Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I found Shelby Steele's essays to be even handed, thoughtful, and enlightening. This is my first reading of a race relations text as such. My insights have been shaped by personal experiences, history books, television, and newspaper accounts of the events of the 1960's, 70's, 80's, and now 90's. The insight provided by Steele's personal life events, the discussion of Bill Cosby's bargaining, Jesse Jackon's power trips, Ronald Regan's ingratiating, and quotes from Ralph Ellison have broadened my perspective regarding race in the United States. To paraphrase, he believes blacks need to shift from wartime to a peacetime identity, from fighting for opportunity to seizing it, to prosper based on your own initiative, and use the means at hand to succeed. Included is a discussion of affirmative action and the notion that its time has passed. If affirmative action's time has passed, then the need to support or provide developmental skills has not. This work has stirred me to read more African American authors and to continue broadening my persoectives.

Steele's deeply absorbing "The Content of our Character" should be required reading for every American. His frank analyses of the problems which beset black Americans is honest, and also sympathetic and constructive as well. (Of course, these days any "self-help" approach regarding African-Americans is castigated as "Uncle Tom-ish" and unsympathetic-- is it any wonder that the problems remain?). Steele infuses psychological theories into his arguments, which seem as plausible as anything I've ever read on the subject. Anyone who argues against his position would seem to favor the entrenched "victimization" stance for blacks, a position which Steele correctly notes is probably the most hurtful element to the black community's struggle for upward mobility-- certainly more hurtful at this point in time than actual racism. Steele lends humanity to the black struggle against "inferiority anxiety" by accurately identifying it and laying it on the table. It is unfortunate that his detractors unwittingly perpetuate the tragic socioeconomic disparity between blacks and whites by refusing to give credence to "reform liberal" intellectuals like Steele. As he says, only positive action, the right values, hard work, and sacrifice have ever lifted any ethnic community out of poverty, regardless of the degree and kinds of oppression imposed upon them. Isn't that the bottom line? It's too bad that we may never see a wholesale positive change in the African American community, simply because their dubious leaders frantically search for "the pea of racism under twenty mattresses," rather than go into the inner cities and encourage the right (i.e., old-fashioned) values, attitudes, and action. Some critics believe that Steele is trying to "hustle" whites by appealing to their racist notions of blacks. This is not so. If you ask me, "leaders" like Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, Skip Gates, and others are the "hustlers" who actually perpetuate the problem by citing racism, victimization, and the legacy of slavery at every turn. As Steele points out, such leaders keep blacks dependent on government support by fixing them on the notion that they are helpless victims of racism, that racism is solely to account for their problems, and that their problems will disappear when society fixes itself. Go ahead and find an example of the aforementioned "leaders" ever discussing strategies of self-help for blacks. They rarely do, and when forced to address it the resulting "eggshell walk" is always both frustrating and amusing. And why? Because if Jesse, Cornel, Skip, Sharpton, and their ilk actually offered constructive criticism and strategies for self-help to the problems of the black underclass, they would be dropped by many blacks (genuinely) and white liberals (publicly), and lose their power and influence. Besides, if black socioeconomic problems disappeared tomorrow, they'd all be out of a job. Shelby doesn't seem to care about all that-- he simply applies his incredible brilliance and magnificent writing skills toward the search for truth, and for positive change. So who would you rather read?

Shelby Steele's strong opinoins and in that context contraversial lifestyle choices (i.e., being a tenured professor having a white psychologist as a wife) leads one regardless of race or political/philosophical leanings to instinctively back away from what he has to say- unless you are a hard core conservative with a secret axe to grind. Yet this book is a constnt reminder that it is a lot more than the strange impulse that makes people look at car wrecks or moths fly into flames that makes you not just hear him, but listen.

This book can be painful for black people and white liberals alike, but it is a symphony of illumination and a love letter for every American. His unveiling of the (not so) secret architecture of psychology that lies underneath the actions and arguments of so much of us when caught in the race issue and experience, is a much needed call to stand up and regain the honor and integrity that has to a large degree been lost as we all continue to cross over into the promised land, but lose the spirit that got us there. I first read this book several years ago, and it has since become all the more important, as the changing information society is still making us all run to old expressions of made up social fears to mask our personal insecurities.

He has never been, nor I believe will he ever be, stupid enough to believe that racism as an issue has disappeared from the American landscape. Nor would he say that it has stopped being a dynamic deeply affecting if not destroying the opportunities, spirit and lives of many many people. in fact, if anything, he is saying that it is there almost as strong as ever, just in such a complex and hidden form that negative ideas and problems are prostituting once powerfully positive solutions.

This book is deeply effective and affecting, and would make you think hard about what Martin really meant when he gave the speech from which its title is derived.

Among countless other things, we owe Martin reading books like this with an open mind and courageous heart. He teaches us a great deal about what constitues our souls, which transcends color.

In a nutshell, this is one of many books written on this subject matter. It is a very good book, Mr Steele ocaisionally glosses over a bit of the subject matter. There is a need for much more of self examination, and this will allow us to define ourselves as Americans far better than those that have decided to race bait and perform the victim routine that seems to be so popular amongst many people of color. A couple of very wealthy black men have created a growth industry from it. We need the self examination that this book touches on, not the self hatred that some vocal minority within this minority are preaching.

Like many concerned Americans, I have spent decades discussing and reflecting on the racial troubles in our past and present, and have read numerous books that explore the topic. When published, this book was a long-needed tonic, notable not only for its fresh perspective and searching, reasoned tone, but for the personal honesty of its author, an honesty which even critics admitted. How sadly ironic therefore that one reader above is reduced to defaming the author as "dishonest," "obscure," "second-rate,", without "consequence, " seeking only "fame," a "charlatan" engaged in a "hustle." Would you like a better understanding of the state of a reader who, driven to disagreement with this author, can do no better than sputter insults and defamations, who CANNOT COME TO TERMS with the content of "Content of our Character?" To you I recommend the book.

Dissenters often prod us to think differently, in that they call attention to their cause, though their own course of action may not necessarily be wise to follow! In one such work, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (New York: St. Martin's Press, c. 1990), Shelby Steele sets forth his "new vision," a viewpoint at odds with the mainline civil rights establishment. Steele, an "African-American" English professor at San Jose State University when he wrote this book, challenges us to envision new paths for America's racial minorities. One path he rejects is the newest exercise in political correctness, adopting a new label in the quest for self-identity. The now-in-vogue "African-American" label is, he thinks, "yet another name to the litany of the names that blacks have given themselves over the past century" (p. 47).
While understandable, "This self-conscious reaching for pride through nomenclature suggests nothing so much as a despair over the possibility of gaining the less conspicuous pride that follows real advancement. In its invocation of the glories of a remote African past and its wistful suggestion of homeland, this name denies the doubt black Americans have about their contemporary situation in America" (p. 47). New names change nothing and will not suffice. (Incidentally, it's academics who most strongly insist on the right labels--many if not most American Indians prefer the name "Indian" to the "Native American" resolutely demanded by politically correct intellectuals).
What's needed is a new way of acting, Steele says, a new (or is the old Booker T. Washington strategy?) way of taking the initiative to live creatively and well, of accepting responsibility for one's actions, one's successes and failures. In the 1990's, the antiquated agenda of the 1960's (appropriate though it was in that decade) no longer suffices. In particular, he argues, it's time for blacks to stop blaming whites for their problems and get on with the business of personal and cultural achievement. The book's title, "the content of our character," comes from a speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. "What made King the most powerful and extraordinary black leader of this century," Steele says, "was not his race but his morality" (p. 19). What black leaders need today, he believes, is a recovery of King's moral stance, an emphasis on integrity and responsibility rather than ethnic victimization. King's message had power because it transcended race, binding men and women of all kinds together in a common endeavor. King's message had power because it was, in fact, not a "black power" message.
Unfortunately, too many black leaders routinely capitalize on white America's guilt, asking for special treatment, thereby reducing themselves and their followers to inferiors needing a helping hand. Tragically, "the price they pay for this form of 'politics' is to keep blacks focused on an illusion of deliverance by others, and no illusion weakens us more. Our leaders must take a risk. They must tell us the truth, tell us of the freedom and opportunity they have discovered in their own lives" (p. 174). Steele himself represents--and seeks to speak for--the growing middle class black community. What astounds him is the persistence of racial sensitivity even in his own circles. "As a middle-class black I have often felt myself contriving to be 'black.' And I have noticed this same contrivance in others--a certain stretching away from the natural flow of one's life to align oneself with a victim-focused black identity" (p. 106).
In a way, he argues, blacks choose to see themselves as inferiors, an inferiority rooted in alleged social discrimination rather than genetic factors, because it allows them to escape responsibility for competing and achieving as individuals. Blacks lack power in America not simply because prejudice excludes them but because power comes to those who accept responsibility. "Personal responsibility is the brick and mortar of power" (p. 33). The longer a group marches to the drumbeat of a victim, even though it may elicit sympathy and applause and even reparations from the crowd, the longer it remains subservient and impotent. This is not to excuse injustice, which abounds in America. It is to insist that despite obstacles minorities can succeed here. "Whites must guarantee a free and fair society. But blacks must be responsible for actualizing their own lives" (p. 34). Steele nowhere argues American society is fully free and fair! He's encountered discrimination. Prejudice still stains our national life. But it must be honestly portrayed, not exaggerated as an excuse for immobility, not milked to preserve politicians' power bases. We need not deny the injustices of the past to admit that "when today's black college students--who often enjoy preferential admission and many other special concessions--claim victimization, I think that it too often amounts to a recomposition of denied doubts and anxieties they are unwilling to bear" (p. 61).
Illustrating such preferential treatment, Steele cites Penn State University, which has a program which "pays black students for improving their grades--a C to C+ average brings $550, and anything more brings $1,100" (p. 90). Minority students at Stanford University seized control of the president's office several years ago, determined to make known their grievances, among which were complaints about their inadequate financial assistance--which for some amounted to $15,000 a year! Though he teaches in a large state university, Steele appreciates the value of small black colleges. Only 16 percent of black students enroll in them, but they graduate 37 percent of all black graduates. "Without whites around on campus, the myth of inferiority is in abeyance and, along with it, a great reservoir of culturally imposed self-doubt" (p. 136). Consequently, black students in black colleges take more responsibility for their studies, work harder, and accomplish more.
More broadly, if blacks can move beyond their "racial identity struggle" and begin to live as individuals in American society, Steele thinks this nation offers "a remarkable range of opportunity if we were willing to pursue it" (p. 168). This book is highly personal, both in its style and its interpretations. It clearly reflects the experience of only one black man in America. Yet it's worth reading, for it makes some important observations and offers some positive suggestions, though they do not lend themselves to political action.

This is the single most important and relevant book I've ever read on race relations, and even human relations, and one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read in my life. The premise that playing the role of victim hurts blacks in the long run extends far past race relations into everyday life for all individuals - any person who blames the establishment for their lack of success or opportunity is less likely to overcome circumstances and rise above their station, whatever it may be. That person must draw on internal resources and strength, as well as support from others, to fulfill their potential. And s/he must resist the urge to play the role of victim, because that will only hold her/him back. This insightful author also doesn't suggest that African Americans deny their ethnicity, he encourages them to embrace it in positive ways without forcing whites to *only* see them as blacks. There are so many important points made in this book that a review of it could go on for pages, so I'll end with this final comment: if you are at all interested not just in race relations, but in how any victim relates to others (whether those other people are to be blamed or not for their plight), you absolutely must read this book. It should be in every classroom in every school in America - starting with middle school. This book could have a significant impact on the way all Americans view race relations.