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Shelby Steele
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shelby Steele (born 1946, Chicago) is an author, columnist, documentary film maker, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, specialising in the study of race relations, multiculturalism and affirmative action. He received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah and an M.A. in sociology from Southern Illinois University.
In 1990, Steele received the National Book Critics Circle Award in the general non-fiction category for his book The Content of Our Character.[1]
He won an Emmy and a Writers Guild Award for his 1991 documentary film with Frontline Seven Days in Bensonhurst.[2]
His twin brother is Claude Steele.
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Steele is a self-described black conservative.[3] He opposes movements such as affirmative action, which he considers to be unsuccessful liberal campaigns to promote equal opportunity for African-Americans. He contends that blacks have been "twice betrayed": first, by slavery and oppression, and second, by group preferences mandated by the government that cause blacks to lose their self-esteem.[4]
| “ | The great ingenuity of interventions like affirmative action has not been that they give Americans a way to identify with the struggle of blacks, but that they give them a way to identify with racial virtuousness quite apart from blacks.[4] | ” |
Steele believes that victimization is the greatest hindrance for black Americans. In his view, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while blacks attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency with no purchasing power. Therefore, he claims, blacks must stop "buying into this zero-sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set-asides and entitlements."[4]
- Steele, Shelby (1991-09-01). The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-97415-X.
- Steele, Shelby (1999-11-01). A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-93104-3.
- Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-060-57862-9.
- Steele, Shelby (narrator). (1990). Seven Days in Bensonhurst (FRONTLINE) [Television series]. Alexandria, Virginia: PBS.
- ^ "Past winners of the National Book Critics Circle Award. National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved on January 21, 2007.
- ^ Brief information about Shelby Steele. PBS. Retrieved on January 21, 2007.
- ^ Steele, Shelby (1991-09-01). The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-060-97415-X.
- ^ a b c Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-060-57862-9.
- Shelby Steele's biography at the Hoover Institution web-site
- Shelby Steele's biography in the African-American Literature Book Club
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