The whites on the NY Times feel exonerated when they pat themselves on the shoulder for speaking out for this white guilt. But Shelby Steele makes the argument that it doesnt eliminate White supremacy it only enhances it.
Shelby Steele is the author of White Guilt. I found the book fascinating especially after the uprising brought about by the self destruction of little Trayvon. All of a sudden America was faced with the illogical cries that everything is unfair in this country because of color. And I had my own observations on this matter but it was interesting to read the remarks brought by a so called black conservative who claimed to live through the bad times in America. So lets see if we can understand what this is all about.
First off we see all these liberals like the NY Times and writers like Lambro feel that they must give in to this white guilt. They need to recognize it and do their mea culpas. But does this really help the black folks?
Last week OReilly had been on the need for a family roll to make things work. And that could be true but it would be like trying to prove that CO2 caused climate change while exhaling CO2. I am surprised that OReilly didnt throw out religion in the mix. If you dont have the ten commandments to lean on then what would stop a black person from whooping a white person for no really good justifiable reason.
Lets see if we can work through some of Steeles arguments. First off my summation is easy. For a hundred years the black leaders are trying to place the responsibility and blame on the white folks. All these white males that for decades have stolen the souls from the blacks. My answer is just like alcoholism the blacks need to take care of their own problems. When you read how Malcolm X set up businesses in bad neighborhoods why didnt community organizers like Obama organize businesses in bad neighborhoods and clean up the neighborhoods? They had the people they had all that government money and they played the white blame game instead of enticing businesses and factories to build in these neighborhoods. Are you telling me it was impossible for the blacks to police their own neighborhoods! Other nationalities have done that for ages.
Before we get carried away lets make something perfectly clear. Most Blacks are doing quite fine. And they have done well for decades. Look at the Obamas. They didnt live in no ghetto. It might come down to about 20 of the blacks have problems excluding those in prison etc. And whose a black? Obama and Tiger are only 50 black. But they still dont stand for Blacks standing on their own. It is always the white guys fault. And the white guy owes reparation! But what about the 20 of other races that are not doing so well?
One of OReillys guest a PhD black said poverty comes first. And these folks are not capable of working their way out of poverty. Most people actually do. Why cant a lot of these black folks? Maybe because they are blaming the whites instead of blaming themselves. Well thats what the NY Times thinks and they cant be wrong.
So Steele tries to fabricate a story between Slick Willie and President Eisenhower. And how in a few short years society has changed. But Steele is hypothesizing that Social Authority has become the rule of the day.
Steele writes: (P82) this guilt is the vacuum in moral authority created by all of white Americas moral failings and infidelities to democracy: racism sexism imperialism materialism conformity environmental indifference educational inequality superficiality greed and so on.
other issues - womens rights the plight of farm workers degradation of the environment black and white poverty... oppressiveness greed exploitation and violence were the essence of American character.
So everything in America that is wrong is the white mans fault. Therefore we have White Guilt. And that is what drives the so called black civil rights leaders who in turn pressure businesses and liberals and the businesses and politicians cave in.
Most important is that the whites on the NY Times feel exonerated when they pat themselves on the shoulder for speaking out for this white guilt. But Steele makes the argument that it doesnt eliminate White supremacy it only enhances it. Most of these white liberals including Pelosi dont ever see the ghettos. They go home to their penthouse apartments.
Good example was Zimmerman. Everyone who followed the case and knew a little about the law came to the conclusion before the verdict that Zimmerman was innocent. (Some would say not guilty). So since that didnt work we have to go after him with a civil suit. And it was difficult to find any liberals discussing the causality brought by little Trayvon that may have been the problem. Can we call that black guilt?
The funny part about all of this is that we have a black president and we have more White Guilt than ever. But if you look under the covers I think Obamas follies are fueled by global socialization /communistic issues rather than race.
Steele goes on to make the argument that once we invoke all these fixes like school busing lower test standards etc. for blacks we have not made the blacks whole. They are still considered inferior to whites which maybe is the cause for the problem as determined by Steele. If you cant be equal why not use White Guilt as an excuse to get the whites to give more to the blacks. It is just a circle of life that will not end until the whites grow up and the blacks take responsibility for their own future!
They always throw out the word slavery as the big guilt monger. But they never discuss the good parts about slavery. First off most of the blacks who were descendants of Slaves in America would probably be dead today if they were not brought to this country on slave ships. Remember Baracks grandfather allegedly was one of the first in his tribe to wear white mans clothes. He was ridiculed for it by his dad. But he was smart enough to understand where prosperity would come from. We are talking about the beginning of the 1920s or later. How many of your grandparents were walking around with just their genitals covered?
Africa lacked modern medicine. And most of the successful plantations took good care of their slaves. And remember that many of the slaves were sold by black folks. And I would imagine slavery was probably a bit better then living in a Baltimore prison today. Slavery lacked all freedoms but how free are the black folks today who dont have good jobs and actually want to work.
No system is perfect but it is time to stop reacting to the make believe world of white guilt.
There was one part where Steele would get very angry. It seemed when Blacks felt they were not fully appreciated as a worker or a contributor to the community. Some thoughts for example: Like you are black so we know how you think. Steele obviously is a well educated Black and like any other race or nationality in the world you dont want to be assumed or taken for granted.
I am with Steele. We need to bury the White guilt trip and like MLK and Malcolm X whose goals included that all men be created equally and treated equally. This did not include affirmative action locking up white Hispanics for self defense and dumbing down tests so women and non-whites can get a job before more qualified white males. For decades certain blacks were adamant in believing that only blacks can teach blacks. That has not worked out too well.
If we had a real president he would be more concerned about inviting jobs into this country rather then taxing the folks who have jobs so we can create more system sucking jobs than we could ever need or pay for!
There are many Steele quotes and connotations in the book. One thing he mentioned was the fact that our founders did not like the idea of having slavery in the country. So they considered shipping the slaves back to Africa. Now that would have been a hoot. That is one statistic you dont read about. After slavery was abolished and many white Americans were killed and maimed in the process how many folks returned to Africa to be free from white guilt?
Read Steeles book but lets quit playing to the game of White Guilt. I grew up in the North East and I never saw any of this garbage. I wonder if any of these lies are actually true? Everyone always feels there is an injustice for not getting hired etc.. Maybe it had nothing to do with race. It may have been that someone was more qualified than you were or worse yet you werent qualified at all! So tell me again why you should get the job?