White Guilt (book)
| Author | Shelby Steele |
|---|---|
| Genre | non-fiction |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
|
Publication date
|
2006 |
| Pages | 181 |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-057863-3 |
| OCLC | 148665150 |
White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era is a book by American author Shelby Steele in 2006.
Overview
In the book, Steele argues that white guilt is much more than just a race problem.
Steele describes his experience growing up as a young black man in an era of white dominance, when racism was common. From a young age he dreamed of becoming a "batboy" for an all-white baseball team. With segregation at large, Steele feared his dream would never become a reality, however, Steele spent many weeks watching and admiring the baseball players. After catching the coach’s attention as someone with immense passion for baseball, he was granted the position of batboy, his dream now becoming a reality. The high of achieving his goal soon became shattered when the baseball team was to play at a whites-only stadium. When reflecting back on this event, Steele states, "I am certain that racist rejections like this do not cause low self-esteem in their victims. They cause disenchantment with the world. My self-esteem was not diminished in the least by what happened to me on that Saturday morning."
Throughout the years, Steele watched the era of white power transform into an era of white guilt, the underlying theme throughout Steele's book. Steele believes that the lack of time between transitioning from white supremacy to white guilt, ultimately led to the destruction of the civil rights era. According to Steele, since the transformation from white power to white guilt was presented to society with no cool-off period, the American people were not able to feel a sense of neutrality towards racism, and this is when bargainers came about: blacks in the political spotlight appealing to whites to take hold of white guilt and use it to their advantage. Steele talks about how being black can be an advantage due to how heavy white guilt is. Steele says that in today’s society this happens often: blacks appealing to white guilt to use it to their advantage, and this is how blacks and whites together destroyed the promise of the civil rights era.
