[rellimpank]

-bflr-

[the invisib1e hand]

bargain, challenge...does he mention, "re-naturalization" as an option?

[Old Seadog]

Shelby Steele

[saganite]

I don’t see a convincing argument here as to why Obama won’t simply be able to use white guilt to be elected. I don’t think he will be required to enunciate any policies and will be protected by the media from substantive criticism. All he has to do is be himself.

[oblomov]

It is an excellent book, and I would recommend that one read it along with The Vision of the Anointed, by Thomas Sowell.

[Eddie01]

Interesting read.

IMHO though, a more simple/accurate reason for Obama’s fall is the DNC will never allow a black man to be the nominee/president, messes up the DNC’s white power structure. (Let a slave run the plantation?)

DNC strategy:

Get black leaders to denounce him.

Find a witness to a cocaine deal.

[jmaroneps37]

We are excited about me BECAUSE he can’t win.

[B-Chan]

The author concludes thusly:

"thusly"

AAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints

§ 282. thusly
The adverb thusly was created in the 19th century as an alternative for thus in sentences such as Hold it thus or He put it thus. It appears to have been first used by humorists, who may have been echoing the speech of poorly educated people straining to sound stylish. The word has subsequently gained some currency in educated usage, but it is still often regarded as incorrect. A large majority of the Usage Panel found it unacceptable in an earlier survey. In formal writing, thus can still be used as in the examples above; in other styles, expressions such as this way and like this are more natural.
— The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

Sorry. Pet peeve.

[Nephi]

Shelby, you’ve over-thought it.

Bargainer = non-racist

Challenger = racist

By the way, if Hussein fails to be elected, it will be because he’s a Marxist, not because he’s black.

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[Graybeard58]

Like all bargainers Barack tries to be, more or less, politically invisible; when this is impossible he becomes a tepid leftist.

There was nothing "tepid" about his liberalism as an Illinois senator, he was and is to the left of Hillary.

[tom h]

Nice words from a brilliant but undiscovered intellectual.

But Obama is very dangerous because most American voters are not as brilliant, as nuanced, or as logical as Shelby Steele. Maybe 5% of whites and Republicans will vote for Obama to expunge the last vestiges of their guilt — so they think — and he will win. This includes many women who love his voice. Yes, they will vote for him because he makes them “feel good.”

Even Denzel Washington is considering supporting Obama although he is an outspoken Republican.

Obama is already trying to triangulate. Note his recent laudatory comments about Reagan. This will make the middle-of-the-roaders feel better about supporting him.

I believe he will win if only he can get by Hillary’s dirty tricks campaign in the primaries.

[Revolting cat!]

Fascinating!

[Nevadan]

Very interesting observations. Thanks for posting!

[deport]

Shelby Steele had a featured article in Time magazine dated Dec. 10, 2007 entitled “The Identity Card” which discusses this in detail. I happened upon it today while in the doctors office waiting room and I though it was an interesting read.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689619,00.html

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Thank you for this fine article reviewing a book I just read yesterday (an easy one-day read) and found very impressive.

You did a lot of work, and it seems that you didn't get as big a response as your effort - and certainly the content thereof - deserves.

Why don't we try pinging this thing a bit?

[diamond6]

bump for later

[SE Mom]

Thanks for posting- bookmark

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

American higher education, and to a lesser extent journalism, is controlled by the challengers; hence, blacks are given sovereign authority in some parts of the university and require all to be preoccupied with multiculturalism and diversity.

I noted that "liberal bias in the media" is a planted axiom of Steele's analysis.

This certainly exists, tho my preferred formulation of it is that conventional American political labels are actually advertising slogans conferred on Big Journalism's friends or imposed on Big Journalism's targets. My full analysis is in this thread.

Although Steele labels two black "masks," he actually describes a third way for blacks.

Bill Crosby and Oprah Winfrey are bargainers. Basically, bargainers give racial innocence (remove the stigmata of racism) to whites; hence, the whites are both relieved and grateful. Their gratitude is such that many talented, black bargainers receive not only white recognition but riches as well.

is correct as far as it goes - but Steele points out that Cosby has discarded his "bargainer mask" and has undertaken to be realistic about the fact that whites actually are less powerful than liberals simultaneously flatter and condemn them as being. White racism has little to do with black difficulties in the here and now, and blacks actually are able to prosper to the extent that they take responsiblity the way everyone else has to.

In reality the correct response to a Barak Obama "bargainer" or a Al Sharpton "challenger" is the same. It is to promote black responsibility among blacks the way Obama's own white mother did in him. And that is by rejecting utterly the "soft bigotry of low expectations." And the way to do that would be for the Republican Party to nominate a Bill Cosby type as VP. Not the Bill Cosby who was a "bargainer", not the Bill Cosby who promoted the Twana Brawley hoax (and was to that extent a "challenger," but the Bill Cosby who now promotes black responsibility and family values.

One name I would float is JC Watts. Other names would be unconventional in that they would be less conventionally qualified even than former Congressman Watts. The dream candidate, were he younger, would of course be Thomas Sowell. But there were also some losing candidates in '06 who would fill the bill in a pinch. Even Shelby Steele himself.

It will be objected that naming a black VP would look weak and be criticized. My response is that the Republican nominee, presumptively McCain, has the authority to nominate whoever he wants to for VP, which office is actually political heir to the POTUS nominee. And the Constitutional incentive to have the VP be from a different state as the POTUS is nothing other than a mandate to use the VP nomination to unify the country. Were I the POTUS nominee, I might point out that America has a long way to go to actually act as a bridge for all Americans to enter the 21st Century. And that nominating a black VP who stands for having everyone who wants the middle class 21st Century lifestyle to stand up and march across that bridge instead of trying to game the system and expect someone else to carry them across it.

[KC Burke]

I started reading Steele in the early 90s as he graduated from the same college that my son attended.

I believe I have read most of his books save this latest one that I have heard about.

He is a very gifted thinker. He is also very honest in his approach.