Shelby Steele On Barack

Shelby Steele has a must-read on Barack:

Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this. Though he likes to claim that his race was a liability to be overcome, he also surely knew that his race could give him just the edge he needed -- an edge that would never be available to a white, not even a white woman.

How to turn one's blackness to advantage?

The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

...

Race helps Mr. Obama in another way -- it lifts his political campaign to the level of allegory, making it the stuff of a far higher drama than budget deficits and education reform. His dark skin, with its powerful evocations of America's tortured racial past, frames the political contest as a morality play. Will his victory mean America's redemption from its racist past? Will his defeat show an America morally unevolved? Is his campaign a story of black overcoming, an echo of the civil rights movement? Or is it a passing-of-the-torch story, of one generation displacing another?

Because he is black, there is a sense that profound questions stand to be resolved in the unfolding of his political destiny. And, as the Clintons have discovered, it is hard in the real world to run against a candidate of destiny. For many Americans -- black and white -- Barack Obama is simply too good (and too rare) an opportunity to pass up. For whites, here is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shames of their forbearers. And for blacks, here is the chance to document the end of inferiority. So the Clintons have found themselves running more against America's very highest possibilities than against a man. And the press, normally happy to dispel every political pretension, has all but quivered before Mr. Obama. They, too, have feared being on the wrong side of destiny.

...But bargainers have an Achilles heel. They succeed as conduits of white innocence only as long as they are largely invisible as complex human beings. They hope to become icons that can be identified with rather than seen, and their individual complexity gets in the way of this. So bargainers are always laboring to stay invisible. (We don't know the real politics or convictions of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey, bargainers all.) Mr. Obama has said of himself, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views . . ." And so, human visibility is Mr. Obama's Achilles heel. If we see the real man, his contradictions and bents of character, he will be ruined as an icon, as a "blank screen."

hus, nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama's political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday -- for 20 years -- in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage ("God damn America").

How does one "transcend" race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol?

What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to "be black" despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity. And anyway, wasn't this hatred more rhetorical than real?

...No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself.

Comments

[Ken McCracken]

Well that's ugly.

What, black men only have two choices: be a frightening black man or be a go-along-to-get-along wimp?

Can we have a few more shades somewhere in between, perhaps?

[Appalled Moderate]

From tiny acorns, mighty assumptions grow.

Shelby Steele knows white people -- and his analysis of what white folks see sounds right.

But does he know Obama? Or does he merely think he does. The analysis of Obama's character from what appears to be scant evidence is a little breathtaking.

[TexasToast]

I stole this from a swampland thread --

African-American Conservative Steele Cliff Notes version:
Blacks are Bargainers or Challengers. Bargainers say to Whites that they will assume that Whites are not racists and ask to be treated without regard to race.
Challengers ask Whites prove to that Whites are not racist before conversation can begin. then we can talk.

Bargainers cannot get elected because they will be assumed to be Uncle Toms by Black voters and will not get Black votes. Challengers cannot get White votes because they are too threatening.

Bargainers will be rejected by Blacks until they see that Whites will vote for the Bargainer. Blacks will then become lemmings and vote for the Challenger. Blacks will abandon the Bagainer if Whites subsequently vote against the Bargainer.

Steele predicted Obama would be hurt by losing in New hampshire. south Carolina Blacks would follow the White rejection of Obama in NH and Obama would lose SC.

Ooops.Obama did win SC with a majority of the African-American vote. There appears to be a flaw in the Hoover Senior fellow's analysis.

Steele then talks about the pains of being Conservative and African-American. Conservatives are the only ones who care about social concerns in the US.

Ooops. Steele seems unaware that the controversial Al Sharpton has challenged degrading words against women and use of the n-word in rap lyrics. Rapper David Banner has released a recording mentioning Sharpton in a very degrading manner in response. Bill Cosby made some of his earliest social commentary at a Jesse Jackson function, and was invited back.
Steele probably slept through those events.

Steele should probably spend time analyzing why 8-10% of African-Americans vote for Conservatives given the GOP's less than stellar management of government, the economy, and the war in Iraq. I'm certain that detaiing the social pathology that is going on in that subgroup of Blacks would be interesting. Let's call them a third group, the Capitulators.

[Richard Aubrey]

Bargainers can only work their magic on those predisposed to worry about being called "racist" for not doing the prescribed Right Thing.
I believe fewer and fewer people are manipulable by this tactic.

[Jane]

Hmm, that's more powerful than Obama's speech.

[MayBee]

I think Obama's trying to dispel the notion that it is his amazing speaking abilities that have gotten him this far.

[kim]

I would guess that the 'Capitulators' would not consider themselves such, TT. I'd guess they consider themselves brave to risk the scorn of the demagogues like you.
============================

[Jane]

But does he know Obama? Or does he merely think he does.

Isn't that the point?

[GMax]

My favorite of all of this, is that its Democrats piling on a Democrat. The media and the clintonites are shiving Barry in the alley with a homemade shank that he told them how to make. But Democrats being Democrats want to flail out at Shelby Steele, in there rage that their next most perfect candidate is again going down in flames before the election truly even begins. It is to laugh, since it just happened in a fiery crash only four years ago.

I have to say, Republicans sure are fortunate that they get to run against Democrats.

[MayBee]

Remember when Bill O'Reilly was just reamed for discussing how people in the Harlem restaurant were acting just like every other American? He was racist.
Now Obama is telling us that when black people get together in barber shops and churchs, they talk about how angry they are at America.

[Appalled Moderate]

Jane:

It is. Which made the statements Steele made at the end of his piece beyond amazing. Talk about internal inconsistancy...

[MayBee]

AM-
what do you think about this speech?

[Jane]

I dunno, Obama is all about others painting images on him, since he provides nothing of his own. Steele merely did what was asked by Obama.

I tell you in the last few days, and after this speech (which I find offensive and I'm surprised by that), I'm seeing a picture of a racist.

I'm sure I'm missing something.

[boris]

statements Steele made at the end of his piece

Steele is correct that Obama's recent problem is the MSM discovery of something scary behind the "bargainer" facade. His understanding of that dynamic is more relevant than the accuracy of his analysis of Obama "true" character, where to be honest you have no credibility either.

[Sue]

Well, folks, the Obama/Wright controversy is officially over. We will now be asked to move on, please...

[Paul Zrimsek]

I'm certain that detaiing the social pathology that is going on in that subgroup of Blacks would be interesting. Let's call them a third group, the Capitulators.

Me, I'd call them the Dred Scotts, in token of how miffed their running away seems to have made their erstwhile owners.

Is this whole dialectic of Bargainers and Challengers anything more than a needlessly grandiose and psychologized way of saying that calling people names is a bad way of getting them to vote for you?

[takenaway]

AM-still can't except that messiah Obama has been demoted to St. Obama- AM you say Shelby Steele does not really know the true Obama yet you always come on here and fill half a page with your superior analysis of Obama and Misses St. O, regaling all with your incredible incite of the content of his character and expect us to take your statement s as fact------Are you BO's secret twin or are you channeling him? Or are you just so far advanced like most progessives, that you just inherently know more than the rest of us? Just Asking?

[Soylent Red]

I don't like people telling me how if I don't think this way or that way about an issue that I am racist.

I damn sure don't like people telling me that if I don't agree with their conceptualization of racism, I'm a racist.

I'm pretty sure I'm not unique in these viewpoints.

Pretty words aside, Obama managed to tell me both things this morning. I am offended by this man's arrogance and self-righteousness on so many levels I can't even fully articulate them.

[RichatUF]

Here is Minister Obama' speech via Drudge

I see that he is wearing a Pres. Bush blue tie and has quite a few American flags behind.

cliped this graf-

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed.

He then gives his a laundry list of progressive programs that have gotten us to this place. One thing I'd point out regarding the "housing crisis" and "predatory lending" is the none other than Austan Goolbee, BHO's economic advisor, wrote a good defense of the industry last year.

curious a shot at the Red Witch:

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

2008-23+9=1994? Two points: Wouldn't COBRA cover the gap and if the financial situtation were bad enough couldn't Medicade as cover the gap too (I'm unaware of what SC could do specifically as well)? Also doesn't this story have that "Christmas Carol" feel to it-Cratchet firing mom because of her chemo appointments?

[glasater]

TM
Thank you for including this post on Steele. Beautiful writer and you are also.

As far as Obama is concerned--he is so effective with a crowd around him--but in front of flags and a blue wall--not so much.

Anduril--the stock market is doing well today so far--so perhaps we can give our nerves a rest:-)

[Jane]

Soylent,

That was my response too. I was very offended.

[clarice]

(Insty)from Mickey Kaus: "There are plenty of potential Souljahs still around: Race preferences. Out-of-wedlock births. Three strike laws! But most of all the victim mentality that tells African Americans (in the fashion of Rev. Wright's most infamous sermons) that the important forces shaping their lives are the evil actions of others, of other races."

[clarice]

New Black Panther party supports Obama and gets to advertise that fact on his website.
Black Panthers for Obama

[Appalled Moderate]

MayBe:

I cou;dn't listen to it. Based on the NYT tanscript, I liked parts of it. But Obama, like any politician, has to have his evildoers (the special interests, the evil rich with their newfangled accounting tricks) That part, I did not care for.

RichatUF:

You have to pay for COBRA. Even though, I have to say that most hospitals will pay your COBRA premiums in a situation like that, as long as the COBRA grace peiod has not expired.

takenaway:

While I like Obama better than Clinton and McCain, I do not think I have speculated on the loveliness of his character all that often. I think Obama is a gamble with a larger upside and downside than the other two candidates. Because I think the current course is all downsie, I'm more willing to take the gamble.

boris:

Steele is wedded to his theory, which I really do think explains the Obama phenomenon as it applies to whites. But the speculation on his character is such bull that I find it pretty easy to reject a lot of his conclusions.

[boris]

Just as I reject yours.

[Sweetie]

So by exposing themselves to Uncle Tom jokes and widespread derision among the MSM, the African American community and black 'leaders' like the Reverend Wright; Condi Rice, Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas have capitulated, TT?

Capitulate from Merriam-Webster: to cease resistance (as to another's arguments, demands, or control). I think they've resisted just fine. On the other hand, TT seems to believe that they've caputulated to the power of Rush, Sean and Honkey Inc. So for black America the scorn of racist honkeys is apparently more powerful than the scorn of one's minister, one's family, the New York Times and it's fellow travellers, NPR, PBS, black political leadership (the 'show time' leadership of Sharpton and Jackson), Jon Stewart and his audience, Saturday Night Live, and the cable news networks ex-FNC.

So the easy road, per TT, is the road that gets you the stink eye from your family, community and possibly even your pastor. The hard road is getting the stink eye from a guy on the radio. Right.

[kim]

His character? Typified by whining to the prog base. At least Hillary growls at it. She could beat McCain with the media behind her, Obama can't, I now believe. He has made himself too much a candidate of race politics, and Hillary has not overdone the gender politics.

Too bad, Hillary can wreak much worse structural damage to the nation; Obama would just slip around in mud and fail to govern at all.
===========================

[clarice]

Good enough for the committed and the brain dead, not good enough for the sceptics and heartlanders who saw and will continue to see Wright's stuff on tv..TV ads are the only place they WILL see it because he gave the msm just enough to continue to skip over what they do not want to report about their annointed.
I sniff another "reporting for duty" fiasco where the press ignored Kerry's substantial shortcomings, the absurdity of his campaign narrative and his detractors until the voters blew the whistle on him.

[boris]

True but failure to govern does damage as well, remember Jimmuh?

[kim]

It's OK, Sweetie, Texas Toast is just a guilt ridden Texas liberal. Thoughtful and on point often, however, and willing to brave lots of scorn over here. A fine person really, one worth reckoning with instead of just politely ignoring.
========================

[Sweetie]

Kim,

I always read Texas Toast's comments too and appreciate his alternate POV. "Capitulate" just set me off. Black conservatives have beliefs that cost them, literally, their community. Can any other group, left or right, say the same?

[Neo]

What this all shows is that it is going to be impossible, not hard, but impossible for Obama to bring that racial harmony, when he made no effort to bring it to his own church, his own community.

Just how is a President Obama going to take on those who's intentions are genuinely evil, when he can't confront the softer prejudice and misunderstanding in the church he has been attending for some 20 years ?

Harmony is a two way street, but unfortunately Obama, like so many politicians, see harmony and, it's political ally, bi-partisanship in terms of the other side capitulating. Harmony, like charity, begins at home. His house, or at least his house of worship, needs to begin to understand that anytime somebody does something, anything, that there isn't always racial motives attached.

He may be able as President to bring about change, but it's change I find hard to believe in, and I don't believe in him.

[takenaway]

Apologies to AM-I misread your suggestions (on another thread) of how BO could handle the Wright situation--- as your opinion of his true motives----though I do get the vibe that is is
what you believe, or at least what you want to believe, once again accept my apology----

[Paul]

I'm a musician (white) who plays in a lot of mixed and all black (except for me) bands. I played in an all black band for a mostly black crowd Saturday and the the mood was very strange. It's like they knew that a great scam that benefited them had been exposed and things would never be quite the same. No one spoke specifically about it, but there was an "oh shit" kind of quiet depressed feeling hanging in the air.

The way I see it is the national exposure to Wright's diatribes has had the same irreversible effect on the electorate as discovering your spouse has cheated. No matter how much sweet talking excuse making candy and flower giving behavior they indulge in you just can never look at them the same way. You just can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

[Silber Streak]

Despite the undeniable and extraordinary progress in the lives of black Americans, many of them — middle-class and well-to-do included — appear content to listen with approval to the vicious diatribes of a racist, anti-American pastor, who blames whites for all woes, real and imaginary, of their race; and who paints a fanciful and irrational picture of life in present-day America drawn to conditions prevailing, if ever, in times of slavery.

Knowing now what they continue to think of me, a white, and other white people, I feel my sympathy and good will toward them evaporating.

[baldilocks]

What, black men only have two choices: be a frightening black man or be a go-along-to-get-along wimp?

Steele has been talking about this for a long time and has presented a third option on several occassions--telling both blacks and whites the ugly truths about themselves. Of course nobody wants to hear that.

Steele did an interview back in January on NRO TV on the topic.

[LindaK]

Obama's implicit contract with his believers was that he transcended mere race. Blacks and whites could enthusiastically support him because -- wink, wink -- he addresses two separate agendas. But by coming together on the Obama candidacy, blacks and whites would be working together in some perfect Kumbaya world for a common goal.

THe Wright videos stripped that veneer off real fast. The speach/apology/redemption that was supposed to patch up the veneer didn't work for me.

The essential question he had to answer was: if you sat for 20 years in that church listening to Wright spew his racism and anti-American message, is it not fair to conclude that you and your wife share his views? Although he said he found is appaling, he spent far too much time apologising and rationalizing for me to buy that brand of soda.

Then, he segued into the tried and true black as victim riff ending with the traditoinal liberal message that someone whites need to lead the blacks out of this wilderness with money, etc.

But basically, having spent 20 years in that church there was no credible way out. And, here was a perfect moment for him to lead, to show there is another way and he fell flat.

[baldilocks]

Knowing now what they continue to think of me, a white, and other white people, I feel my sympathy and good will toward them evaporating.

Are you speaking of all blacks or just the ones that hate you?

[LindaK]

Obama's implicit contract with his believers was that he transcended mere race. Blacks and whites could enthusiastically support him because -- wink, wink -- he addresses two separate agendas. But by coming together on the Obama candidacy, blacks and whites would be working together in some perfect Kumbaya world for a common goal.

THe Wright videos stripped that veneer off real fast. The speach/apology/redemption that was supposed to patch up the veneer didn't work for me.

The essential question he had to answer was: if you sat for 20 years in that church listening to Wright spew his racism and anti-American message, is it not fair to conclude that you and your wife share his views? Although he said he found is appaling, he spent far too much time apologising and rationalizing for me to buy that brand of soda.

Then, he segued into the tried and true black as victim riff ending with the traditional liberal message that whites need to lead the blacks out of this wilderness with money, etc.

But basically, having spent 20 years in that church there was no credible way out. And, here was a perfect moment for him to lead, to show there is another way and he fell flat.

[LindaK]

Obama's implicit contract with his believers was that he transcended mere race. Blacks and whites could enthusiastically support him because -- wink, wink -- he addresses two separate agendas. But by coming together on the Obama candidacy, blacks and whites would be working together in some perfect Kumbaya world for a common goal.

THe Wright videos stripped that veneer off real fast. The speach/apology/redemption that was supposed to patch up the veneer didn't work for me.

The essential question he had to answer was: if you sat for 20 years in that church listening to Wright spew his racism and anti-American message, is it not fair to conclude that you and your wife share his views? Although he said he found is appaling, he spent far too much time apologising and rationalizing for me to buy that brand of soda.

Then, he segued into the tried and true black as victim riff ending with the traditional liberal message that whites need to lead the blacks out of this wilderness with money, etc.

But basically, having spent 20 years in that church there was no credible way out. And, here was a perfect moment for him to lead, to show there is another way and he fell flat.

[Appalled Moderate]

Takenaway:

Apology accepted. You are correct that I was hoping Obama would take that tack. (And, reading his speech, it appears that is pretty much the tack he took. I have some quibbles, but my guess is that he put this behind him without selling his friend down the river.)

[baldilocks]

Sorry for the open tag.

[PR]

I have to agree with the tone of one of the commenters. Being told that this is just how black people act when white people aren't around is a big disappointment. Hatred of whites like myself is starting to make me think MORE that the problem is really them and not whites at all.

[Jane]

AM,

I'm pretty sure it only puts this behind him with the people who were already behind him.

[Publius]

When I see a $60,000 Volvo parked in front of a Starbucks in downtown Seattle with a 'Obama in '08' bumper sticker, I know that Geraldine Ferraro has it right.

Shelby Steele merely validates in black and white what Ferraro said, and what I see in parking lots across America.

[baldilocks]

Hatred of whites like myself is starting to make me think MORE that the problem is really them and not whites at all.

So much for individualism.

[William Oliver]

"Are you speaking of all blacks or just the ones that hate you?"

That's the rub. A lot of whites bought Obama's line that he was a post-racial candidate who didn't buy into the old hatreds. Now it seems it was a scam.

His dissembling suggests the difference is only between the blacks who hate you and show it and the blacks who hate you and lie about it. Of course that's not the case, but the question then becomes how, exactly, do you tell which blacks hate you and which do not? If Obama is lying, then who isn't?

[M. Simon]

I always read Texas Toast's comments too and appreciate his alternate POV. "Capitulate" just set me off. Black conservatives have beliefs that cost them, literally, their community. Can any other group, left or right, say the same?

Try being Republican (a Joe Lieberman Republican) and Jewish. My mom still can't wrap her arms around it. I get the evil eye at temple. (Reform Congregation - my wife's idea, if only Obama had that excuse. That is the white collar male vote right there.) Clarice might have a thought or two on the subject.

I did get a message from one of my NY Jewish friends who says that a couple of Jews publicly mentioned voting for McCain and there were no disapproving murmurs or evil eyes. She said it was nothing like 2004. So maybe times are changing.

[Rick Ballard]

"If Obama is lying, then who isn't?"

I might suggest that if deed follows word, it's OK to trust someone.

A little.

I would also suggest that if you're going to worry about a "them" then it will work out much better if some freedom of association is involved. I don't recall joining the white race so my involvement with that particular "them" isn't a great predictor. My long time association with the Rockingham Whigs is probably a much more indicative measure of reliability.

[baldilocks]

His dissembling suggests the difference is only between the blacks who hate you and show it and the blacks who hate you and lie about it. Of course that's not the case, but the question then becomes how, exactly, do you tell which blacks hate you and which do not? If Obama is lying, then who isn't?

The implication is that blacks are to be treated differently than anyone else in this respect.

The answer? Trust no one.