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


* White Guilt "White guilt" refers to a controversial concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some white people for the racist treatment of people of color by whites both historically and presently. : How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele HarperCollins, May 2006 $24.95, ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
 0-060-57862-9

The long subtitle of White Guilt lays bare Shelby Steele's intentions, though his name is enough to tell us all we need to know about where he stands on race relations race relations
Noun, pl

the relations between members of two or more races within a single community

race relations nplrelaciones fpl raciales

. Ever since he exploded on the public intellectual scene with The Content of Our Character (St. Martin's Press, 1990), Steele has declared an unabashed allegiance to the conservative ranks, and this latest book further confirms that association.

Even before I read the book, I watched him on Book TV, and the buzzwords Below is a list of common buzzwords which form part of the business jargon of Corporate work environments. General Conversation
  • Alignment []
  • At the end of the day [0]
  • Break through the clutter[1]
 of his ideological underpinnings--"black accountability," "psychology of dependency" and "victimization victimization Social medicine The abuse of the disenfranchised–eg, those underage, elderly, ♀, mentally retarded, illegal aliens, or other, by coercing them into illegal activities–eg, drug trade, pornography, prostitution. "--were spewed without interruption as he talked to caller after caller. "Minister Farrakhan is a demagogue dem·a·gogue also dem·a·gog  
n.
1. A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.

2. A leader of the common people in ancient times.

tr.v.
," he told one caller. "He has not succeeded in demonstrating the importance of individual responsibility."

"Responsibility" is a relative word, and one might level the same charge at Steele in as much as he seems irresponsible in placing most of the blame on African Americans and white liberals for the failures of governmental policies. What Steele put forth on television is faithfully reinforced in White Guilt, in which he contends that white leaders must stop using minorities as a device to impose their moral authority and black leaders should cease indulging them. It is this pact between them that for Steele has eroded and offset the promise of the Civil Rights Movement.

It is amazing how such a good writer can arrive at such warped and addled ad·dle  
v. ad·dled, ad·dling, ad·dles

v.tr.
To muddle; confuse: "My brain is a bit addled by whiskey" Eugene O'Neill. See Synonyms at confuse.
 conclusions his--elegant prose and analysis are at their best when he dissects Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man to make a point. Steele earns his keep at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, but he might have more to offer in the realm of literature, where he is a better thinker, less contentious and much more responsible.

--Reviewed by Herb Boyd
COPYRIGHT 2006 Cox, Matthews & Associates
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Author:Boyd, Herb
Publication:Black Issues Book Review
Article Type:Book review
Date:Jul 1, 2006
Words:322
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