"Confronting White Guilt"

Margaret clues us in to this article in yesterday's Seattle Times:

.... Steele delivered a stinging, dead-on indictment of the sophistries that get between many whites and blacks in America today.

Steele began by noting legislative and social reforms of the civil-rights era comprised an admission of real guilt, but this confession deprived whites of moral authority over African Americans, something seemingly liberal whites couldn't actually stomach.

Steele said as a result, whites and major institutions must keep "disproving the negative" — that they're racist — by playing benefactor to blacks. Some statewide initiatives and court rulings may indicate mounting resistance to public-sector racial quotas, but Steele said ours is still an "age of white guilt."

For instance, if whites say African-American parents are responsible for sending their children to school unprepared, they're promptly labeled racist, said Steele. Likewise those who challenge affirmative action or claims of race-based police bias and other "institutional racism," I've noticed.

This was perfectly illustrated by the white keynote speaker at a recent nonprofit and business-sponsored race forum in Seattle, who said, "Denial is a form of racism." What tidy — and mainstream — authoritarianism!

As noted by one of a number of black readers who have contacted me after columns on race, "The nastiness isn't limited to blacks; liberal whites seem to take a particular delight in these sort of attacks."

Steele explained why. "White guilt shifts responsibility for black advancement from blacks to whites... there is at the heart of white guilt a profound selfishness and self-preoccupation." Whites feel they "have to let (African Americans) out of things" to ease their own consciences....

For living proof, see the articles referenced here.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/24/03 08:25:35 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.