
White Guilt
How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.89
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
JD Jackson
-
By:
-
Shelby Steele
About this listen
"Not unlike some of Ralph Ellison's or Richard Wright's best work. White Guilt, a serious meditation on vital issues, deserves a wide readership." — Cleveland Plain Dealer
In 1955 the killers of Emmett Till, a black Mississippi youth, were acquitted because they were white. Forty years later, despite the strong DNA evidence against him, accused murderer O. J. Simpson went free after his attorney portrayed him as a victim of racism. The age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white guilt—and neither has been good for African Americans.
Through articulate analysis and engrossing recollections, acclaimed race relations scholar Shelby Steele sounds a powerful call for a new culture of personal responsibility.
©2009 Shelby Steele (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
When Race Trumps Merit
- How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Olivia Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your workplace have too few Black people in top jobs? It’s racist. Does the advanced math and science high school in your city have too many Asians? It’s racist. Does your local museum employ too many White women? It’s racist, too. After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, prestigious American institutions, from the medical profession to the fine arts, pleaded guilty to “systemic racism”.
-
-
People need to read/listen to this book
- By Casey on 04-20-23
-
Shame
- How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country
- By: Shelby Steele
- Narrated by: Randall Bain
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prominent conservative scholar traces the post-1960s divisions between the Right and the Left, taking aim at liberals' victimization of African Americans and their failure to offer a viable way forward for American society. The United States today is hopelessly polarized; the political Right and Left have hardened into rigid and deeply antagonistic camps, preventing any sort of progress.
-
-
Great book.
- By Anonymous User on 12-02-17
By: Shelby Steele
-
Woke Racism
- How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.
-
-
Thank You
- By Withacy on 10-26-21
By: John McWhorter
-
Please Stop Helping Us
- How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
- By: Jason L. Riley
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is it that so many efforts by liberals to lift the Black underclass not only fail, but often harm the intended beneficiaries? In Please Stop Helping Us, Jason L. Riley examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding Black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of Blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer Black college graduates than would otherwise exist.
-
-
Required reading
- By Ken Larsen on 02-15-15
By: Jason L. Riley
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
The Diversity Delusion
- How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward, Heather Mac Donald - intro
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is in crisis, from the university to the workplace. Toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture. The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia.
-
-
Definition of the campus 'diversity' issue
- By Wayne on 09-10-18
-
When Race Trumps Merit
- How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Olivia Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your workplace have too few Black people in top jobs? It’s racist. Does the advanced math and science high school in your city have too many Asians? It’s racist. Does your local museum employ too many White women? It’s racist, too. After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, prestigious American institutions, from the medical profession to the fine arts, pleaded guilty to “systemic racism”.
-
-
People need to read/listen to this book
- By Casey on 04-20-23
-
Shame
- How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country
- By: Shelby Steele
- Narrated by: Randall Bain
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A prominent conservative scholar traces the post-1960s divisions between the Right and the Left, taking aim at liberals' victimization of African Americans and their failure to offer a viable way forward for American society. The United States today is hopelessly polarized; the political Right and Left have hardened into rigid and deeply antagonistic camps, preventing any sort of progress.
-
-
Great book.
- By Anonymous User on 12-02-17
By: Shelby Steele
-
Woke Racism
- How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.
-
-
Thank You
- By Withacy on 10-26-21
By: John McWhorter
-
Please Stop Helping Us
- How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
- By: Jason L. Riley
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why is it that so many efforts by liberals to lift the Black underclass not only fail, but often harm the intended beneficiaries? In Please Stop Helping Us, Jason L. Riley examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding Black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of Blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer Black college graduates than would otherwise exist.
-
-
Required reading
- By Ken Larsen on 02-15-15
By: Jason L. Riley
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
The Diversity Delusion
- How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward, Heather Mac Donald - intro
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is in crisis, from the university to the workplace. Toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture. The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia.
-
-
Definition of the campus 'diversity' issue
- By Wayne on 09-10-18
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
A Bound Man
- Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win
- By: Shelby Steele
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling and controversial author Shelby Steele comes an illuminating examination of the complex racial issues that confront presidential candidate Barack Obama in his race for the White House, a quest that will be one of those galvanizing occasions that forces a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America.
-
-
The Masks We Wear
- By C. Matthew Hawkins on 09-01-20
By: Shelby Steele
-
Discrimination and Disparities
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discrimination and Disparities challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. It is listenable enough for people with no prior knowledge of economics. Yet the empirical evidence with which it backs up its analysis spans the globe and challenges beliefs across the ideological spectrum.
-
-
Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
- By Charles on 01-14-19
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
-
-
Mr. Sowell exposed the soul of America.
- By rutituti. on 11-24-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Blackout
- How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation
- By: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Narrated by: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats. Seeing no viable alternative, they have watched liberal politicians take the Black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. In Blackout, Owens argues that this automatic allegiance is both illogical and unearned. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and exposes the ideals that hinder the Black community’s ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American dream.
-
-
Thought provoking!
- By Girl with curls on 09-16-20
By: Candace Owens, and others
-
The Madness of Crowds
- Gender, Race and Identity
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness’, the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.
-
-
An Urgent Read for Our Over-woke Times
- By Justin J. Norman on 09-26-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
Woke, Inc.
- Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
- By: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Narrated by: Vivek Ramaswamy
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a new invisible force at work in our economic and cultural lives. It affects every advertisement we see and every product we buy, from our morning coffee to a new pair of shoes. “Stakeholder capitalism” makes rosy promises of a better, more diverse, environmentally friendly world, but in reality, this ideology, championed by America’s business and political leaders, robs us of our money, our voice, and our identity.
-
-
Must read of 2021
- By chris boutte on 08-22-21
By: Vivek Ramaswamy
-
White Fragility
- Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
- By: Dr. Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson - foreword
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people'" (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent meaningful cross-racial dialogue.
-
-
Word salad
- By Eric on 03-10-20
By: Dr. Robin DiAngelo, and others
-
Maverick
- A Biography of Thomas Sowell
- By: Jason L. Riley
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first-ever biography of Thomas Sowell, one of America's most influential conservative social theorists, Jason L. Riley gives this iconic thinker his due and responds to the detractors. Maverick showcases Sowell's most significant writings and traces the life events that shaped his ideas and resulted in a Black orphan from the Jim Crow South becoming one of our foremost public intellectuals.
-
-
A Biography of Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 06-08-21
By: Jason L. Riley
-
Cynical Theories
- How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody
- By: Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay
- Narrated by: Helen Pluckrose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed to challenge the logic of Western society? In this probing volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields.
-
-
Vast Amount of Jargon Lost Me
- By P. Jackson on 10-23-20
By: Helen Pluckrose, and others
-
Red, White, and Black
- Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers
- By: Robert L. Woodson
- Narrated by: Calvin Robinson
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An indispensable corrective to the falsified version of Black history presented by The 1619 Project, radical activists, and money-hungry “diversity consultants". Rejecting this false narrative, a collection of the most prominent and respected Black scholars and thinkers has come together to correct the record and tell the true story of Black Americans in all its complexity, diversity of experience, and poignancy. Collectively, they paint a vivid picture of Black people living the grand American experience.
-
-
1776 United
- By Wayne on 08-03-21
-
The Vision of the Anointed
- Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vision of the Anointed is a devastating critique of the mindset behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Thomas Sowell sees what has happened not as a series of isolated mistakes, but as a logical consequence of a vision whose defects have led to disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and other social pathology. In this book, "politically correct" theory is repeatedly confronted with facts-and sharp contradictions between the two are explained in terms of a whole set of self-congratulatory assumptions held by political and intellectual elites.
-
-
An Absolute Masterpiece!
- By Brendan Martino on 04-04-22
By: Thomas Sowell
What listeners say about White Guilt
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SilverSurferNow
- 04-14-21
More Relevant Now Than Ever
Excellent read. Shelby Steele is one of America's leading public intellectuals. Insightful when it was released, and even more relevant today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Midgeoreno
- 05-15-21
Excellent, thoughtful, and timely.
This book and the ideas expressed are valuable in defending against the rush to further exacerbate racial tensions through the prevalence of CRT and other forms of organized, socially acceptable racism in our present age.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie
- 04-15-21
A different point of view
Don't get me wrong, I agree with Steele and enjoyed his previous book Content of Our Character. But I've been on a Thomas Sowell kick and Sowell doesn't give much thought to his own racial identity. But Steele recalls his own feelings about racial rage and experiences with racial discrimination. It's from the point of view of a former 60s Black Power dude whose racial identity was glued to sticking it to the Man.
This point of view was interesting and he does mention the transformation of how he got from angry young college student to the middle class Black man with ideas about civil rights that are outdated by the intersectional radicals today.
I also appreciate his analysis of how and what powers this destructive racial dynamics that we are witnessing today. White guilt is fueling and feeding the race grifters who have been with us since the end of the Civil War. One of the things that struck a cord with me was on the Great Society. He had a different view of how those programs were corrupting, to those who administered them. We are very familiar with how the Great Society just obliterated the stable Black family, But not so much how it messed up the Black middle class too by not making them accountable for the programs they ran for the Black under class.
There are some terms and ideas in the book that make me wonder if younger generations would understand them. One such was the "tar baby". I'm Gen X, and was old enough to have seen or have the general concept of what was in Disney's Song of the South and read books related to the movie, which included the story of the tar baby. I dare you to find Disney's Song of the South anywhere.
Two things to be edited, one, the Bill Cosby section. Steele does not acknowledge Cosby being convicted in a court of law for sexual assault. If Steele did, it was a comment so short and fast I must have missed it. The other was sound quality. There were sections where I gather different cuts were spliced together, distracting from the flow of the narrator. This happened several times with the recording.
I know this is a new book, but some things in it are dated.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard
- 01-31-23
Interesting philosophy on how society has changed
Shelby Steele takes a look throughout at why something that Eisenhower said on a golf course would have taken a Clinton presidency down, but Clinton's infidelity would have taken Eisenhower down. Why the difference? He explores, while hitting many other topics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T. Gross
- 09-26-22
Meticulous thought
Shelby Steele has taken the time and applied the mental muscle to masterfully articulate what many of us know to be true but just can not put our finger on.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gabby's Mom
- 04-17-25
Candid and Concise
Mr Steele's candid and detailed analysis of his transition from militant leftist to reluctant conservative resonated with me. As a fellow black conservative I've been perplexed for a number of years as to what transpired that shifted us from the victories of the civil rights era to the victimhood which is so prevalent among so many black Americans. Thank you for sharing your journey and for standing up for those who gave their lives to afford us the freedoms that we (blacks) are willing to relinquish in exchange for the perks of exploiting white guilt.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gary
- 06-10-21
Better late than never
While I knew the authors name and have certainly read some of his commentary, I had not read this book until now. So I am now suffering from a completely different kind of white guilt :-). Seriously, there have been a handful of books in my life that I have read with the recurring thought of yes, that’s what I think, I only wish I could have articulated it. I have to give a quick nod to technology as well, given that it was technology that recommended this book based on other recent reading of mine. However my primary gratitude is to The author for the very deep soul-searching and thought that he clearly put into this topic. Thank you
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pattif27
- 08-05-22
The truth be told!
Brilliant analysis of the underlying problem in woke society,Shatters the lie of identity politics in postmodern thought.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ben
- 07-25-23
This book is amazing.
Steele gets it. He’s lived it, seen it, and understands it. What makes this book so amazing is that he’s also able to convey it thoroughly and clearly. Probably THE best written non-fiction book I’ve ever read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tiresmoker
- 03-17-21
White Guilt is driving the pasty-white leftists
White guilt and a desire to be seen as a non-racist helper of minorities is what drives the white left today. As told through the eyes and ears of a black person who lived through segregation, civil rights, and the eventual transformation of the openly-racist Democrat party to the Democrat party of today, which uses minorities to retain democrat power.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
23 people found this helpful