Shelby Steele on Preference

The Times gave so much play to Steele’s new book because it says what every, even minimally racist white person or pitifully misguided “Uncle Tom” African-American wants to hear--that the “free ride” blacks have supposedly gotten through affirmative action is not only unfair to whites but hurts blacks.

Bullstripes! Racism hurts black people directly and others indirectly. All affirmative action does, in the rare instances where it is actually enforced, is give blacks, women and other minorities a chance. That’s all we want in the first place. It is ingrained and institutionalized racism that keeps us from getting that chance.

My parents taught me the truth, as did Steele’s parents, that as a black person, I have to be twice as good as a white person to be considered as capable. It is my experience that affirmative action programs allow a few more of the overly qualified black people to get a shot at middle management. We are, more often than not, still cut off from the top.

Except for pockets of prejudice in states like California and Texas, other minority groups have not and do not face the same level of discrimination that black people do. White people don’t have to feel guilty for the injustices historically visited upon the black race; there’s plenty of current crapola to feel bad about.

E-K. DAUFIN

Los Angeles