If you are the least bit aware of the current, rapidly-growing body of literature on race relations in America, you should be familiar with the name Shelby Steele. I will leave the biographical background and his academic credentials to his Hoover Institute entry. and will say simply that Dr. Steele is an accomplished scholar and prolific writer. His work has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times Magazine and the Washington Post. He won the National Magazine Award in 1989. But who could better describe the author than himself. This is from the second chapter of his first book, The Content of Our Character, winner of the Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction in 1991 .

"I am a fortyish, middle-class, black American male with a teaching position at a large state university in California. I have owned my own home for 10 years, as well as the two cars that are the minimal requirements for life in California. And I will confess to a moderate strain of yuppie hedonism. Year after year my two children are the sole representatives of their race in their classrooms, a fact that they have difficulty sometimes remembering. We are the only black family in our suburban neighborhood, and even this claim to specialness is diminished by the fact that my wife is white. I think we are called an "integrated" family, though no one has ever used the term with me. For me to be among the large numbers of blacks requires conscientiousness and a long car ride, and in truth, I have not been very conscientious lately. Though I was raised in an all-black community just south of Chicago, I only occasionally feel nostalgia for such places. Trips to the barbershop now and then usually satisfy this need, though recently, in the interest of convenience, I've taken to letting my wife cut my hair."

Not a very typical portrait for an "angry black man" is it? I question my use of "angry" sometimes when discussing any of the authors to be included in this series. Perhaps, "frustrated" would be better for they all share that to some degree. "Indignant" would be another descriptor that might apply. But, for now, I will stick with "angry" because, when I read Dr. Steele's books, I sense the same righteous anger that I felt listening to or reading the speeches of Dr. King from the 1960s. Reverend King spoke as a man who knew he was thoroughly right (and righteous) and that would make his point - as often as necessary - until his opposition would hear and acknowledge his message. The calm, dignified, steely-resolve and steadfast character of Reverend King - combined with the undeniable logic of his words - was what came through to the people of this country.

It is that same passionate, clear, concise (his books seldom exceed 200 pages) and irrefutable logic that I hear as I imagine the voice of Dr. Steele while reading his books. He is not of the pulpit; he is of the classroom. And, while the language expressing his thoughts is not as lofty as that of Dr. King, the words are no less powerful. He speaks analytically and with a matter-of-fact tone of many things that people of both races do not care to hear. For the white reader it is uneasiness for we seldom hear words such as these. For the black reader - I can only imagine - the same words must elicit a wide range of emotions. The words of Steele are not words of comfort for either race. Often, the words provide us with a mirror that reflects back all of our hypocrisy and failings.

Dr. Steele has advice for both black and white readers. For the white reader he says things that, personally translated by me - sound like "Stop being so damned helpful!" To the black reader he seems to say "Enough! Enough with the continued embracing of the "victim mentality" and enough with the false excuses it provides. It is time we reaffirmed and embraced our individuality and our potential."

He coins new (at least to me) phrases that he sees operating in the integrated society that is America. He describes two important concepts - "integration shock" and "race-holding" - using a personal story to show the "mechanics" of both:

"I have a friend who did poorly in the insurance business for years. "People won't buy insurance from a black man!" he always said. Two years ago, another black man and a black woman joined his office. Almost immediately, but did twice the business my friend was doing, with the same largely white client base. Integration shock is essentially the shock of being suddenly accountable on strictly personal terms. It occurs in situations that disallow race as an excuse for personal shortcomings and it therefore exposes vulnerabilities that previously were hidden. One response is to face up to the self-confrontation is brings and then act on the basis of what we learn about ourselves. After some struggle, my friend was able to do this. He completely revised his sales technique, asked himself some hard questions about his motivation, and resolved to work harder."

In "The Content of Our Character," the initial response for the insurance salesman is termed "race holding." This phenomenon is a culturally-ingrained and has lingered despite a decline in overt racism. A remnant of the origins of the 1950s and 1960s when blacks welded power principally through group action, race-holding - according to Dr. Steele - has now become a negative force. It prevents blacks from moving beyond the group and toward individualism. For the insurance salesman, his initial response to business failure was race. Once he was confronted with the success of his new coworkers - eliminating the race-holding excuse - he had to deal with the painful self-examination and, eventually, the acceptance that perhaps he, as an individual was the problem. And not his race.

In a society where blacks are immersed and competing at all levels of American society, they are often confronted, like the insurance salesman, with the second phenomenon, "integration shock." The author defines this as the psychological pain of being suddenly accountable for success or failure on strictly personal terms. Steele submits that the race-holding permeates large segments of the minority culture as a natural (if negative) adaptation response to integration shock. Race holding allows those who rely on it to evade a more productive response - personal responsibility. And the race holding excuse is a restraining and limiting factor on achievement of the individual. Further, it reinforces the "self-fulfilling prophecy" concept often held in the same people. The opportunity to succeed - without the security that race-holding provides - is also a chance to fail. I will allow Dr. Steele to summarize:

"The theory of race-holding is based on the assumption that a margin of choice is always open to blacks (even slaves has some choice). And it tries to make clear the mechanisms by which we relinquish the choice in the name of race. With the decline in racism, the margin of black choice has greatly expanded, which is probably why race-holding is so much more visible today than ever before. But anything that prevents us from exploiting our new freedom to the fullest is now as serious a barrier to us as racism once was."

According to Dr. Steele: "I think black Americans are today more oppressed by doubt than by racism and that the second phase of our struggle for freedom must be a confrontation with that [self] doubt." He exhorts the black American to reject the long-standing "victimization" philosophy and to reject clinging to race-holding and a "group think" mentality. Only by striding confidently into the national mainstream as competent, talented and unique individuals will black Americans achieve the things of which they are fully capable.

White Guilt...

In the fourth chapter of his book, Dr. Steele discusses what I think is the ultimate and most enlightening discussions of the entire book and boldly wades into issues yet to be faced in race relations. He, unlike most of the reigning contemporary black leaders, trumpets it for all to hear and, hopefully, to learn from. Steele notes that in the mid- to late-1960s there was a fundamental shift in black/white relations. The black people had acquired "equality." The recognition was legislated, widely-supported and the long-overdue "law of the land." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was truly the "Second Emancipation Proclamation." But the real power shift occurred within the hearts and souls of white people. They were confronted with their guilt. And, equally, a shift of truly tectonic proportions, blacks had a newfound sense of power. "Black power" became a reality. The times, indeed, were a changing.

Dr. Steele discusses the "negotiations" that began to take place. Each "side" had debits and credits. The blacks were negotiating from a position of power and offered the whites something they craved: forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption. The whites had the power, earned from hundreds of years of oppression. But, confronted at long last by their centuries-old guilt, white people craved redemption Almost at an unconscious level (no on would discuss what was taking place in those heady days of "The Great Society" with such clinical starkness), the white establishment began trading power to the blacks in the hopes they could be pardoned. While this was not possible in either race’s heart, it was a dream nonetheless. The first tentative steps in the bargaining that came to pass were just and right and long overdue. But, as the handing over power to the blacks progressed and the whites began to feel the first glimmers of their renewed collective souls, the whole process of negotiating for what was fair and just became progressively distorted.

You see, Dr. Steele makes the point that the whites, in their selfishness, were not merely seeking black uplift and reconstructive assistance. White people began making their "white guilt" not about genuine concern for the blacks but about regaining their lost innocence and filling the "moral vacuum of the white people. And the contemporary black leaders were complicit and enabling in the process. He explains it this way:

"...the difference [is] between self-preoccupied guilt and the guilt of genuine concern, where fear for one’s innocence is contained. The former grants entitlements as a means to easy innocence and escape from judgement; the latter refuses the entanglements and blindness of self-concerned guilt and, out of honest concern, demands black development. Escapist racial policies - policies whereby institutions favor black entitlements over development of a preoccupation with their own innocence - have, I believe, a dispiriting impact on blacks. Such policies have the effect of transforming whites from victimizers into patrons and keeping blacks where they have always been - dependent on the largesse of whites."

My first response to reading these words was...well...WOW! Someone finally made sense of the racial quagmire that I see in my country today. We - American citizens of all hues - have really mucked up a once noble endeavor. I wrote an entry several years ago giving my view (verified by the second Kerner Commission Report) that segregation is more a problem today than it was 25 years ago.

In my opinion - I do not rely entirely on Dr. Steele for these thoughts - the racial problems continue to fester in our society for a several reasons. These reasons include but are not limited to:

1. The recognized leaders of both blacks and whites remain mired in white guilt-black power bartering that has long since been proven to help few. I would have said "proven to help no one" but that would be clearly wrong. This sort of outdated quid pro quo has helped elect many a white politician willing to make pie-in-the-sky promises to blacks that if and when they are actually implemented do nothing to constructively uplift poor blacks. And these same horse-trading gambits have kept the same outdated and out of touch black leaders prominently leading the monolithic black voting block down the same barren roads.

2. Feelings of inferiority among blacks are continually subtly reinforced, entrenched and psychologically ingrained. With ineffectual entitlements, preferences and "largesse" from the overflowing cup of white guilt, young blacks are lead to believe that they must be inferior or why would they need anyone’s help?

3. The white liberal establishment who, themselves, are more concerned with regaining their lost innocence and getting points to be redeemed for a "free from white guilt" card than in truly reconstructing black communities and families, continues to flourish and promise deliverance. The white liberal’s pursuit of clean hands and a pure heart - never historically obtainable - continues the same policies decade after decade when, by every measure in every time and in every way, they clearly are failing the black citizenry.

Ultimately, it all comes down to personal responsibility, hard choices, and a change in values on all sides. The white liberals must stop trying to be so damned helpful. The old methods of "helping the blacks" are, clearly, counterproductive. As Dr. Steele (and others) point out "After 20 years of racial preferences, the gap between white and black median income is greater than it was in the seventies." Further, 70% of black college students drop out and never graduate. Again, Dr. Steele sadly notes "Fewer blacks go to college today than 10 years ago; more black males of college age are in prison or under control of the criminal justice system than in college. This despite racial preferences."

Old solutions have consistently and tragically failed. Yet leaders of all races dare not profess such a heresy. If they were to do so, they would immediately be labeled "racist" (the most universally fatal of all political brandings) or worse. And without a national debate of these imminently important issues by leaders who are willing to openly and honestly face our national hypocrisy, the tragedies and the "nation within a nation" chasm will continue to grow.

Fortunately, though they continue to be ignored by the reigning "arbiters of blackness" (Steele’s term) currently in power and the recalcitrant political establishment that prefers the status quo barter system, there are emerging voices like Shelby Steele who would be heard. I hope to discuss more of these proud men as they call upon their fellow citizens - both black and white - to stop the posturing and the tired old rhetoric of the last half-century and look at today’s problems with fresh eyes and a new honesty. Like all mass movements, it all begins with Hoffer’s "men of words." And Shelby Steele is a man of words who should be heard. I will close with this final quote from "The Content of Our Character." It speaks volumes about the author and his passion for change.

"It was my good fortune to go to college in 1964, when the question of black "inferiority" was openly talked about among blacks. The summer before I left for college, I heard Martin Luther King speak in Chicago, and he laid it on the line for black students everywhere: "When you are behind in a footrace, the only way to get ahead is to run faster than the man in front of you. So when your white roommate says he is tired and goes to sleep, you stay up and burn the midnight oil." His statement that we were "behind in a footrace" acknowledged that, because of history, of few opportunities, of racism, we were, in a sense, "inferior." But this had to do with what had been done to our parents and their parents, not with inherent inferiority. And because it was acknowledged, it was presented to us as a challenge rather than a mark of shame."

That challenge was certainly exceeded by Shelby Steele and many more like him. We need more willing to accept that challenge today.