Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Shelby Steele discusses racial issues he sees behind the success of Illinois Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
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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.
In reviewing excerpts from the book and listening to the Q&A, I must say that I was slightly irritated byt he arrogant and caustic perspective on the social interactions between blacks and whites in American culture. While I concede the point that we all (black or white) wear masks in our daily interactions with one another , I challenge the intended purpose of the manuscript. THe book seems to have the goal of easing the apprehensive nature of whites in their interaction with blacks. The author appears to act as some sort of pacifier or surrogate for white America. Its almost sickening to watch. Why does white America need a surrogate, their apprehensiveness is a mask that they wear, just as blacks wear a mask to facilitate intergration into white culture. Its basic human behavior. It is not some secret plan of blacks to wear masks to full our white masters. It is a function of human behavior in our attemtpt to establish some sort of relationship with other people. WHether that relationship is polite or hostile depends on the nature of the people involved. THe author goes on to assert that Barack Obama's masks is hiding his true feelings about America. Such audacity! Could it possibly be that Barack chooses to act the way he does and that the merit of his actions are a reflection of something far deeper than the "proverbial" mask. Was Dr. King wearing a mask when he practiced overcoming through peace? Was he involved in this relationship of "qiud pro quo" with white America? If so , what was the harm in it. Did it change America as we knew it , for both blacks and whites. THis book should be called, " Bound: why Shelby Steele hates blacks and America who are bridging gaps, and why he can't stand it".