Racism and White Guilt: Has America Changed More Than We Admit?

About this episode:

Can fighting racism end up reinforcing it? Shelby Steele grew up under segregation and became a Black militant in the 1960s.

Today, he argues that white guilt has created a different racial problem: treating Black Americans as permanent victims who cannot succeed without white help. Shelby and his son, filmmaker Eli Steele, join Michael Shermer to discuss White Guilt, their new documentary about Shelby’s life and America’s changing racial politics.

Shelby recalls a university colleague who assumed she could count on his vote simply because he was Black. He explains why he sees the same thinking in affirmative action and the expectation that Black Americans should share the same beliefs. Michael provocatively asks Shelby whether affirmative action was ever justified and how much America has changed since the Civil Rights Movement.

For Shelby and Eli, what’s at stake is the individual, the radical idea that every human being stands equal under the law, fully accountable for his own life, free to rise or fall on his own terms. White guilt doesn’t just undermine the individual. It replaces the individual with the tribe, and freedom with the scramble for victim status.

Eli Steele is a filmmaker and writer. He has made over 20 documentaries. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Quillette, and other publications. He is the son of Shelby Steele.

Shelby Steele is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His work spans several books, documentary films, essays, and scholarly articles. His honors include the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Content of Our Character, an Emmy Award, a National Humanities Medal, and a Bradley Prize.