Shelby Steele Goes To San Francisco

YOU WOULDN’T think that libertarian conservative Shelby Steele would get a fair shake for his White Guilt in the San Francisco Chronicle. You know what they are like in San Francisco. But he does.

Unlike many over-the-top liberal writers Edward Guthmann is almost generous to the writer who has written that black rage and white guilt have wrecked the civil rights revolution.

Unlike so many conservative pundits, the ones who bait their liberal opposition with inflamed rhetoric, Steele is soft-spoken, avuncular in his approach.

Well, Guthmann is writing for San Francisco Democrats, after all. But he does allow Steele’s argument to be made:

What sets Steele apart is that he's saying things many people, even those who secretly agree with him, would rather not hear. He says that blacks should take responsibility for their own disproportionate crime rates and poor academic performance and not blame a system imposed on them by whites; that whites support affirmative action and other "silly racial policies" out of fear, to avoid accusations of racism.

Steele acknowledges that he’s caught his “share of hell” from his writing. But

one of the great benefits is that I can talk now to anybody about anything, racially and otherwise. And people feel comfortable with me: They know I'm not going to hold it against them if they make some sort of little faux pas. I'm not going to take a knife out and tell them they've defamed my whole race.

It’s an interesting point. If you are talking to someone of a different race, you are almost certain to “step on his sensitivities without knowing it.” But imagine if people just quietly informed you of your faux pas instead of putting you down by playing the victim card. It’s a thought.

But that would collapse the whole race game, in which a lot of people are making a lot of money.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.