Shelby Steele and the consequences of courage | Ben Domenech Podcast — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:06[Applause]
3. 0:10hello boys and girls
4. 0:12i'm back this is ben dominic publisher
5. 0:14of the federalist
6. 0:15a contributor to fox news welcoming you
7. 0:17to the first episode
8. 0:19of the ben dominic podcast brought to
9. 0:21you by fox news
10. 0:23this is going to be a series of
11. 0:24conversations with
12. 0:26newsmakers intellectuals interesting
13. 0:28authors musicians comedians and more
14. 0:32people who have things to say about the
15. 0:34country in the moment that we're living
16. 0:36through
17. 0:37it seems to me that there are a number
18. 0:39of different dynamics in this country
19. 0:42worthy of discussion and that require
20. 0:45a lot longer of a conversation than what
21. 0:48you can get in just
22. 0:49a brief cable news hit that's the kind
23. 0:52of space that we want to have here on
24. 0:54this podcast
25. 0:55where we can have those conversations at
26. 0:57length delve into the different issues
27. 0:59involved
28. 0:59get to know the different people that
29. 1:01we're talking to and reflect a bit
30. 1:03on the different aspects of this country
31. 1:06in this particular
32. 1:07high strung very tense very tribalist
33. 1:11moment we're going to talk about
34. 1:14populism
35. 1:14we're going to talk about the future and
36. 1:16the past of the american right and left
37. 1:19we're going to talk about race in
38. 1:20america that's the subject of our first
39. 1:22episode today
40. 1:23we're going to talk about aspects of our
41. 1:26culture
42. 1:27both the high culture and the low
43. 1:28culture what it means for us
44. 1:30as americans as we see them develop and
45. 1:33we'll do that both with the creative
46. 1:35side of things
47. 1:36the business side of things and the
48. 1:38people who comment
49. 1:40and analyze this for you on fox news
50. 1:43with regularity if you're listening to
51. 1:46this i don't need to tell you
52. 1:47that america has been getting a pretty
53. 1:49bad rap as of late
54. 1:51there are a lot of people running it
55. 1:52down from without and from within
56. 1:55and those are people who i think are
57. 1:57fundamentally wrong
58. 1:59i believe in america i believe in its
59. 2:02past and in its future in its promise
60. 2:04and in what it offers uniquely in the
61. 2:07history
62. 2:08of the world the essence of american
63. 2:12optimism is founded in a belief
64. 2:14that the world we pass on can exceed the
65. 2:16one we inherited
66. 2:18we are not prisoners of an
67. 2:19all-encompassing destiny and neither are
68. 2:22our children this is not a uniquely
69. 2:24american inclination mind you
70. 2:26but a human one but not all cultures
71. 2:29acknowledge or honor it it was here in
72. 2:32america
73. 2:33where such an experience was uniquely
74. 2:35understood
75. 2:36from our inception in our creed
76. 2:39we create as we were created and know
77. 2:42all who are created have worth
78. 2:44and so they have an equal claim to life
79. 2:47to liberty
80. 2:48and to the pursuit of happiness
81. 2:52we're going to be talking to a lot of
82. 2:53interesting people in the coming weeks
83. 2:54and months
84. 2:55i hope that you will go along with us on
85. 2:57this conversation and i appreciate
86. 2:59the folks at fox news for having the
87. 3:02ability and the interest in hosting
88. 3:05these conversations today we'll be
89. 3:09talking to shelby steele
90. 3:11he's an author and a senior fellow at
91. 3:13stanford university's hoover institution
92. 3:16he's the son of a southern-born black
93. 3:18truck driver who
94. 3:20left school in third grade to work the
95. 3:22fields
96. 3:23he would marry a white woman in 1944
97. 3:26which is not exactly
98. 3:27the kind of things that a lot of people
99. 3:28are known for it led all of her siblings
100. 3:31to abandon her
101. 3:33he talked recently to the wall street
102. 3:34journal in an interview that i encourage
103. 3:36you to look up
104. 3:38mr steele laments that liberal america
105. 3:40is quote still not ready to talk
106. 3:42realistically and frankly about race
107. 3:44what is obvious to him he says and
108. 3:47obvious to millions of americans
109. 3:49is the fact that america has made more
110. 3:51moral progress in the last 60 years
111. 3:53regarding race
112. 3:54than any nation country or civilization
113. 3:56in history unquote
114. 3:58he describes this progress as quote
115. 4:00miraculous and cites his own life as
116. 4:02proof
117. 4:03he was born into a deeply segregated
118. 4:05america where every aspect of life was
119. 4:08racially calibrated
120. 4:09in 1946 when his mother showed up at a
121. 4:12chicago hospital in full labor
122. 4:14nurses ushered her into the maternity
123. 4:16ward when her husband arrived after
124. 4:18parking the car
125. 4:19the nurses realized the baby wasn't
126. 4:21going to be white
127. 4:22they pushed her into the elevator which
128. 4:24descended to the basement
129. 4:25where the colored maternity ward was
130. 4:28this was where mr steele
131. 4:29and his identical twin brother claude
132. 4:31were born
133. 4:33mr steele encountered plenty of
134. 4:35discrimination in his youth
135. 4:37he couldn't be a paper boy because they
136. 4:38wouldn't let black kids ride a bike
137. 4:40through white neighborhoods at 6am
138. 4:42he couldn't be a caddy on a golf course
139. 4:44he couldn't wash dishes
140. 4:46at the local greek restaurant because
141. 4:48people would see his black hands on the
142. 4:50plates
143. 4:51he couldn't work at jcpenney because he
144. 4:53couldn't be seen laying clothes out on
145. 4:55display
146. 4:56he couldn't go to the schools he wanted
147. 4:58because all the schools were segregated
148. 5:00and yet he too believes in america
149. 5:05coming up we'll hear from our guest
150. 5:06today shelby steele
151. 5:09shelby steel is one of the most
152. 5:10interesting intellectuals in america
153. 5:12today he's also someone who's spoken
154. 5:16over the course of his career to a
155. 5:18number of the issues that currently find
156. 5:20themselves
157. 5:21at the center of americans discussion
158. 5:23about race
159. 5:24in this country about the history of the
160. 5:27nation
161. 5:27and about the kind of nation that we
162. 5:29want to have moving
163. 5:31forward i recently had a conversation
164. 5:34with a very intelligent friend of mine
165. 5:36emily eakins currently the research
166. 5:39director
167. 5:39over at the cato institute about the
168. 5:42fact that she and a group of her friends
169. 5:44had gotten together to discuss shelby
170. 5:47steele's 2006 book
171. 5:49white guilt which has an enormous i
172. 5:52think
173. 5:52uh lesson to teach us in this current
174. 5:55time
175. 5:56he is a senior fellow at the hoover
176. 5:58institution at
177. 6:00uh stanford university and he is joining
178. 6:02us here today
179. 6:03uh thank you so much shelby for taking
180. 6:05the time to join us thank you for having
181. 6:06me
182. 6:07i had uh back and forth with my friend
183. 6:10emily about
184. 6:11uh what kind of questions she wanted me
185. 6:14to ask you
186. 6:15uh and so i i hope that you'll forgive a
187. 6:18little bit of
188. 6:19of book club intrusion onto our
189. 6:21conversation
190. 6:22uh today uh but one of the questions
191. 6:25that that
192. 6:26uh really was a front of mind i think
193. 6:28for them
194. 6:30was about how to wrestle with
195. 6:34an america that has gone
196. 6:37beyond recognizing the evils of racism
197. 6:41to the point where race now seems to be
198. 6:43used
199. 6:44in a weaponized way against our fellow
200. 6:47americans
201. 6:49absolutely um
202. 6:52you know there's is i've written about
203. 6:55in
204. 6:55in that book as well there there was a
205. 6:57moment in the 60s when america
206. 6:59openly confessed to its long terrible
207. 7:02history of racism
208. 7:04the price prayed for that very honorable
209. 7:06act was to lose moral authority
210. 7:10and so the loss of moral authority has
211. 7:12been a problem for america
212. 7:14ever since white americans especially
213. 7:19uh and it's it's um
214. 7:23in in any given situation any conflict
215. 7:25that comes up
216. 7:27uh as a black i can say well you're
217. 7:29quoting principle to me now but you
218. 7:31didn't quote principally
219. 7:32you didn't act out that way when i was
220. 7:35growing up in segregation
221. 7:37and so i have a moral authority
222. 7:41that that white americans don't have
223. 7:45and it's a kind it's it's it's it
224. 7:47constitutes
225. 7:50power uh and and this
226. 7:53is white guilt is an enormous um
227. 7:58i think obviously very underrated
228. 8:01power in american life it determines any
229. 8:04number of things
230. 8:06uh our attitudes toward race and and
231. 8:09so forth whites are have been in the
232. 8:12position
233. 8:13since the 60s uh of having to
234. 8:17to demonstrate in some way their
235. 8:20innocence
236. 8:21of that old racist path i'm not me
237. 8:25my units it's sort of branding is it's
238. 8:28come down to that you know my my
239. 8:30institution is
240. 8:31we have diversity we have inclusion we
241. 8:34have all these wonderful things today
242. 8:36and
243. 8:36and um because we're innocent of that
244. 8:39and therefore we deserve
245. 8:40the moral authority to be seen as a
246. 8:42legitimate
247. 8:43american institution so the very
248. 8:46legitimacy of our institutions are tied
249. 8:49to
250. 8:50this this accusation
251. 8:53against america one can even
252. 8:57i think go a little broader i think it
253. 8:59also
254. 9:00the same dynamic is at work in european
255. 9:03countries as well
256. 9:05as they face the problem of their former
257. 9:07colonies
258. 9:10coming in to come come immigrating to
259. 9:14their societies
260. 9:17one of the elements of this that's taken
261. 9:19on a new
262. 9:21uh importance in our current discussion
263. 9:24is
264. 9:24the rise of of woke members of society
265. 9:29uh
266. 9:29at least it's kind of a poorly defined
267. 9:32term but one of the things that seems to
268. 9:35come with it
269. 9:36is caring a lot about an appearance
270. 9:40of righteousness as opposed to caring
271. 9:43about
272. 9:43what actually helps individuals
273. 9:47how is that playing out in in this
274. 9:49current dynamic in america
275. 9:52well again it's it is a
276. 9:56it is a predetermined um
277. 9:59preoccupation with innocence
278. 10:05for the full podcast go to
279. 10:08foxnewspodcast.com