Witness: Blacks, whites, and the politics of shame in America -- by Shelby Steele

Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal) ^ | October 26, 2005 | Shelby Steele

[alrea]

good post.

[Alia]

Shelby Steele is a wonderful man. He, too, went through discrimination at CA Education, and because he didn't speak like a liberal, didn't think like one. He was punished.

[Revolting cat!]

Did I say 'sickening'? I must have been thinking about something related to work. No, I meant tiresome, empty. (Something else you can disagree with. And I'm not saying I disagree with Steele today.) Viewing everything through the prism of race and so called "race relations" is a dead end, boring and, in the end, intellectually shallow. And that's what I get from the daily newspapers and television news shows, if I ever watch them, which isn't often these days. But here's the World Series on the tube as I type and I can bet that during the evening the obsession will come through, one way or another.

Here's an example you might call extreme, but I think it's fairly typical. Sometime in 1989 or 1990, during the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and Russia I was in a carpool with several strangers, the radio was playing NPR Morning Edition (I think that's what it was called, I haven't listened to NPR since that day.) After a news report about some events in Romania or Poland, there was a piece discussing how the changes over there might affect, you guessed it, blacks in America. I burst out laughing in that car, but the strangers around me didn't react either to me or to the ridiculous program. Perfectly trained pods.

[Valin]

Couldn't agree more. BUT as we all know there are people who make quite a nice living off playing the race card.

[nmh]

Ah, like Sharpton, ole Jessie Jack*ss and others ... .

[Valin]

I would NEVER mention any names Louis Farrakhan. DARN Did I say that outloud? :-)