This paper examines Shelby Steele's essay collection, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. Steele contemplates the meaning of being black in America. He looks at the pressures that race puts on all citizens, but he is especially concerned with the black perspective. His own position as a successful, middle-class black man gives him interesting insights in the challenges of being black and some of the reasons why, in many ways, blacks in general are worse off than before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He contemplates factors including race, class, black culture, and the effects of political policies, such as affirmative action. His book is an ultimate call to individual responsibility and acceptance of universal values in order for the individual to achieve his or her full potential.
The title, The Content of Our Character, is drawn from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech and one of its best-known lines: "I have a dream that one day my children will be known for the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin." Steele chooses this reference deliberately in choosing his title, and purposely turns into "our character." He is interested in examining race in ways that are still difficult to talk about in American society.
Steele began writing the collection of essays that makes up the book as a way to try to understand his feelings about the issue and his own reactions as a middle-class black man. He observes, "In this book I have tried to search out the human universals that explain the racial specifics" (xi). He is candid about his shortcomings: he recounts many episodes in which he reacted blindly to situations he saw as racist. Many of these situations forced him to confront issues that did not always put him in the best light.
For instance, he describes situations in which he suffered from what he calls "integration shock," which he defin...