Customer Reviews

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (P.S.)

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book attracted my interest because I've experienced first hand some of the "white guilt" motivated attempts to fix racial inequality.

I attended a middle school during the 1970's right at the start of forced bussing to acheive racial desegregation. Some brilliant social engineers thought that if they bussed black children many miles from home whether they wanted to be bussed or not, dumped them at schools in white neighborhoods, and then eliminated grades and went lax on discipline, then that would solve some problem of inequality between black and white students.

Well, what it accomplished for me was a shock when I arrived at high-school and discovered that not only were letter grades the norm (I hadn't seen them for three years) but they accumulated into this dreadful number called a "GPA" which had a profound impact on this concept known as your "future"! In other words, baby sitting was over and now I actually had to work or face the consequences!

But enough about me. I enjoyed this book and gave my rating for the following reasons:

1. It's short and to the point. The author tells us what we need to know and skillfully encapsulates pivotal events that occured during a short period of time and which lead us into the reality we face today. I love books like that.

2. The author establishes his credibility by weaving a narrative of his life with the development of his thesis. This isn't a book that was written by a person who just read a lot of books in order to write a book.

3. Accessable writing style. It's like the author is sitting across the table having coffee with you and telling you a story. Shelby Steele comes across as a man of unusual wisdom. It would be great to see him in person some day.

4. This book tells a truth that is in line with my personal life experience. Racism has never gone away. Somewhere back in the 1960's it morphed from one form to another. From "old school" racism that consisted of segregating blacks and making them responsible for themselves while denying them access to jobs, loans, etc. to "white guilt" motivated racism which consists of rigging outcomes to be equal by lowering standards for blacks. This is all just fine with guilty white liberals as long as they can claim moral authority in return for providing the equal result for the blacks they've lowered standards for.

Anyway, this is a short and well written book that'll perhaps make you think of things in a way you never have before. Five stars!

I read this book after reading his article in the Wall Street Journal. I enjoyed his idea of America fighting a minimilistic war so that we were not perceived as tyrannical or racist. This definately explains why we have not just "wiped out" the terrorist.

I felt that I had to read the book since I am from the Civil Rights Capitol of the country. Many of these issues are pertinent throughout the country and need to be studied. His issues are hard-hitting and uncomforting at times.

Dr. Steele explains that Americans do not take African Americans at face value, but as a means to an end. He says this because Liberals have used programs like affirmative action and welfare as a way to help blacks and look noble while doing it. Dr. Steele feels that these programs were started so the Whites did not look racist and tolerant of White Supremacy; however, under the surface he feels that the Black man is never able to advance after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He explains that many Great Society programs were created because Whites felt guilty for the wrongdoing of Blacks. He states the programs were a way to help Whites deal with their moral guilt. Dr. Steele does an excellent job stating the reasons that have caused racial segregation even in today's time. The book does not really offer ways to improve what is happening in America, yet it does bring the issues to the surface. He also throws in the term "New Man" that does an excellent job of explaining the ways of Liberal Democrats.

I got chills several times because someone other than Bill Cosby stated the obvious. This is not a book to better one race over the other, but a way to make America the great country that it is supposed to be. There need to be more Americans like Dr. Steele. If you do not want to read the whole book, then just read the last chapter because it is amazing and the best chapter of the book. This book has to be read because the content is so powerful.

Shelby Steele, in his new book, White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, expounds upon the mindset of both groups while exploring our nation's obsession with race. He outlines the interplay between white guilt and black power along with the pernicious effects this dynamic has upon both populations. The author grew up in a time when discrimination was not a shadowy thing. He witnessed it firsthand at baseball practice, and in his father's having to deal with the customs of the southern towns they'd visit.

Throughout the text, Steele combines remembrance with observation as a means to elucidate interracial relations. He defines white guilt as being a complete vacuum of moral authority wherein a stigma is cast upon an entire group of people regardless of what they do or say. In the 1960s, it flourished in whites due to the very real historical wrongs of segregation and slavery. By the end of that decade, due to the growing passivity of whites, the black leadership no longer echoed Dr. King. They became radicalized, and there was no shortage of white politicians, intellectuals, and glitterati (recall Leonard Bernstein) ready to sprawl before their collective feet and regain their moral goodness. For many Caucasians, irrational hate for your own race and your ancestors has now become a mechanism for self-esteem and purity.

When aggression meets submission the result is slaughter, and that's exactly what has happened to the pride of white America over the course of the last four decades. Rage has become the preferred weapon for obtaining concessions from white politicians, and shame prevents rational minds from protesting these tactics. Steele compares the state of many whites to that of Kafka's main character in The Trial, who is guilty of a crime solely because he has been accused. Black activists insisted that acquiring skills and education alone are not acceptable solutions; our government must actively raise them up. This demand is a reason why so many ashen faced elites embrace "diversity" and affirmative action. It allows them to acquire power while amassing feelings of personal superiority.

The government internalized the stigma and dishonor of the majority population, and flooded black neighborhoods with lakes of redemptive spending. That the programs and grants issued were ineffective, or even made things worse, was largely irrelevant as the actions were designed to restore feelings of righteousness in politicians and their appointees.

In the opinion of this reviewer, what keeps racial tensions high in America are intra-race conflicts as opposed to the interracial ones. Most likely, if one group of Caucasians discontinued the practice of systematically defaming all other Caucasians then the strains among us would diminish. The alchemizing of racism from discussions concerning taxation and personal choice does little more than poison our air. When blacks are free from the conspiracy theories and psychologizing of a power obsessed white elite, we will all get along much better.

Ultimately, the best practice for individuals is to treat others as your equals. Modifying your speech and pretending strangers are sensitive to your every syllable is just absurd. The solution to racial problems is not to kow-tow to certain groups and apologize for crimes you never personally committed; instead, we should simply treat other people with respect no matter where they lie on the diversity flowchart. Skin color has nothing to do with personality or worth. Just as one can be certain that segregation and slavery occurred, one can also be certain that the Lester Maddoxes, Orval Faubuses, and Theodore Bilbos are long dead and will never rise again. It is now an excellent time to bury white guilt along with them.

Of course, the phenomenon of "white guilt" is nothing new but Steele's short and poignant essay on the subject has clarified a new perspective for me. I expect that this book will be attacked from all corners---Left, Right, Black, White---which, to me, only emphasizes the necessity that it be read. It makes one painfully aware of the intellectual poverty that characterizes the public discourse on our issue(s) of "race." This is the most thought-provoking book that I have read in a very long time.

Shelby Steele's book is not an easy read. Don't let the apparent brevity fool you; this book could have just as easily been a decidedly heavy handed article in a scholarly journal on sociology or political science. There are many sections that are intellectually challenging. Yet at the same time, Steele makes the subject matter accessible to all.
And frankly, there will likely be many people (typically the white liberals and blacks criticized within) who will be aghast at his thesis. Just as disconcerting though are the white conservatives who will grab onto this book as a "see, I told you so" moment. Neither side of this debate should jump to any conclusions regarding the content. It simply is a starting point; certainly not a definitive analysis.
Steele does attempt to soften the tone by overlaying the material onto his metaphorical journey along California Highway 101. As Mark Twain did with Huck Finn, Steele's journey is a symbolic epiphany as he recognizes that America of his 1950s childhood is as foreign to the 21st century as 1776 is to modern Constitutional scholarship.
He intersperses anecdotes from his childhood with his "coming of age" in the 1960s. During these passages, we get a glimpse as to how Steele, in a rejection of "groupthink" and "victimhood" , ascends to a different point of view.
This book is not for those who allow Limbaugh and O'Reilly, or Franken and Moore, tell them what to think. This book is for those who are significantly discriminating and open minded to accept it for what it is.

This book and the writer remind me of Bill Cosby. Why? When Bill Cosby speaks from the heart you just can't help but agree with him. What Bill Cosby says is just all common sense. And this book reminds me of Dr. Cosby. The sheer words of common sense will bring relief to the average reader.

This review has read what Mr. Steele wrote and could not agree more with his writings. Indeed, once in a while this reviewer gets heart sick at seeing how "the tyranny of good intentions" can end up hurting people that it is meant to help.

I used to work for the Columbus, Ohio school system. Like most intercity school systems it's wretched. Do minority children have a choice? No, this school system is all the families can afford. If vouchers were allowed do you think most parents would not pull their children out of the poor public schools? They would do it in a minute. Would black activists ever speak out against the wretched public school systems that give African Americans a second rate education? No. Then white liberals compound the problem by limiting the opportunity that African Americans have. The white liberals with guilt can't see the real problem affecting blacks, the poor education system. The black activists have no reason to change the public education system; their children generally attend private schools and they are removed from the problem.

Mr. Steele makes very serious arguments that white liberal inspired programs do serious damage to African Americans over the long runs. It's a simple argument. The analogy is like this. If you outlaw play grounds for children then you'll have fat kids. It's simple cause and effect. Mr. Steele shows the effects of over 40 years of American white guilt. The truth of the matter is there are more African American children living in poverty and in single parent homes than ever before. American white liberal guilt helped established the governmental system for the break up of the traditional African American families. Remember the most scary thing you can ever hear, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Mr. Steele gives an excellent analysis of the present problems effecting white and black Americans. I hope his solutions are taken seriously.

All Amazon.com readers should consider making this book part of their reading for this spring. It's a rare 5 star book on race relations. Remember, an Irish proverb is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." White guilt has resulted in all sorts of good intentioned programs for African-Americans. However, the results of those programs have been documented in this book.

I give this book five stars. If it can help readers understand the present problem in our culture it's well worth it.

"White Guilt" by Shelby Steele offers one lucid explanation after another for many of the nonsensical, though "feel-good," developments concerning race and morality which have proliferated in the realms of government, business, and academe during the past 50 years of our domestic history. Steele's insights into the hypocrisy and cowardice of many a smug white liberal soul, non-vigilant, complacent conservative soul, and, finally, shucking and jiving black grievance industry soul are unerring. All three, he sees, as bound together in a sentimental but evil complicity, one which, whatever its intentions, only serves to undermine the still viable promise of the earlier Civil Rights Movement. Steele's book is a must read for anyone, liberal, conservative or better yet, just plain honest, who is tired of the current official lies offered by all parties about race in America.

At 74 years of age and having lived and worked directly in the civil rights movement, this book and its author present a valid and powerful critique of why the movement failed and the role played by the guilty feelings of some whites who controlled most of the movement. Great book and intelligent author. Jim Moore

If a white man had written this book, the Southern Poverty Law Center would be condeming its author as a hate-filled maniac and calling various people (such as employer, family, church members, and neighbors) to inform them that the world's infallible civil rights Nazis (SPLC) had spoken and the one named as a hate-filled racist must be shunned in the name of tolerance of diversity.

Because Steele is black, he will get off with the SPLC ignoring him or, at worse, meeking calling him an Uncle Tom a couple of times. And that is a perfect example of Steele's basic thesis. Today, the vast majority of whites will not buy, or be seen reading, a book that objects to the many race-based injustices fostered in the name of civil rights unless the book's author is black. That means that the precious few Shelby Steeles have an open field, if they have the character to stare down and refute the civil rights Nazis who call them Uncle Toms and their white readers hate-filled racists.

It also means that they have an obligation to tell the truth and demand an end to the new PC racism.

Steele's book is only a beginning and thus not quite 5 stars, but it should be widely read and discussed.

"America had moved out of its long age of white racism and into a new age of white guilt"

Well written, with an occasional chuckle. Short concise chapters, though sometimes hard to follow his intellect. A dictionary will be your companion throughout.

Steele begins with his early childhood, the racism he faces and his family. I bit farther into the book he takes on affirmative action. He then discusses former Presidents, who's virtue is what the times bring. Shelby is letting loose with this one. If this was a white author he would be labeled a racist, being black he will be labeled an uncle tom.

Like most books of this type, it enforces the ones who know and is discarded by the ones who don't. But maybe a small few may pick it up. Bravo, Shelby Steele.

A good accompaniment to this book is: The Rope by Mason Weaver

"The sixties brought in a culture war between two political and moral cultures, one grounded in principle and values, the other in dissociation."