Prometheus 6

Steele argues that Obama is in a pickle. With whites, Obama bargains, telling them: "I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me." To win blacks, the publisher's letter says, Obama must challenge whites on race and demand they back "black-friendly policies."

If that's an accurate of Steele's position on the issue, then he probably is arguing dishonestly. America's HISTORY of racism?

He's saying he thinks that's Obama's approach to white folks. He can say that honestly, independant of his own beliefs. He'll just be right or wrong.

I don't expect an honest argument, though. The timing of the book suggests it will be all partisan rhetoric. 

BWA HA HA HA HA HA

Hilarious.

Come

Come on, P6. You and I can write this book for Steele. It's not the book YOU would write, or I would write, but I think we can pretty much figure out what STEELE is going to write.

I don't think it will be honest or balanced, let alone fair.

blacks in America typically wear one of two "masks": They are either challengers or bargainers . Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are challengers: Such blacks assume whites are racist until they prove otherwise. Bargainers, on the other hand, make a deal with whites by not rubbing their faces in a history of racism -- think of Louis Armstrong or Oprah, he says. Mr. Obama is an archetypal bargainer

---

"The question that hovers over Obama to this day: Is he really black enough? If white people like you, it's very likely you're not black enough. Black people are very suspicious of that. To prove himself to black people, he has to be a challenger," Mr. Steele says.

"White America loves him because they think he's a bargainer. And so if he goes with whites, blacks don't like him and say he's not black enough. If he goes with blacks, whites say, 'He's not the guy we thought he was.' So he's a bound man.

"I see him almost as a Promethean figure , someone who might have a gift to give us, but is so bound that he's unable to do that."

---

"This is the tragedy, certainly, of the black intellectual class in America. They don't think they have the right to be individuals, so they're all just predictable, victim-focused , old line. It's a generation that's failed to really take us further. Obama is a part of that..."

---

Thanks for finding that.

So now we know he's not just a sell-out but a fool as well. If he had dealt with the issue honestly he could have regained a little respect from Black folks. But that wasn't his goal...and I'm sure he'd consider me a fool for questioning the value he received in exchange for his soul. 

• Blacks who do not wear either mask are individuals.

• He holds up Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Bill Cosby as positive examples.

• He argues that freedom has terrorized black Americans, and that they must stop taking handouts and take responsibility.

"We’ve done worse in freedom than we did in segregation. It’s abominable that we made more advances between 1945 and 1965 than we have since..."

Without going into the Sowell-Thernstrom complex, what's an "individual" doing talking about a WE?? 

Of course, it would be too much to ask how such an individual arrived at his conclusions about terrorism.  We know his audience won't question it.  Hell, he'll claim he's Black then, so he should know.  His 'truths' are self-evident because he's Black... when he wants to be. 

I can't help but think that there's a third category - something else besides challengers and bargainers.  Steele wears neither 'masks' making no demands at all -- whether a challenge or a bargain -- on his beloved White society, so sell-out would seem appropriate. 

I think the third category is "People who won't fuck with you if you don't fuck with them." 

told ya.

I think the third category is

"People who won't fuck with you if you don't fuck with them."

Is that how you classify Shelby Steele? He sure as hell keeps fuckin' with Black folk who really haven't done anything to him except exist.  Maybe that's an assault in and of itself.  Anyway, Category 3 sounds like the reason for 1 and 2.

Is that how you classify Shelby Steele?

Nah, that's me. Steele surrendered his Brother Card. I'm not up for force folks to be Black when they don't want to be. That's why I never refer to his race.

I'm not up for force folks to be Black when they don't want to be.

That's why I want to know how/why such an 'individual' talks about "WE."  I'm into forcing people who don't want to be Black to sticking to their individualism or whatever else they want to identify with or claim. 

Something people overlook is the shock of becoming free. When an oppressor finally takes his foot off your neck—whether it’s the European powers withdrawing from their colonies, or whites in America passing civil rights legislation and starting a Great Society—the group that has created an entire culture to cope with oppression is suddenly disoriented. Becoming free can give a profound shock. We don’t have the values in place for dealing with it. We don’t have the ideas. We have the mechanisms for wearing masks, for manipulating an oppressor, for surviving under harsh circumstances; we’ve become geniuses at that. But we don’t know what to do with freedom.

So when we come to freedom, we experience it as a humiliation, as an embarrassment, as a shame. Now, for the first time, we see how far behind we actually are. We see how long it’ll take to catch up with the people we suddenly have to compete with. And in some cases, we lock up in terror.

Freedom has just terrorized black Americans. We are scared to death of it. And rather than admit that, we say we’re still living in a racist society, or that the government isn’t doing its job. We make excuse after excuse after excuse. But the bottom line is that we have failed to stand up to the challenges of freedom. And that’s terrifying because it shows us just how much work lies ahead of us.

I just had to post it.  I'll reserve comment and only say that it's apparent that he's rehashing this same kind of rhetoric

I'm into forcing people who don't want to be Black to sticking to their individualism or whatever else they want to identify with or claim.

Okay! I call it "respecting their opinion." 

The Definition of a Sellout

 http://www.alternet.org/rights/20624/?page=1

Three years ago, sis. Probably linked it, but I don't remember that much.

Looks like Ole Shelby's kicked off his campaign in Canada:

http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/10/30/marni-soupcoff-on-shelby-steele-in-toronto.aspx 

By Mr. Steele’s measure, Mr. Obama is an “iconic negro” — a super-bargainer who can make whites feel comfortable and hopeful — but also someone who craves a strong black identity.

It’s a plausible enough assessment of one man, but Mr. Steele seemed to be arguing that almost all American blacks fall into one of the two categories. When an audience member asked if Mr. Steele could name any blacks who don’t “wear a mask” — other than U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, whom Mr. Steele mentioned as an example — Mr. Steele seemed temporarily stumped.

He eventually added U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the list when prodded, but not quickly enough to allay the impression that his own typography might be taken as an unintended form of racism itself — a simplistic way of accusing people of a lack of authenticity based on the colour of their skin.

Had to linkify that bad boy.

It is entirely possible no one in the USofA wants to carry that serializion of his book. 

Soupcoff done lost his damn mind with that. Dude is feigning Black while staying true to his White self.

If I were to go there, I'd say he's a man without a nation feigning whiteness. Being me, I just think he values his income and place in society more than anything else.

The obviousness in it was just so, refreshing.

A self-loathing Sambo like Uncle Clarence is the ONLY Black man in A-merry-ca who isn't wearing a mask.

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

" A man without a nation feigning whiteness."

Why feign, because he can never be White physically? Mentally, he's been there, P6.

White is no more physical than Black. But other than that, yeah. He can feign whiteness by surrounding himself with white people who are familiar with him. But I dare him to walk though Howard Beach alone at night...

WAY to many places where his assumed Whiteness will not just go unrecognized, but will be actively denied, for him to ever really be white.

As for the article, this was the amazing line to me.

After listening to Shelby Steele, even the naysayers in the audience would have to agree: He wears no mask.

TOTALLY misunderstood this.

But then, Mr. Steele redeemed himself in my mind — and made many others squirm in their seats — when he responded to another questioner by restating the uncomfortable truth that blacks have been profoundly stigmatized by affirmative action, which he called an “odious white policy of paternalism.”

It was an answer delivered without pause and with a palpable sense of anger.

I believe he delivered a practiced anwser to an inevitable question. The anger at being forced to say a negro thing leaked out.

I'm very serious. Remember What Black Men Think. It was a fairly successful experiment.