A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win
Book Review: A Black Carpetbagger as President for 2008?
Summary: 5 Stars
The PBS interview with this author shows why it should be at the top of everyone's list as a must-read in anticipation of the 2008 election.
America is familiar with the white carpetbagger model, but totally unfamiliar with the black carpetbagger model, and themes by the author reveal how an off-shore black man can compromise everything blacks have worked for over 50 years by presenting himself as black to blacks, and white to whites - and deceive all - without getting into the specifics of what kind of America he would promote and how he would run the country.
After a review, it's likely that readers will see not an audacity in running, but unmitigated gall in using the American racial conflict for his own personal aggrandizement, showing his disdain equally for blacks and for whites. Suspiciously, it may make understandable how black slave traders could sell their own black brethren into slavery during the 1700's to acquire the riches and wealth.
Worth the read to understand where America is today in entertaining the prospects of its first hybrid President, something currently a true black could probably not accomplish.
Book Review: Bound & Autobiographical
Summary: 3 Stars
Although Shelby Steele's substantial intellect is on display in this book, read it as an example of a viewpoint about race and politics, and not as insight into Barack Obama specifically. Much of his views are valid for a biracial intellectual conservative growing up in the racial tension of Chicago in the 1950's like Shelby Steele did, and not valid for a biracial intellectual liberal growing up in the racial diversity of Honolulu and Indonesia in the late 60's & the 70's like Barack Obama. This is a book explaining why Shelby Stelle feels he is a bound man.Book Review: Steele Unbound
Summary: 4 Stars
Those familiar with Shelby Steele's work specifically Content of Our Character. I don't see this as a hitpiece on Obama as has been suggested but rather a thoughtful psychological profile.
Steele dissects Obama's quest for identity and what that quest means to him but also to his worldview. Steele has the innate ability to expand his elaborate thoughts on the topic with simple prose that won't alienate readers.
Where Steele does fail is in making the case that Obama will fail in his quest. While I agree that Obama is bound to a certain worldview that falls outside the mainstream he is too gifted an operator and orator to allow himself to be seen as bound. While he is running he will be able to paper over his differences with mainstream America but it will be interesting to see if he will be able to maintain this illusion if he reaches the Oval Office.
Overall this is a worthy book for anyone wanting to understand about Obama without reading one of his own works or hagiographies that are piling up in bookstores across the land.
Book Review: A Good Political History Book! (not 100% contemporary)
Summary: 3 Stars
By the time any political belief has a following and a sense of consensus, its already on the way to replacing previous views. However I thought this was a wonderful history book for people like me who can spot an inconsistency in political arguments and wonder why no one's actaully able to discuss it. Having holes in the political spectrum can make independants paranoid, particularly younger ones who didn't live through the 1960's or 70's. If activists worry about younger voters, they worry us too, by refusing to discuss things that are obvious to people with an education. More americans are in school now then ever before, we have the highest tertiary enrollment rate in the world and many more schools and communities are becoming very diverse.
The book itself was well written and there are definately a lot of elements I am able to see in our political culture that support his premises, but they seem more prominant with older Americans. (I'm 28). Obama is younger then Steele (1961 vs 1943), which makes a generational difference. Things were harder for people like Steele and as an older man he would be more hurried to have a legacy. It seemed to be more of a history book, as the entire culture under 30 is very interconnected these days in ways older generations aren't and one of Obama's key areas of support is college students. Another thing Obama can benefit from is being half-African of an age cohort of the African "Cheetah Generation" as opposed to the hippos. They know they have problems in Africa, and the expats in their 20s/30s/40s are generally brilliant. So in that it is significant that he is not only African-American but African, as well.
Transparancy helps, as you need to know the context of things. If identity politics of a previous generation are at fault for a lot of problems, then knowing what went wrong (and that the era is passing) is important. It is also very tedious to deal with idealogues and people who are online are more likely to encounter strange political beliefs. Having an 'us against them' mentality is very unproductive when only 13% of the population. It's more like the tribalism you find in traditonal African factions and has predictable results. Good things are that the younger generation of African-Americans are more mixed in with immigrants from Africa and various islands, so hopefully are a lot more diverse, even if still separate. They might have lost many of the middle class African American elements who supported them in the civil rights era during an exodus to the suburbs, but we tend to get high quality immigrants. The inner cities honestly might not need the people who claim to be black intellectuals as they haven't much in common with them, and black nationalism certainly hasn't helped keep violence down or inner city schools heated during the winter. And having a weakening in political orthodoxy might encourage more moderates back to the cities which would be beneficial.
Its really offends me to hear that many of the black politicians i support (generally reform) are summarily dismissed as not being black enough. Is black an ethnic background or a political affiliation- and why is that argument primarily used when the topic of corruption comes up? As a 20-something in a diverse community, how do I interpret communities which have chosen to self-segregate? There might have been some historical reasons for this but there are no longer as many barriers up, its more choice now. There is no reason other then political gain (or kickbacks) to fight the mainstream culture. There is nothing wrong with networking, everyone does it, but lets move to a more neutral society, where ethnic background is more of a topic for small talk then politics. As someone who didn't live through the nation's trauma, I'm not particularly sympathetic to people my age trying to glamorize thug culture: people who shoot people over a look at a party are not hip they are sociopathic. I would be all for federal funding for an army of inner city social workers and economic development to deal with vulnerable communities, as prevention seems a whole lot cheaper and more useful then locking people up.
I gave it 3 stars mainly because it was a good read, pretty informative, but can be a bit misleading. It is more relevent as a political history book considering Shelby Steele is 64 years old and so a member of the generation headed towards retirement, which means he can provide excellent historical information to us younger folks but can't predict future trends as well as people who are living the changes in our country and world in the beginnings of their lives and careers. Each new generation adds to the political zest and changes the climate, so having such an old base to start with is more a reflection of beliefs, fears, and prejudices in days that are on the way out.
This is a good argument but its only one argument. The book is important taken in context, in explaining the climate we still find ourselves in as there are still some stupid young people who prop up black nationalism, I ran into some of them after Katrina as the idealogy made a brief resurgence. Its good to know where they are coming from even if they are a significant minority, as people can make a lot of noise in the world wide jungle.
Book Review: A Bound Nation
Summary: 4 Stars
In his well written, thought-provoking work, Steele has simply stirred the toxic waters of race which still affects us all. Case in point, Obama must choose the right mask, or better, an amalgamation of the challenger and bargainer mask to ascend to the highest office in the land. If he chooses the bargainer's mask, he alienates his black constituency for not being "black enough." If he chooses the challenger's mask, he risks losing the liberal and moderate voting blocks he so desperately needs to win. He is trapped in a timeless dichotomy of passive and militant voice (DuBois' Soul of black folk), never able to express his true self. Consequently, Steele contends this identity straight jacket will prevent him from winning. If Obama is indeed bound -which I think Steele argues with undeniable rigor - then we are all bound. We are a nation bound by the pernicious curse of race and racism. We are all bound by a racial mask that hinders us from being ourselves and dialoguing about matters that affect us all.
My only caveat is his skewed analysis of the bargainer/challenger dynamic among African-Americans. This is a modern redress of the house and field slave metaphor articulated by Malcolm X. If Steele is correct in his depiction and assessment of the black experience, then he must also admit that "plantationism" is as real as before. We have simply exchanged, culture, language, and structure to mask the same old system. Yet, historically, the challenger has always served to make the bargainer palatable. Thus, Malcolm made Martin palatable as does Sharpton, Jackson, and Spike Lee do for Obama, Oprah, and Jordan (add here the advancement of the bourgeois "articulate" black America at the expense of the less palatable militant Hip Hop culture). Unfortunately, it takes this "good guy/bad guy circus drama" for African Americans to advance. We are deluded in our thinking if we believe we are an advanced society. Steele simply informs us, though with a different conclusion, that we still have a long way to go.