Shelby Steele's "A Bound Man" For Those Who DIDN'T Read It

As a gift from a Black man who ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK to those of you who did not please accept this post as a gift with the hopes that your level of consciousness displayed in 2010 will be different. 

The primary indictment against Steele is that he taunted Obama in his book title using "Why He Can't Win".  Thus to the people who support Obama and detest Steele (both of the "Steele boys" - though they are not related) this point is the lynch pin by which the entire treasties by Steele can be dismissed.  Sadly this is all that is asked by most members of this psuedo-intellectual band.

In fact 4 years ago most African-Americans would have let out the refrain "This RACIST nation will never elect a Black man as its President".  The reason why this is acceptable while Shelby Steele's comments are not is because while Steele seemingly makes a shot at the Black candidate - the radical rank and file member made a shot at AMERICA - indicting it for racism. 

The truth of the matter is that Steele also made an indictment on America when he said "Obama can't win".   He made note that America would not entrust a Black leftists who proposes to radically alter the American landscape.  He argued previously that a Black conservative that defended the key institutions in America as they are would have a much easier time of it. 

The key point that needs to be understood is that the American Voter proved Shelby Steele wrong on this one point.  They did elect a Black man to the post of President.

Now Let Us Inspect The Meat Of The Book

(I am doing this from a vantage point of nearly 2 years ago.  I was in Jamaica at the time that I read the book.  So this is all from memory)

Shelby Steele used Barack Obama's OWN WRITINGS as the basis for his book.  He added further insight as a fellow "bi-racial" man who identifies as Black, the racial reference that his physical attributes denote.

The key points that Shelby Steele Argued in his book was:

• When Barack Obama Sought His Political Grounding He Thought That Radical Black Leftist Ideology Was The "Authentic Black" Perspective - This group of Leftist Thought (not unique to "Blackness") renders heavy indictment about America's exploitative past and frames today's problems as all stemming from this past.  Unresolved issues are more of a force in this order than any particular failures of those who manage these human resources today.  (note - this last sentence is my personal analysis of their disposition).  He notes that Obama's campus career was focused upon interacting with Marxist professors and radical leftist student activists.  This, he argued, shaped Obama's world view on economics and politics.
• Barack Obama's Membership In Trinity United Methodist Church Was A Spiritual Homecoming -   In summary Rev Wright's leftist progressive brand of spirituality was the religious component of the world view that Obama had constructed in respect to economics and politics previously.  As a member of this church rather than some all White "Lutheran" church Obama gained a bit of authenticity with the Black community.
• Like Steele Obama The Bi-Racial Black Man Had To Choose Which Racial Reference ON THE INSIDE He Was Going To Identify With - Steele made note of the conflict that bi-racial Blacks face.  Which race will they mold their inner consciousness with?  The race of one's partner in marriage.  Whom one hangs out with.  The general racial references [ie: speech, residency] all detail this person's choice
• Obama's Search For His Father's True Self As Multiplexed With His Discovery Of His Political Ideology - Steele documents (from Obama's own accounting) the importance of discovering his own father.  He mentions how disappointment set in when Obama learned some of the unsavory sides of his father who he theorized with great esteem when his half-sister gave an unfavorable accounting of the man

These are the main points of the book - AGAIN USING OBAMA'S OWN WORDS.

If there is an indictment of Steele's book because Obama in fact won and thus the entire work must be discarded then - just as "Obama can no more reject his WHITE GRANDMOTHER than Reverend Wright" so is the case that you can no more reject Obama's two books than the Shelby Steele book that used BOTH OF THEM as the primary reference for his works.