Quotessence
Home / Authors / Shelby Steele Books
Shelby Steele

Shelby Steele Books

Author

Related Quotes

“All politicians are going to mask to some degree in order to present themselves in away they think will get them votes. What's different in Obama's case is that he's wearing a racial mask, this 'bargainer's' mask, and I think very effectively, whereby he gives whites the benefit of the doubt. He's essentially saying, 'I am going to presume you are not racist, if you won't hold my race against me.' So, his mask is a distinctly racial one.”

IfsThinkingGivingDifferentOrderRaceCasesDoubtPoliticianDegreesBenefitsVoteMaskRacistBenefit Of The Doubt
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“My problem with Obama is that he's not a new paradigm; he's an old paradigm. A new paradigm would be somebody like Harold Ford [former Democratic Congressman from Tennessee] or Michael Steele [former Republican Lieutenant Governor of Maryland], no relation, both of whom present themselves as individuals, and don't seem to wear a mask. They don't 'bargain;' they don't 'challenge.' So, I see them as fresh, and as evidence of what I hope will be a new trend.”

ProblemSeemsWould BeIndividualChallengesRepublicanEvidenceRelationDemocraticFormerMaskTrendsGovernorsParadigmBargainsCongressmanTennesseeLieutenantsMaryland
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“I grew during segregation in an all-black segregated neighborhood with segregated schools, etcetera. I was raised by a great father, my hero, who I much admired. So, I never really had anxiety in the way that someone like Obama would have. When he walks down the street alone, since no one knows who his mother is, they're just going to see him as a black guy.”

KnowsWaySchoolMotherGuyFatherBlackWalksStreetsGrewHeroAnxietyRaisedNeighborhoodSegregationMy HeroGreat FatherAll BlackBlack GuysEtcetera
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“I was raised in a completely black world. In those days, if a white woman married a black man, she lived as a black woman, and that was just the end of it. So, I don't have a feeling of being bi-racial. I don't have a connection to it. People often come up to me thinking I do have a connection to it, and I kind of let them down because I really don't.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenWorldKindEndsFeelingsBlackWhiteMarriedConnectionsRaisedCome UpBlack Women
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“I decided to live as an individual and as I grew older, and thought more, and read more and experienced more, my views became more conservative. But my group is liberal. Not only that, they say, 'If you're not liberal and not a Democrat, you're not black. If you're conservative, you're a sellout.' Here, then, I'm living with that kind of a pressure against my individuality.”

IfsKindIndividualBlackViewsGroupsGrewDecidedPressureDemocratIndividualityConservative
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“Part of our identity is the idea that racism is still there and that we are vulnerable to it. So, the question is, 'How vulnerable?' In other words, is it really a problem for us, or is it just a small thing. How do you evaluate racism in America on a scale of 1 to 10? My suspicion is that most blacks overrate it a bit. Not to say it's not there, but we overrate it because this masking is part of our relationship to the larger society. This is a way we keep whites on the hook. We keep them obligated, and we keep ourselves entitled. There's an incentive, you see, to inflate it a little bit.”

WayLittlesStillsIdeasProblemAmericaBitsIdentityLittle BitRacismScalesVulnerableOur RelationshipSuspicionEntitledHookIncentivesSmall ThingsEvaluateRacism In America
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“What the Clintons have always done is embraced challenging. They can't have enough photo opportunities with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. They communicate to blacks that they agree with their challenging identity. So, in a sense, Hillary is blacker than Barack Obama. Their alignment with this black identity makes them 'black' in a metaphorical sense, I guess.”

DoneEnoughOpportunityBlackChallengesIdentityAgreeClintonCommunicateBarackAlsAlignmentMetaphorical
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“Too often the result of affirmative action has been an artificial diversity that gives the appearance of parity between blacks and whites that has not yet been achieved in reality...Preferences tend to attack one form of discrimination with another...Affirmative action encourages a victim-focused identity, and sends the message that there is more power in our past suffering than in our present achievements.”

GivingHas BeensRealityActionPastFormSufferingResultsIdentityAchievementDiversityMessagesVictimAppearanceFocusedDiscriminationArtificialOur PastPreferenceAffirmative ActionAffirmativeParity
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“Most important, [research on affirmative action] has completely failed to show that affirmative action ever closes the academic gap between minorities and whites. And failing in this, affirmative action also fails to help blacks achieve true equality with whites - the ultimate measure of which is parity in skills and individual competence. Without this underlying parity there can never be true equality in employment, income levels, rates of home ownership, educational achievement and the rest.”

ImportantHelpingShowsHomeActionIndividualLevelsFailingAchieveSkillsAchievementResearchUltimateRateEducationalIncomeBeing TrueEmploymentMinoritiesGapsAcademicOwnershipCompetenceAffirmative ActionAffirmativeParityHome OwnershipTrue Equality
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved more by changes in society than by his own initiative. Without realizing it, he makes society rather than himself the agent of change. The power he finds in his victimization may lead him to collective action against society, but it also encourages passivity within the sphere of his personal life.”

FeelsMayHas BeensActionIndividualSocialBlackRealizingVictimAgentsCollectivesSpheresInitiativeOppressedPersonal LifePassivityIndividual LifeVictimizationCollective ActionChanges In Society
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image