In
1955 the murderers of Emmett Till, a black Mississippi youth, were
acquitted of their crime, undoubtedly because they were white. Forty
years later, O. J. Simpson, whom many thought would be charged with
murder by virtue of the DNA evidence against him, went free after his
attorney portrayed him as a victim of racism. Clearly, a sea change had
taken place in American culture, but how had it happened? In this
important new work, distinguished race relations scholar Shelby Steele
argues that the age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white
guilt -- and neither has been good for African Americans. As the
civil rights victories of the 1960s dealt a blow to racial
discrimination, American institutions started acknowledging their
injustices, and white Americans -- who held the power in those
institutions -- began to lose their moral authority. Since then, our
governments and universities, eager to reclaim legitimacy and avoid
charges of racism, have made a show of taking responsibility for the
problems of black Americans. In doing so, Steele asserts, they have only
further exploited blacks, viewing them always as victims, never as
equals. This phenomenon, which he calls white guilt, is a way for whites
to keep up appearances, to feel righteous, and to acquire an easy moral
authority -- all without addressing the real underlying problems of
African Americans. Steele argues that calls for diversity and programs
of affirmative action serve only to stigmatize minorities, portraying
them not as capable individuals but as people defined by their
membership in a group for which exceptions must be made. Through his
articulate analysis and engrossing recollections of the last
half-century of American race relations, Steele calls for a new culture
of personal responsibility, a commitment to principles that can fill the
moral void created by white guilt. White leaders must stop using
minorities as a means to establish their moral authority -- and black
leaders must stop indulging them. As White Guilt eloquently concludes,
the alternative is a dangerous ethical relativism that extends beyond
race relations into all parts of American life.
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