White People Have No Race

Arguably the panel I'm watching now, "Race and Politics in America: Where Are We in 2008?" with Richard Thompson Ford, Shelby Steele, Charles Kamasaki, and Ta-Nehisi Coates suffers from the opposite problem from the "Who Speaks for Islam?" panel -- all four participants are nonwhite. Surely white people have something to say about this. On the other hand, maybe you can actually get a broader range of views on an all-black panel, I have a hard time imagining a white person saying what Shelby Steele just said.

Meanwhile, Richard Thompson Ford is speaking now and reminding me that I liked his book The Race Card and never blogged about it.

UPDATE: Here's video of Shelby Steele being provocative yesterday.

Comments

I have a hard time imagining a white person saying what Shelby Steele just said.

You really don't read the comments, do you?

Posted by Gabriel | July 1, 2008 4:54 PM

If I were giving a lecture or participating in a panel, I'd consider it sort of rude if people were typing on their laptops instead of paying close attention to what I was saying. But maybe I'm just old.

Posted by James Gary | July 1, 2008 4:57 PM

Shelby Steele has a white parent, so he seems just as capable of representing whites as he does blacks.

Posted by pj | July 1, 2008 5:05 PM

It's a mark of superior status among white people to only worry about competing with other white people. For example, in Matt's dad's business, screenwriting, whites write 94% of all the screenplays of Hollywood-made movies.

For a white person to publicly admit that he worries about how his children will compete with, say, illegal immigrants, or with blacks who get affirmative action benefits in the civil service tests for fire and police department jobs is to admit that you are a loser in the white vs. white social status competition.

See Stuff White People Like for countless examples of this.

Posted by Steve Sailer | July 1, 2008 5:12 PM

Current immigration policy will reduce whites to a minority within a generation or so -- in other words, will end the current system where it's natural to assume that "white people have no race" and convert whites into just another minority elbowing for affirmative action payoffs.

Posted by Steve Sailer | July 1, 2008 5:37 PM

whites into just another minority elbowing for affirmative action payoffs

Ask the Asian-Americans in California how that's working out for them.

Posted by Sail Stever | July 1, 2008 6:50 PM

I don't really get what you're saying here, but, your title is crap.

100 years ago, Italians and other southern Europeans weren't white. Eastern Europeans still aren't white, despite their skin color. And, even European Spanish get considered to be "Hispanic." I dare you to take a walk in a Latin country and observe the racial differences even among the medium to light-skinned people.

Right. And gingers.

Posted by brenna | July 1, 2008 6:50 PM

White people have a race: it's called 'White' or 'Caucasian'.
We also have a culture: it's called 'Western Civilization'.

The academics threw the baby out with the bathwater in the Sixties, and like a lot from that time, the mainstream was affected to some degree. It's most recognizable on the Left, where it's just not appropriate to speak and write about the accomplishments of white people and the benefits of white culture and value systems the way nonwhites may about theirs.

The only people recognizing and embracing any aspect of white culture are the racists and the self-haters.

Posted by Visceral | July 1, 2008 11:00 PM

One awesome thing about young people is that they don't have a dog in old fights.

The sixties, slavery, communism. Thank god they're all behind us. Now let's take a fresh look at where we are and how we can do better.

Shelby Steele ends his speech with (paraphrasing) "The solution is to focus on fairness and we must recognize that public policy cannot significantly right the wrongs of the past."

But he is neglecting the force of his earlier point that we should be empirical rather than ideological.

So, if affirmative action works, do it! If not, do something else.

The problem is that raw empiricism is sort of a scientific pursuit, and that sometimes bothers those in the humanities who have deeply held beliefs and want the depth of their belief to be seen as important. But everyone should just face that their deeply held beliefs might be wrong.

Posted by mk | July 2, 2008 1:12 AM

I'm halfway through Rick Perlstein's Nixon book which confirms how much progress we have actually made on race, despite the gaps that still exist.

Give it a read to see how wild racism was running as a political current in the 60s and 70s.

Posted by am | July 2, 2008 10:03 AM