Shelby Steele’s book A Bound Man (Free Press, $22) carries a coy masterpiece of a subtitle: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win.
Hoover senior fellow Steele knows all too well that this 134-page book discusses less candidate Barack Obama’s electoral fortunes than his chances of finding his own authentic, unbeholden political voice. Is it that a biracial man like Obama can’t win the White House or that he just can’t win in an America consumed by identity politics?
The subtitle should draw readers to Steele’s nuanced discussion of Obama’s distinct biracial biography and his “potential for defusing race as a national obsession.” Steele explores what he sees as an inherent tension between Obama’s “mainstream” and “assimilated” upbringing, with its emphasis on personal achievement, and the liberal political tradition that links him to a black identity enmeshed with issues of victimization and white Americans’ guilt about the nation’s ugly racial past.
Beyond the specifics of Obama’s role, Steele emphasizes that blacks have negotiated for power with the white majority by choosing to be “bargainers” (who grant whites the benefit of the doubt) or “challengers” (who consider whites guilty of racism until proven innocent). Any figure who tries to adopt both roles falls into the Prometheus-like bind of the book’s title.
