A Mind-Boggling Tale Of Warped Thinking By A Black Conservative - Shelby Steele Gets It Wrong On Obama But He Can't Admit It
After making a nice bit of change on the lecture and book tour circuit proclaiming that Barack Obama could not win the presidency because he was too black-identified, Steele has reversed course now that Obama has won. Dismissing his own words and book tag line, now Obama is some kind of masterful Uncle Tom who "bargained" with white folks to get elected. Further, Obama gets no credit for running an inspired campaign or winning the election, it's the socio-cultural growth of white folks and their unwillingness to be labeled as racist that inspired them to vote for a black man. In Steele's view, its white citizens that really deserves the credit for Obama's victory.
Mr. Steele's argument is so circular that he could bite himself on his own ass. Barack Obama won a landslide victory, over 90% of the Black vote, over 60% of the Hispanic vote and nearly 50% of the White vote, but in Steele's view the only thing that matters is the white vote. If Obama was "bargaining" with white folks, why didn't Blacks and Latinos recognize his so-called double-dealings and reject his candidacy? Even if you agree with Steele's "bargaining" argument, Obama would not be the first person of color to try to gain acceptance with whites on their terms in order to get something they desired. And what exactly makes that an idea unique to people of color, sound like plain old politics to me.
What I find interesting and unbelievable is that this dude isn't being completely clowned by everyone for his completely off-base, incorrect, and unfounded analysis. The fact that he is still getting paid too spew this baloney slays me. No one should be listening to another thing Shelby Steele has to say until he fesses up and admits that he was wrong as hell.
