embrace the role of change agent. Most interestingly, his primary focus is directed toward African American individuals. Change yourself and change society simultaneously.

This is one of the most readable books on race relations. I often assign college students (even minority students) to read this book. The book seems to change they way they think. They become more thoughtful and work harder as students. I find the effects of this book quite amazing.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Psychological and Spiritual Insight, August 9, 2004

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R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America (Paperback)

Shelby Steele's "The Content of Our Character" is not just a book for African-Americans. It's for anyone who wants to live a better life. When I read this book I felt like he was speaking to me, individually, as a man and not as a member of a racial category. Especially valuable are his insights on self-sabotage, and the true sources of self-esteem. All of us have our own demons to face and Steele's wise counsel is invaluable in that struggle. You should approach this book in the spirit of Epictetus, or Benjamin Franklin. It really is in that same class.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Road Less Travelled, November 10, 2002

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Interplanetary Funksmanship "Swift lippin', e... (Vanilla Suburbs, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race In America (Paperback)

This tome by Shelby Steele was written slightly over a decade ago. However, the problems of race and class that defined much of the black experience in America at the time of its writing still hold for today. And, while I agree with Steele's general assessment of the state of black America, and especially with the solutions he outlines, I do agree somewhat with his critics, black or otherwise, who believes Steele tends to underplay the current levels of racism in our society.

However, here's the rub: Racism can be an excuse to fail, or a reason to improve one's lot to the extent that blacks are empowered to make racism less relevant to their individual and collective destiny. For what Steele is proposing is a return to the proud ethic first elaborated upon by such civil rights pioneers as Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey.

I give this excellent book four stars instead of five for the following reasons: 1). As it was compiled mainly from magazine articles previously written by Steele, it is a bit repetetive, and; 2). Steele draws quite a bit on history of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, but I believe that by tracing many of our societal trends to the turn-of-the-century competing visions of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, this would have been a more well-rounded book.