White Guilt

White Guilt by Shelby Steele is a take no prisoners look at how white elitists and the black leadership who exploited white guilt remade American institutions into bastions of elitist “bigotry of low expectations”. The book will leave the far-left white liberals and extorting-exploiting folks in the black leadership screaming “Uncle Tom!” and worse, “Black Conservative”. What is always curious to me is how the far-left of any skin-color – bereft of principles, yells “Racists” at conservative whites and “Black Conservative” at reasoning blacks. The name-calling is meant to cover the left’s parched earth devoid of principle and close off any discussion from non-believers. Instead of “speaking truth to power”, Dr. Steele speaks truth to fraud. We are all in his debt. If you consider yourself a conservative, you may begin to realize the burden of fraudulent unconstitutionality and reverse discrimination that has been imposed upon our nation all under the guise of affirmative action and making white liberals “feel” better about themselves. Additionally, with their need to “feel” better comes the need to regain moral authority thus white supremacy but not supremacy of all whites, just the elites. Traditional whites and conservative blacks have no authority to speak to the issues but they do get to pay for the failed socialist programs. That’s good. You can pay but you can’t say. In Mr. Steele’s White Guilt, the reasons underlying the lefts hatred for President George W. Bush are addressed. Appreciating this perspective sheds light upon the vehemence of their vitriol. Shame on them! In the President’s “bigotry of low expectations” speech, President Bush called the liberals out. The societal programs over the past 30 to 40 years have failed, and worse have institutionalized the notion that minorities and women can only succeed through the lowering of standards and affirmative action. Quotas insult us all and paint all minorities with the broad brush/stigma of inferiority as well as hardwiring mediocrity into the fabric of our institutions. The lowering of standards unfortunately does not confine itself to ethnic studies programs and women’s studies. The greatest fraud perpetrated upon us and all of our youth is affirmative action and ethnic/gender studies programs. Out of the gate, they have “second-class” citizen written all over them. How many mathematicians and engineers do you know who boast of degrees in “engineering for ethnic/gender minorities”? And of course, the fraudulent idea of “diversity” simply means entry by skin-color or gender not by merit. Dr. Steele addresses the dust up between Justice Thomas and Maureen Dowd in the University of Michigan affirmative action case – the majority opinion written by Sandra Day O’Connor, an opinion which demonstrates why affirmative action doesn’t serve us well in any venue. You don’t want to miss it. He delves into the beginning of the Red State vs. Blue State phenomenon. White Guilt is not a diatribe of whites vs. blacks. It provides insight into the divisions in our nation today. It defines the “classic battle between the elitist culture of dissociation and the unreconstructed culture of principle and traditional values.” (p.153) According to Steele, the “special character of contemporary conservatism comes from the fact that it is a reaction to the cultural decline caused by the culture of dissociation. This conservatism tends to think of itself as a historical corrective. Its great mission is to reassert principle as reform.” (p.178) The “bigotry of low expectations” speech…offered a new direction for social reform and, especially, a new theory: dissociation from the racist past through principle and individual responsibility rather than at the expense of these things.” (p.179) The last chapter, A Culture War, is worth the price of the book. The liberal elites should be driven to therapy, the blacks who call themselves leaders and behave more like extortionists should worry about RICO laws, and traditional conservatives (black, white, pink, beige, or purple) should step back, gird their loins for the fight ahead, and know that principles are on their side. One more quotation from Dr. Steele, “Those who would take power by making things easier (lower standards and fraudulent academic programs – my words) have all but destroyed what was once the greatest public education system in the world. In more liberal states like California, where dissociation has been an orthodoxy if not a religion, the schools are even worse than elsewhere.” (p162-163) “Today’s left is both impotent before social problems and alienated from the principles that might solve those problems.” (p.177) White Guilt deserves our attention. As an optimist, I know there is more that brings us together than drives us apart. But a citizenry handicapped by lowest performing public educational system in the world has a long way to go to shake off the stigma and the chains of intellectual bigotry. God bless you and God bless America.