White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (P.S.)

Dick Gregory (1932-2017) is a second-wave Black activist who was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in the late-1960s. His turn of phrase, “raise your consciousness” became a rallying call for Black youths. Gregory capitalized on White guilt, promoting dependency in Black people and making Whites responsible for Black advancement. Steele uses Gregory as a foil for other civil rights leaders, notably, Malcolm X, whose “hard work” militancy called for freedom and equal treatment under the law, but not for a redistribution of responsibility. Gregory is a recurring figure in Steele’s book. His influence on Steele began at a Black power rally in the summer of 1967 and held sway until the 1980s, when Steele rejected liberalism in favor of conservatism.

John is a White college acquaintance of Steele’s who rejected the conservatism of his wealthy military family and became a motorcycle-riding hippie. Steele interprets John’s transformation as a youthful rebellion that took on a political tenor in light of the sociopolitical context of the 1960s. John appears numerous times in Steele’s book, standing in for all the White rebels who embraced and promoted the nascent counterculture of the post-civil rights years. 

Malcolm X (1925-1965) is a Black minister and civil rights activist best known for his work as a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, and for his assassination at their hands. Steele presents Malcolm X as an example of authentic Black militancy, also called “hard work” militancy, which demands freedom and equal treatment for Black people under the law without relieving them of personal responsibility. Steele contrasts Malcolm X with second-wave civil rights activists, such as Dick Gregory. Unlike Gregory, who traded on White guilt and rejected responsibility, Malcolm X was skeptical about what White people could do for Blacks and thus embraced personal responsibility as a form of power. 

Betty is a Black poet and English professor who earned Steele’s ire by proposing a new course on ethnic literature at a curriculum meeting at their university. Steele devotes the entirety of Chapter 24 to Betty, using her as a poster child for everything that is wrong with higher education in the US. According to Steele, Betty’s insecurities and dissociative stance prompt her to embrace mediocrity as a means of social fairness, like the vast majority of progressive academics. His perceptions of Betty’s personal failings serve to mirror the institutional failings of academia.