PROTEST SEEKS TO DEHUMANIZE BLACKS THEN BLAME WHITES FOR DIFFERENCE \doc\web\99\05\steele.txt March 1, 1999 New Republic Shelby Steele Protest writing negatively differentiates blacks from normal non-oppressed humanity, and then asserts that racial oppression is responsible for the difference. . . . . In protest fiction, this differentiation of blacks from humanity, this auto-dehumanization, is all-important, because it is what stirs white obligation, which is the ultimate objective of all black protest writing. . . . Subject: [Upstream] Shelby Steele in New Republic Resent-Message-ID: <"3GpwQB.A.V5C.bD962"@onn.pair.com> Resent-From: upstream-list@cycad.com X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/1613 X-Loop: upstream-list@cycad.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: upstream-list-request@cycad.com Status: For those who have not seen it, I thought you might be interested in some excerpts from Shelby Steele’s article in the March 1, 1999 edition of the New Republic. It’s part of a discussion on the writer Ralph Ellison, who gets flak for not being a “black protest” writer from the phony black “intelligentsia.” =============================== “. . . . So the hostility of many blacks toward Ellison is unexceptional in itself; and if history is any indication, the future will likely belong more to Ellison than to his accusers. The rub between writer and group usually follows from the writer’s determination to reflect on truths that are inexpedient for the group. In fact, what the group least wants to understand may be precisely what most excites a good writer--not because he or she is contrarian, but because unacknowledged truth is the natural territory of literature. But groups want power more than understanding. They want “truth” first of all as a narrative that licenses the pursuit of power and advantage in relation to other groups. . . . Today the intractability of white racism is a black group “truth” that licenses the pursuit of special preferences for blacks. . . . . The all-important goal of protest writing is to engage white American obligation. Thus, there is a perfect wedding of purpose between the victim-focused group and protest fiction. . . . . Protest writing negatively differentiates blacks from “normal” non-oppressed humanity, and then asserts that racial oppression is responsible for the difference. . . . . In protest fiction, this differentiation of blacks from humanity, this auto-dehumanization, is all-important, because it is what stirs white obligation, which is the ultimate objective of all black protest writing. . . . Since this literature was written above all else to trigger white obligation, it could not examine the strengths of black culture without putting that obligation at risk. A chief characteristic of black protest writing, therefore, is the concealment of black culture and black ingenuity so as not to diffuse white obligation. . . . In schools and universities across the country, these cultureless treatments of black life are routinely assigned to young readers in the name of black culture. Since multiculturalism is itself more a protest politics than a study of culture, it blurs the line between politics and culture, sneaking the former in under the auspices of the latter. The multiculturalist also has white obligation as his first goal. So, on the university level, “Beloved,” probably the most frequently assigned novel by a black writer in the ‘90s, is usually presented under the auspices of black culture, when in fact it is a rather cultureless protest novel. .. . . Since the 1960s, black leadership has also concealed the human resilience and the cultural resourcefulness of blacks, as well as the full range of our new freedom, so as to highlight the black victimization that stimulates the sense of white obligation. In the story told by this leadership, black Americans are always unequal to the forces aligned against them. Whether inner city school children or black corporate executives, success and equality are always shown to turn on the variable of white will. The great irony of protest writing, then, is that it finds popularity with the group precisely because it conceals the group’s strength. This writing and this politics make the same sacrifice for the same goal: black humanity for the possibility of white rescue. -- Shelby Steele =========================== Elizabeth Wright = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Issues & Views - http://www.concentric.net/~issues DEliz@aol.com and Issues@concentric.net = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =