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Shelby Steele on systemic racism — 9 Comments

1. African-Americans? 1/2 Americans? Fetal-Americans? We should be able to mitigate progress, that has been fueled by secular incentives, in one generation.

   Shelby is, of course, right. However, to be fair, diversity is a progressive condition, and is indulged with liberal license.

   Individual dignity. Intrinsic value. Inordinate worth. Lose your Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent religion. Reconcile.

2. White guilt, cancel culture, whatever-phobia, witch hunts, and warlock trials (e.g. trial by press), etc. are sociopolitical constructs exploited for leverage, redistributive change, and retributive change, too. Here’s to progress or [unqualified] monotonic change. #PrinciplesMatter #PeopleMatter #BabyLivesMatter #Reconcile

3. The “Great Society”, the public smoothing functions (“welfare”), the constant barrage of diversitist drama, were probably the single-most effective means to sabotage development. A man, as the traditional earner of externally negotiable capital, loses respect in his own eyes, and loses standing with his wife. A dysfunctional convergence is progressive and inevitable.

4. What Shelby Steele says about white guilt is brilliant, and it’s amazing that it’s not obvious to everyone: It’s not about actual feelings of guilt, it’s about the terror of being considered racist.

   White guilt is at the root of all the fashionable virtue signaling. It’s also what’s driving the masses of white people out demonstrating. What a marvelous opportunity this is for declaring to the world, “I am not a racist.” If you stay home while your neighbor is joining the protest, someone might think you are a racist. Better get out there.

5. What struck me is that, at around 37 minutes, Steele seems to think more and more folks are in their hearts coming to their senses and seeing through the all the black victim narrative. Now turn to today and see whites (and blacks), in droves, buying into that narrative. Sadly, maybe he was wrong about that.
   But his articulation of the issues is brilliant.

6. One of the biggest lessons I’ve ever learned was when I worked at the welfare dept. in Philly. My unit was black and white, and we talked with one another. One day, I had come back from lunch early, and the oldest man (about 40) in our unit came up to me and said “I did something awful today When I was reading the cases before I visited, I notice that this woman got on welfare as a 6 year old on this date 25 years ago. When she opened her door, I said Congratulations. He felt horrible for embarrasing her. A few weeks later he came back to me to tell me he that she had just called and had gotten a job and didn’t need welfare. She said that before I had congratulated her, she had never thought about what she wanted to do with her life.
   That has been about 50 years ago, and I remember it like yesterday. I realized that the worst thing you can do to people is take away their life choices, decisions and sense of accomplishment.

7. M Williams :

   What struck me is that, at around 37 minutes, Steele seems to think more and more folks are in their hearts coming to their senses and seeing through the all the black victim narrative. Now turn to today and see whites (and blacks), in droves, buying into that narrative. Sadly, maybe he was wrong about that.

   This is because whites are terrified of being called “racist.” Myself, I don’t care that much, for several reasons. First, before I got out of high school, I came to the conclusion that all of us have the in-group versus out-group instinct: my group is good and your group is bad.(Racism is but one example of that.) That includes liberals. A high school classmate dedicated his career to “social justice.” Guess what: he was also, in my book, rather high in using the “my group GOOD- your group BAD” dichotomy- at least as such groups were defined in our high school. I guess that is consistent, as today he probably concludes those who want “social justice” are GOOD and those who disagree with the SJWs are BAD.

   Second, in my time in Latin America, I saw that bigotry/racism/in-versus-out-group is, if anything, bigger than in the US.

   Third, a black classmate later told me decades later that I was one of only three in our class who “treated me like a human being.” So I had my in-group out-group dichotomy under control. Somewhat.

   Regarding Steele saying that blacks have had problem dealing with freedom, my observation from several years in the classroom is that too many blacks still have internalized the slavemaster’s dicta that blacks shouldn’t become educated. But have in the process, labeled those who want to learn as “acting white.” (My childhood friend didn’t fall into that trap.)

8. Steele talked about the shock of freedom. Could there also be the shock of having to take responsibility? Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin.

9. Freedom and responsibility are inseparable companions.
   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-meaningful-life/201908/viktor-frankl-and-the-statue-responsibility

   Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.1

   The post’s author adds: “The price of greatness is responsibility.”—Sir Winston Churchill
   — which is why he is on the statua non grata list.

   https://www.aish.com/h/pes/mm/Viktor-Frankl-Passover-and-the-Meaning-of-Freedom.html

   Victor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychologist, was a survivor of two concentration camps. When he was liberated in April 1945, almost everyone in his family had been killed. Based on his experiences in the camps, Frankl wrote the bestselling book Man’s Search for Meaning where he describes man’s primary need for meaning as the key to living.

   He writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

   The Nazis took everything away from him; his clothes, possessions, his family. He sat there huddled in the cold barracks; starving, exhausted and heartbroken. He felt like he had nothing left. And then it hit him; the Nazis thought they had total command over him. That he had no freedom left. But there was one thing they could never take: his choice, his response. Frankl writes, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is the power to choose our response. In that power, lies our growth and our freedom. ”

   By realizing he maintained the power to choose, he clung to his humanity and dignity.

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