Nothing Is Ever Simply Black and White: SHELBY STEELE

Q.

Why are so many African Americans concerned about Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court?

A.

On the deepest level, he touches the very soul of the debate in black America, which is a debate between using the principle of self-sufficiency as a means to power as opposed to using our history of victimization. We have taken our power from our history of victimization, which gave us an enormous moral authority and brought social reforms, to the neglect of self-reliance and individual initiative. And now, any time you talk about self-reliance in relation to black problems, you are automatically considered a conservative.

Q.

You don't consider yourself a conservative?

A.

No. I think of myself more as a classical liberal. I focus on freedom, on the sacredness of the individual, the power to be found in the individual.

Q.

But other black thinkers from Booker T. Washington to Malcolm X to Jesse Jackson have preached self-reliance, and nobody called them conservatives.

A.

Clarence Thomas is considered a conservative today because of the context, and the context is that for the past 25 years civil rights organizations have focused one-dimensionally on our oppression and demanded redress based on that. Well, here comes a man in 1991 who stands for self-help, and so he is anathema. The principle of self-reliance seems to devalue victimization as a source of power. I don't think it necessarily does, but it seems to. And so Thomas seems to be against the interests of black people merely by standing for self-reliance. He's not remotely anti-black. He's just asking that we develop another source of power.

Q.

You have said that you are against preferential treatment, not affirmative action per se. But the widespread perception is that you are anti-affirmative action, and so is Clarence Thomas.

A.

What I've tried to say, and I think Clarence Thomas stands for pretty much the same thing, is that by opposing racial preferences we stand for black strength rather than weakness. The thing that disturbs me about affirmative action, about preferences, is that they can and will be taken away. They will diminish over time. And in the interim they encourage us to believe that redress is our power. I don't take any simpleminded black-and-white view and say racial preferences have never done a bit of good for anybody. All I've tried to do is point out the down side and that we've probably come to the point where they are doing more harm than good.

Q.

Are you letting white people off the hook?

A.

I don't mean in any way to let white people off the hook. I think as American citizens, they have a profound responsibility to black Americans. I favor every form of affirmative action except preferences. I favor the government improving the education system in the inner cities. I favor programs that go down to the teenage mother and try to break that cycle of poverty by teaching her parenting skills.