Shelby Steele - "Racial Masking" in American Popular Culture

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/01/18/Shelby_Steele_on_Why_Barack_Obama_Cannot_Win

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Shelby Steele explains "racial masking," a phenomenon he identifies as a common experience for minorities in American culture.

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A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win

Shelby Steele examines the challenges that Barack Obama must overcome in his bid to become President of the United States in A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win. Having to cater to both black voters and white voters in what binds Obama, and his dilemma is that he achieved visibility more as a racial icon than as an individual. In his analysis, Shelby Steele discusses his own mixed race background, and he empathizes with Obama's inner conflicts even as he critiques him. He also identifies the two 'masks' that blacks wear in order to seek success and power in the American mainstream: bargaining and challenging, and he argues that Obama is too constrained by divisive racial politics to find his own true political voice - and proposes a way for him to break those bonds and find his own voice.

Shelby Steele is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of The Content of Our Character and White Guilt, and a contributing editor at Harper's; his work has also appeared in numerous other magazines and newspapers - Cody's Books

Shelby Steele is the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He specializes in the study of race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action. He was appointed a Hoover fellow in 1994.

Steele has written widely on race in American society and the consequences of contemporary social programs on race relations

In 2006, Steele received the Bradley Prize for his contributions to the study of race in America. In 2004, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Steele is the author of White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era and most recently A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win.

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[ptricky15]

He grew up in Chicago through the 60's... civil rights... riots... he knows what he's talking about... even more so than Obama... listen and try to understand what he's saying.

[Jitpring]

Read anything you can find by Shelby Steele. Brilliant.

[davisismail1comcast]

WOW I cannot believe that Steele wrote this candid, sincere and very astute piece of literature. This is revealing, of him at least, that he does understand some of the struggles and the subtle campaigns that are people have to put on in order to survive in perdition, projection, and paranoid white society for all that they did to African peoples. Im embarrassed to say that i was one of those taught that Mr Armstrong was a sincere SHINE for whites, not knowing the man and the way he survived

[AgainstRacismDotInfo]

Smart man. Appreciate the logic and effort of this man. He may be trying to sell a book, after all he has to survive like the rest of us, but the messege and committment is there. Check out our YouTube channel for the website on againstracism.info

[Exofire]

Two words piss off liberals, black or white, more than any other:

Personal Responsibility.

This is why Shelby Steele is attacked. People would rather blame others in self-pity, rather than take responsibility for their own actions.

[Jitpring]

@giaramos2010 Very fashionable on all counts. Congratulations!

[giaramos2010]

@Jitpring

This is the same man who swore to White America that Mr. Obama would not win the presidency! Mr. Steele is wearing the mask that White America must see and that is a total dis-association from the Afrikan struggle to be as Afrikan as Italian, Irishman, WASP, etc., and still be respected as Americans. Mr. Steele's mask is the pretense that he is an evolved Negro having achieved the understanding that the White man will give you more if he thinks you don't really need the hand out.

[countertreason]

You know what: there are not enough black academics out there. This guy is dead serious and rational. I don't know what it is like to be black, but I get upset when I see so many embarassing representatives of black academics. I see more rappers, preachers or members of lobby groups speaking for black America than real thoughtful individuals.

Blacks really need more Shelby Steeles. I do love, too, his genuine belief in racial equality. Blacks need to be excellent and not be victims.

[dutytocareforothers]

@ZDWmiamicane Articulating the facts doesn't mean anything. Anyone can read facts out loud. It's the suggestions and dialogue one uses to engage people to improve. I believe it's very arrogant and stupid to nit-pick at minority groups. It's just a stupid waste of time. It doesn't make sense why Shelby cares so much for the group of people he really hates. Oh right, it's all about profits. Those books will sell.

[dutytocareforothers]

@clubby1234 Tax money goes to libraries, roads, the fire-stations, public entities, and the post office. Do we need to pester and belittle you about using the roads and libraries that other people have paid for?

[dutytocareforothers]

@josephjstern He is using white supremacy to line his pockets with cash. He knows there are a lot of whites that hate black people. They look down on black people and wish they'd go away. Shelby picked a target audience or market segment i.e. angry white apologists, then wrote books geared to them, all for a profit. Have you noticed his suggestions haven't made a positive difference. You just see a bunch of arguing and fighting.

[dutytocareforothers]

@freein2339 I agree. Since when does using guilt and shame make a poverty stricken group improve?