{"id":29748,"date":"2022-12-02T10:57:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T18:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29748"},"modified":"2022-12-02T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T18:57:53","slug":"conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/conviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conviction is what I felt as I read Shelby Steele\u2019s Shame: How America\u2019s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/i>. This kind of conviction leads to examination of thoughts, behaviors and even societal tendencies, particularly those that have been participated in, while being unaware. In this book, Steel names the very thing that should convict us as we examine America\u2019s challenge with race and minority struggles that keeps true progress at bay – the shame of hypocrisy. By exegeting his personal experiences growing up in 1950s and 60s, against the cultural moments of his formative years, he settles on a conclusion that doubles-down on the promise of the American experiment: true freedom and responsibility. By doing this, Steele offers an insightful critique of America\u2019s cultural and political responses to racism, while also calling all people back to the idealistic promise of American freedom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Naming the Problem<\/b><\/p>\n

In his opening story, Steele captures our attention by naming the very fear that many white men encounter when wadding into the racial equality conversation and that is \u201cwhite guilt.\u201d Steel defines white guilt as \u201cthe terror of being seen as racist – a terror that has caused whites to act guilty toward minorities even when they feel no actual guilt.\u201d [1] This guilt has lead to a \u201cwhite paternalism\u201d that continues to undermine the true human freedom of blacks in America. [2] Steele is relatable in his observation of this through the story of attempting to quit the swimming team only to be drawn into a conversation about race. [3] As a senior in high school, Steele found himself naming the very issue underlying his exclusion from the summer swim retreat. His coach became confronted and convicted with the realization that he had participated in segregating an athlete from the summer retreat because of accepted social norms, and was, in fact, a racist because of this.[4]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hypocrisy<\/b><\/p>\n

The strength of Steele\u2019s observation is the emotional tension that underlies the struggle with racism. He draws the distinction between evil and hypocrisy. He argues that evil is rationalized, but hypocrisy is \u201cnot an act of evil; it is the pretense of innocence even as one is clearly in league with evil, and with the all duplicities and deceptions that serve evil.\u201d[5] While no one wants to be\u00a0 <\/span>confronted with their own racism or to be found participating in racist acts, hypocrisy seeks to legitimize systems and behaviors that allow people to participate without having to be confronted with reality. When these realities are confronted, as was the case with the movement\u2019s of the 1960s, or in Steele\u2019s example with his teammates, there exists a sense of re-victimization as justifications and patronizing solutions are offered that serve to undermine the person\u2019s agency. [6]<\/p>\n

Loss of Identity<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of this emotional tension, and why it continues to be a struggle, is the loss of identity for America. The 1960s were marked by a \u201cquest for legitimacy against hypocrisy\u201d through political and cultural movements such as feminism, sexual revolution, environmental movement and civil rights. [7] This called into question the American identity that Steele likens to \u201ca great vacuum had suddenly opened up in the world. An authority that one had taken for granted and built a moral identity around, was simply no longer there. [8] This created a crisis of identity as these hypocrisies were revealed and found to be propping up the American way of life for those who benefited from the hypocrisies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Solution<\/b><\/p>\n

The response to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and the cultural movements was the rise of a liberalism that continues to harm by supplying solutions that do not cost human dignity or agency. Steele argues for a kind of conservatism that promotes individual responsibility and freedom – which are the true promises of American democracy – as a solution to government intervention that will only perpetuates dependency. [9]<\/p>\n

Conviction<\/b><\/p>\n

I found Steele\u2019s perspective to be convicting as it calls attention to the tacit ways that privilege perpetuates the established position. I am drawn to the idealism of true freedom and responsibility, but wonder if it can exist against the history of hypocrisy that has not been fully exposed. The burden is placed back on the individual, yet the systematic hypocrisy may keep the individual from fully participating in actual freedom and agency. Even with these questions, the best way forward is to allow myself to be convicted and not rationalize my own thoughts, behaviors and actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Shelby Steele, Shame : How America\u2019s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/i> (New York: Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2015) p1.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Ibid., 2.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 41-51.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Ibid., 50.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Ibid., 47.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Ibid., 52.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Ibid., 55-67, 69.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Ibid., 76.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Ibid., 197.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Conviction is what I felt as I read Shelby Steele\u2019s Shame: How America\u2019s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country. This kind of conviction leads to examination of thoughts, behaviors and even societal tendencies, particularly those that have been participated in, while being unaware. In this book, Steel names the very thing that should convict us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2477],"class_list":["post-29748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-steele-dlgp01","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29749,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29748\/revisions\/29749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}