White Guilt

Back in the 1950s President Eisenhower purportedly used the word “nigger” in private conversations. In the 1990s President Clinton was caught in an affair with a White House intern.

What if it had been the other way around? Eisenhower, if he had been blatantly unfaithful to his wife, would have been forced to resign within days of the discovery of his behavior. Clinton, if reported to have used the word “nigger” in almost any context, would have been booted from office just as quickly.

In his book, White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (©2006), Shelby Steele explains this reversal of moral standards as the result of white guilt.

“As the civil rights victories of the 1960s dealt a blow to racial discrimination, American institutions started acknowledging their injustices, and white Americans – who held the power in those institutions – began to lose their moral authority. Since then, our governments and universities, eager to reclaim legitimacy and avoid charges of racism, have made a show of taking responsibility for the problems of black Americans.

“In doing so, Steele asserts, they have only further exploited blacks, viewing them always as victims, never as equals. This phenomenon, which he calls white guilt, is a way for whites to keep up appearances, to feel righteous, and to acquire an easy moral authority – all without addressing the real underlying problems of African Americans. Steele argues that calls for diversity and programs of affirmative action serve only to stigmatize minorities, portraying them not as capable individuals but as people defined by their membership in a group for which exceptions must be made.

“Steele calls for a new culture of personal responsibility, a commitment to principles that can fill the moral void created by white guilt. White leaders must stop using minorities as a means to establish their moral authority – and black leaders must stop indulging them. . . . the alternative is a dangerous ethical relativism that extends beyond race relations into all parts of American life." (From the book jacket.)