White Guilt

How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era

By: Shelby Steele

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

"Not unlike some of Ralph Ellison's or Richard Wright's best work. White Guilt, a serious meditation on vital issues, deserves a wide readership." — Cleveland Plain Dealer

In 1955 the killers of Emmett Till, a black Mississippi youth, were acquitted because they were white. Forty years later, despite the strong DNA evidence against him, accused murderer O. J. Simpson went free after his attorney portrayed him as a victim of racism. The age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white guilt—and neither has been good for African Americans.

Through articulate analysis and engrossing recollections, acclaimed race relations scholar Shelby Steele sounds a powerful call for a new culture of personal responsibility.

©2009 Shelby Steele (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

White Guilt is driving the pasty-white leftists

White guilt and a desire to be seen as a non-racist helper of minorities is what drives the white left today. As told through the eyes and ears of a black person who lived through segregation, civil rights, and the eventual transformation of the openly-racist Democrat party to the Democrat party of today, which uses minorities to retain democrat power.

Masterful Analysis

Shelby Steele has created the most honest, truthful, and masterful piece of analysis of the current era of woke outrage in America that exists in the publishing world (and that exists outside of that world too). All of his key insights are things I have thought and felt in scattered instances. I have always lacked the capacity to see that proverbial forest through the trees. This book gave me that birds eye view of those forces at play that are so easily obscured by figures in the media. I know many will have negative comments about the book because they are still experiencing that cognitive dissonance that must occur yo many who are still happily giving manipulators their consent to continue their woke campaign of “gas lighting” the public. All I can say is, “Wow!” More people need to read this book and go reflect on Steele’s insights alone —without anyone around to resedate them into the mainstream fallacies of our current age. If more people could just read this and be honest with themselves in their reflections, we could really see the emergence of a truly great America where people are actually judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Thank you Shelby Steele.

explains things so perfectly

as much as I knew I was going to enjoy this book, I enjoyed it 10x more. it tells about the moral high ground battle through the decades between militant blacks and white liberals through first hand experience. This book should be required reading in school at all levels from high school up.

Better late than never

While I knew the authors name and have certainly read some of his commentary, I had not read this book until now. So I am now suffering from a completely different kind of white guilt :-). Seriously, there have been a handful of books in my life that I have read with the recurring thought of yes, that’s what I think, I only wish I could have articulated it. I have to give a quick nod to technology as well, given that it was technology that recommended this book based on other recent reading of mine. However my primary gratitude is to The author for the very deep soul-searching and thought that he clearly put into this topic. Thank you

Painfully out of date but still good

I'll start by explaining the title. Unlike how its sold or how the publication date would make it seem this title was written during the second term of W, Bush, this makes it between 13 to 17 years out of date. Needless to say a lot has changed in that time, two entire generation have grown to their majority, we've had a black president, the founding of racial groups BLM and extremists groups ant-fa and the proud boys, two recessions, Trump, the rise of critical race and gender theories, the resurgence of socialism and two recessions. I bought this book seeking an alternate viewpoint thinking this book could be interesting, traveling the circle from the 1960/70 civil rights to what seems to be the second civil rights of today. This was true for the first half of the book, and then the baby boomer generation writer began spouting things that only a very few millennials or gen z ever have. At several points in the last two hours i had to pause and wonder what he was talking about and even accused him of open racism, no white people don't think like that in the modern day at least none that i know. And then came the talk about W. Bush just winning re-election and the right reaffirming its moral authority, something we would see more fully in the Trump period, though I hesitate of calling it moral authority so much as, "you're going to have to solve your own problems i have my own" that many millennials have taken after al the crude we've had to put up with since reaching adulthood.

In any case if you want to learn more about civil rights from someone that was there, this can be an interesting book for the first three hours. However, once the book seeps into the 90s and earl 2ks in the last two hours it swiftly looses al relevancy, or more the traces of negative consequence just appearing at that time are in full bloom at the moment.

A legitimate view of the race problem in America

This book should be included in the “woke” reading lists for the current “antiracist” indoctrination, but of course it will not. Whether one agrees with Steele or not, his writings (and his documentary as well) provide another view of America’s race problem.

MORE PLEASE!!!

The unvarnished truth is needed more today than at any other time in American history. Shelby Steele delivers it.

Difficult read

A amalgamation of academic vocabulary difficult to understand. Seems at times to justify white guilt.

More Relevant Now Than Ever

Excellent read. Shelby Steele is one of America's leading public intellectuals. Insightful when it was released, and even more relevant today.

Odd pauses in narration, but brilliant work

Intentional pauses to emphasize things doesn’t work well, but the reflections of Steele are profound.