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 npl → relaciones 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
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 |
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