KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
On Thursday, race relations scholar Dr. Shelby Steele spoke to a crowd of about 100 people on race relations in America at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center at College of the Canyons (COC).
Throughout his one-hour interview with COC political science professor Lena Smyth, Steele continuously came back to his point that African Americans cannot continue to have a victim mentality.
“Here’s the big mistake we made. We were victims, but what we did is we took that victimization and turned it into an identity,” Steele said.
Steele shared his stories of growing up in Chicago, dealing with true racism and how that is not seen in today’s America.
He expressed how there are opportunities today that African Americans in the 50s could only dream of, yet these opportunities are not being capitalized on largely due to constant victim mentality.
“My father had no more than a third-grade education, yet four of his children have Ph.D.s,” said Steele.
He added that while African Americans have made themselves into victims, White America cannot play into it with “White guilt.”
“My hope is that whites will wake up and say, ‘I don’t need to feel guilty.’ White America needs to stand up for itself.” said Steele.
He added, “Black Lives Matter was a vehicle to take money from not too bright white people.”
Steele stated that the biggest issue Black America is faced with is not white people or police brutality’ but the collapse of the family and the lack of a father in the house.
“You look at the Black leadership today and they look at me and say ‘he’s a Black conservative, he’s lost,’” said Steele. “‘He’s probably getting a nice little taste under the table because no black will be a conservative.’ I think you have to be a conservative in order to be a real Black.”
Steele expanded on his statement by saying true African Americans hold close to conservative ideologies such as not relying on the government, having a two-parent household, working hard and not letting your circumstances dictate your future.
After Steele gave his reasons for the issue with modern America, he ended with this statement:
“We need to stop this obsession and fixation on our ethnicity, on our race. For God’s sake, these things have only gotten us in trouble. How dumb can you be? Do we want more of that? We want to rationalize it and say people like me are nuts. It doesn’t matter. It’s bigger than both of us.”
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I am white and I wasn’t taught to feel guilty for past injustices, but I wasn’t taught to ignore them, either.
This is another “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” speech.
I don’t get the idea that “Real” blacks have to be conservative.Nutty.
Coming from a liberal I would say you need to evaluate your stance – the reality is that conservatives do not blame everyone and everything for their situations. A truly mature attitude that liberals seriously lack.
Many Conservatives blame the media everyday.
Trump thinks he’s a victim instead of admitting his wrongdoings.
Well, that is because conservatives traditionally hold to self reliance and self responsibility. WE believe that anyone can make whatever they want of their lives. That is the “bootstrap” way of thinking. Putting your own leg up.
Liberal progressives, like yourself, want to keep the marginalized communities (black in this instance) reliant on you to pander to them and and take away all self respect. This provides a way to keep them on the plantation, so to speak, and to give you a way to boast of what a great job you are doing.
That’s not me at all. I’m not a progressive
. I don’t think helping others when they need it is wrong. I believe that creating a dependency can be a mistake, however.I think it’s important to put yourself in someone else’s position and consider what they’re going through. Have compassion instead of feeling superior because your life is easier. Maybe you were born into good circumstances and haven’t done much to contribute to your success….just lucky!
Thank you for your words. I hope others will hear them and understand how true they are. I spent a few hours at Manzanar yesterday and think there are 110,000 people who could complain but didn’t. What a sobering reminder of mistakes and forgiveness.
Thesound of truth and reason