Monday, January 23, 2006
I thought the reaction to Hillary Clinton's "plantation" comment was a little bit overblown, but if it provides a rif for Shelby Steele to work his stuff then there's a silver lining to it. Here's Steele:
Hillary's Plantation - Hillary Clinton reveals her fear of Condi Rice
But this Republican "weakness" has now begun to emerge as a great--if still largely potential--Republican advantage. Precisely because Republicans cannot easily pander to black grievance, they have no need to value blacks only for their sense of grievance. Unlike Democrats, they can celebrate what is positive and constructive in minority life without losing power. The dilemma for Democrats, liberals and the civil rights establishment is that they become redundant and lose power the instant blacks move beyond grievance and begin to succeed by dint of their own hard work. So they persecute such blacks, attack their credibility as blacks, just as they pander to blacks who define their political relationship to America through grievance. Republicans are generally freer of the political bigotry by which the left either panders to or persecutes black Americans...
(H/T: mal)
All of which gives me a chance to link to this old post, Re-thinking Affirmative Action, that contains a link to another Shelby Steele essay you should definitely catch if you missed it the first time around. The link in the old post is dead, but here's a live one: The age of white guilt: and the disappearance of the black individual
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