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Witness: Blacks, whites, and the politics of shame in America -- by Shelby Steele
Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal) ^ | October 26, 2005 | Shelby Steele

Posted on 10/26/2005 9:20:58 AM PDT by EveningStar

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Let's keep this discussion on a high level, please. Thank you.

1 posted on 10/26/2005 9:20:59 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Howlin; onyx; Clemenza; Petronski; GummyIII; SevenofNine; martin_fierro; EggsAckley; Xenalyte; ...

Miscellaneous ping


2 posted on 10/26/2005 9:22:39 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

bump.


3 posted on 10/26/2005 9:24:34 AM PDT by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: EveningStar
Here--40 years after the great civil rights victories and 50 years after Rosa Parks's great refusal--was a poverty that oppression could no longer entirely explain.

Rosa Park's generation would have taken responsibility for themselves, their family and their neighbors.

4 posted on 10/26/2005 9:27:21 AM PDT by kipita (Conservatives: Freedom and Responsibility………Liberals: Freedom from Responsibility)
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To: EveningStar
Let's keep this discussion on a high level, please.

Wanna bet?

5 posted on 10/26/2005 9:27:39 AM PDT by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything.")
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To: EveningStar

Here's the problem with this analysis. White people, with all their supposed advantages, were stuck in the flood, too.
The flood had nothing to do with race. There is no shame in being a victim of a flood.


6 posted on 10/26/2005 9:29:17 AM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: EveningStar

Good article.


7 posted on 10/26/2005 9:32:06 AM PDT by Arpege92 ("I am happy, be it yourselves." - Pope John Paul II)
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To: popdonnelly

"Beyond the human mess one expects to see"

We don't expect to see looting


8 posted on 10/26/2005 9:32:38 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: EveningStar

Interesting article, but I don't think that black people's feeling of inferiority and helplessness was a product of slavery. I grew up in the 1950's and my black friends - even though Jim Crow laws still existed - certainly did not feel inferior, and those who lived in places where there was no institutionalized racism felt that they were going to go places and do things.

The "Great Society" essentially put an end to this. Blacks could no longer be individuals, some of whom would do well and some of whom would not, but had to be a group, defined by the government as helpless, needy and an object of constant care and concern. It may have been well meant, but it was poison nonetheless.

Being regarded as nothing but one more member of a dysfunctional, needy client group is enough to undermine anyone's resolve. The remarkable thing is that some individual blacks have done as well as they have.


9 posted on 10/26/2005 9:32:43 AM PDT by livius
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To: popdonnelly

Steele also says this:

"The black shame of inferiority (the result of oppression, not genetics) cannot be overcome with anything less than a heroic assumption of responsibility on the part of black Americans. In fact, true equality--an actual parity of wealth and ability between the races--is now largely a black responsibility. This may not be fair, but historical fairness--of the sort that resolves history's injustices--is an idealism that now plagues black America by making black responsibility seem an injustice."


10 posted on 10/26/2005 9:36:03 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: edcoil

"We don't expect to see looting."

Especially by the cops. I'm still floored at the nerve of those two female police officers who kept on shopping knowing damn well the camera was recording everything.


11 posted on 10/26/2005 9:36:11 AM PDT by Arpege92 ("I am happy, be it yourselves." - Pope John Paul II)
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To: popdonnelly

Ping to post #10


12 posted on 10/26/2005 9:36:55 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar
BY the incessant drawing of attention TO RACE, we remain racists. We don't see others as simply human beings. When we stop the racist politics and see people as people, then racism won't be an issue.
13 posted on 10/26/2005 9:37:15 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: EveningStar

Steele has taken a big step.


14 posted on 10/26/2005 9:37:39 AM PDT by Reaganghost (Democrats are living proof that you can fool some of the people all of the time.)
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To: EveningStar; onyx; cyborg; Petronski

the problems we are having as a national people shall continue to prove intractible so long as:

1. for various reasons, people are not allowed to (carefully, specifically) note that there are indeed empirically verifiable problems, and...

2. the discussion is dominated by racism (old fashioned, plus reverse-racism, plus "the soft bigotry of low expectations"), tired old excuses for extortion, doggerel-spouting mo-tards, race-baiting politics, and PC social theory.

These problems are matters of culture, not genetics.
These problems are matters of culture, not material wealth or poverty.
These problems are a matter of culture, not history.


15 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:11 AM PDT by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: EveningStar
Let's keep this discussion on a high level, please.

You're not from around here, are you.

< |;)~

16 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:21 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Revolting cat!

Whenever we discuss race here, there is always a chance that a few hyper vocal folks will post thoughtless comments of the top of their heads which will embarrass Free Republic and make the black FR members feel uncomfortable.


17 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:21 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Arpege92
I'm still floored at the nerve of those two female police officers who kept on shopping knowing damn well the camera was recording everything.

Their behavior speaks volumes about the culture of immunity and impunity that engulfs the N.O.P.D. It has been this way for a long time there.

18 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:29 AM PDT by rogue yam
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To: EveningStar

Very good article--thanks for posting it.

To summarize Shelby Steele's thoughts--treating people first and foremost as INDIVIDUALS rather than members of ethnic, racial, national group is the key to the individual and social well being. We cannot choose our ethnicity, race, or national origin, but we all can choose responsibility for our lives and we all can choose not blame the rest of the world if we fail.


19 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:34 AM PDT by sergey1973 (Russian American Political Blogger, Arm Chair Strategist)
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To: Arpege92

"...who kept on shopping..."

Shopping?


20 posted on 10/26/2005 9:40:42 AM PDT by baltodog (R.I.P. Balto: 2001(?) - 2005)
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