June 30, 2006
White Guilt by Shelby Steele
This is an excellent and easy read. Shelby has a personalized style that gives it the feel of a one on one chat as he weaves in his personal experience with a meandering analysis of societal trends. His explanation of disassociation as a reaction to white guilt over past slavery and segregation is stunning in the clarity it brings to the debate on race relations.
Disassociation is described basically as replacing real solutions to race disparity with make work activities or set asides designed to demonstrate that whites care regardless of their effectiveness. The efforts are designed to assuage white guilt and present the appearance of caring rather then achieve any real change. In the end its all about making white people feel better about themselves. An important negative result of this is that any real advances get tainted as underserved.
Shelby’s description of personal responsibility as a cruel joke under slavery and segregation is insightful. Imagine being expected to be a responsible person and then denied the opportunity to fulfill this responsibility. His analysis of how this was later transformed into absolving blacks of all personal responsibility leading to the destruction of many black families just as equality and the ability to live the dream was being realized so some could achieve power reads like a great American tragedy.
I could not put this book down.
Posted by Sid at June 30, 2006 12:50 AM | Book Review
