*Please forgive me for the long and late post but this one was hard….professors please don’t count these few words toward my word count..haha”<\/p>\n
Intro<\/p>\n
In his book “Shame: how America’s past sins have polarized our country.” Steele makes a case that the issue of America’s past (namely racism) has diminished dramatically, if not altogether. Steele bases this on his trust that America has held up its end of the bargain since the civil rights movement of the 60s. Now minorities have the same opportunities as their counterparts; they just need to stop depending on the wrong political ideology.<\/p>\n
My Personal Feelings<\/p>\n
Now I will tell you before you even start diving into my post that I wrote this post and deleted it. I rewrote it and deleted it again. I prayed, rewrote it, and finally felt good enough to post it. I have tried to remove my experiences from this post, but I couldn’t shake the need to share a few of them briefly. I have seen and experienced firsthand the evils of racism. Though I wish it were as easy as pulling myself up by my bootstraps or following a particular political ideology, the issue of racism is much more nuanced than the author lets on. People may not be burning crosses or making me go to a \u201ccoloreds\u201d only drinking fountain, but I have been judged plenty of times on my skin color instead of my character. I have vivid memories of having guns pulled on me for walking into a store in a sundown town (they still exist you can look them up). Or my baby being denied proper medical treatment because she was mixed, thank God I knew someone that sat on the hospital board. Or being arrested on the spot because I looked like someone they were looking for though I never matched the description, just the wrong place at the wrong time. Or being taken to jail on a whim only to spend time in jail, fight it for months in court, lose the case, and have them mysteriously drop the case and charges from my record because the cop that arrested me admitted to it being a setup. So, I vehemently disagree with this book though not in its entirety.<\/p>\n
Where I Agree, loosely<\/p>\n
Though I have issues with the book, he made some valid points that I agree with. Like when he discussed social programs that he lumps all together and calls “The Good,” In his book, he writes, “So the actual purpose of The Good became absolution for the American people and the government and not actual reform for minorities.[1]<\/a>” I agree the social programs do seem to create a problem, but Steele and I do not come to the same conclusion as to why. Steele concludes that “Post-1960s welfare policies, the proliferation of \u201cidentity politics\u201d and group preferences, and all the grandiose social interventions of the War on Poverty and the Great Society\u2014 all this was meant to redeem the nation from its bigoted past,[2]<\/a>” I would suggest that these programs were never meant to redeem but that\u2019s another post.<\/p>\n He also discusses that during an invitation to speak at a conference, he encourages an end to white guilt “When my turn came, I said that what I wanted most for America was an end to white guilt, or at least an ebbing of this guilt into insignificance.[3]<\/a>\u201d He then goes onto define white guilt as \u201ca terror that has caused whites to act guiltily toward minorities even when they feel no actual guilt.[4]<\/a>” As a black male who lives in both black culture and white culture (my wife is white), I would agree with this. It would be beneficial to have an “ebbing of this guilt into insignificance” so that we can have honest conversations about race with our white brothers and sisters without them fearing the idea of being considered racist. This is where I end my loose agreement with Steele.<\/p>\n My Reaction<\/p>\n I was angry and frustrated and thought it was arrogant and pretentious in certain places. It felt like Steele was diminishing the experience of minorities since the 60’s all because it would seem that since he came out of “real” racism, the racism of today is not real but contrived because of our dependence on failed political and social ideologies.<\/p>\n In his book, he leaves out a vital thought: the idea of restoring dignity to those who have been wronged. For hundreds of years, the dignity of minorities has been stripped, abused, trampled, robbed, and shattered. To assume that all is good now because of a few programs, a few years of separation from overt racism, and sound political ideologies are asinine.<\/p>\n Dignity is a God given gift for every human being. This vision of dignity can be seen at the beginning of the book of Genesis. It is there before anything was deformed, tainted, or infected with sin, that we catch a glimpse of God-given dignity and value for all people. Genesis 1:27 states, \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let us make man in our image, after our likeness\u2026 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.\u201d All humans were created in God\u2019s image. God did not create humanity just like him in form because God has no physical body. Instead, humans are reflections of God\u2019s glory. Author Jemar Tisby wrote, \u201c…Christianity teaches that all people are made in the very image of God. We are God\u2019s crowning creation, and each person is precious simply because they are human. Their physical appearance\u2014including skin color\u2014are a part of bearing God\u2019s image and should be respected as such.[5]<\/a>\u201d For hundreds of years, the “imago dei” in minorities has been oppressed and suppressed through racism and until that dignity is restored we cannot expect true process.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Steele, Shelby. Shame : How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/em>, Basic Books, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, 64<\/em><\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Steele, Shelby. Shame : How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/em>, Basic Books, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, 7<\/em><\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Steele, Shelby. Shame : How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/em>, Basic Books, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, 7<\/em><\/p>\n