What is that central theme you were going for . The idea is that america, arguably the best country in history, perpetrated one of the greatest sins, dehumanizing a group of people relentlessly. The profound evil amidst stunning greatness. So, now, that greatness, i think of course, is what finally delivered us from what we were doing wrong. But it is a shame we will now have to deal with. Maybe we are still too close to the 60s when we first acknowledged the shame to understand it is important. I think it is one of the most important vents in history. The book looks at different aspects of the irony. Host the shame belongs to the 1960 liberal movement and that is what caused our current political polarization. Guest yes, thank you. Host is that a Fair Assessment . Guest that is a very Fair Assessment. In the 1960s, it was said we are the politics that will redeem america and bring back americas legitmacy as a democracy. That is our mission. And liberalism has dominated american politics for the last 5060 years simply because it took propriety over this terrible shame and said we will save america and end sexism and racism and overcome those things. The people we hurt, we will have great cites and wars on poverty and redeem them and bring them up to par with everyone else. We will correct that and that will restore our a free society. Legitimacy has a free society. In your book, the nword is used liberally. You say that come groups coopted it. They didnt necessarily want to be but they coopted the word. Yes host for their own political purposes. Guest yes. Well, took it over and almost made a romance around it. Sort of ascribed a kind of power and truth to the word that had never really been there before but did serve their argument is now you have admitted all that you did. We now demand in the name of what we suffer ded and that empowers us and gives us entitlement to special consideration in American Life. That word was part of a theme that contributed to that larger point of view of power and victimization. Host why did you include the story of your swim team and quitting your swim team in the book . Guest i included the story that i was the only black kid on the Swimming Team. Host you were the captain. Guest i was the captain and the coach i were close. But in the summer before my senior year he had three weeks of Summer Vacation for the team at his mothers home in upper Lake Michigan and he never invited me. I was excluded and not i just, the team organized without me knowing about it. This wonderful time they were going to have on the lake and i was never told about it. The implication there is he collaborated with racism. He was my friend. He was a good coach. We liked each other. But his mother said no blacks can come. So he honored that and he plotted with the other swimmers so that didnt happen. He knew better. He liked me. I liked him. I baby sat for him and he collaborated in a way that was at the very least cruel and sending me a message that larger america said there was something unacceptable about me. He claimed he was not able to see that but i think he was. I talk about him as his is the situation of this profound hypocrisy that america is now in. America is now looking at minorities as my Swimming Coach looked at me and he called me every name in the book. I was very calm because i knew he was wrong and i knew he knew he was wrong. Now we stand begging for relief from racism. And that is minority power. That is the power minorities have wielded in the American Life for 50 years now. So, that little incident of quitting the Swimming Team. And i did not quit the Swimming Team because he excluded me. I grew up in segeration. I had seen it all the time. Segregation. But i knew he was compromised. And that is what it ended up amounting to. Host what was your parents life like in 1940 chicago . Guest my parents are two Exceptional People. My father was black from the south. 3rd grade education. Taught himself to read and write. My mother was upper middle class white, ohio, daughter of a contractor and a masters degree. On the surface, they were very different. Once you got to know them, you saw that probably my father was very well read and spent more time reading than my mother but they they were Exceptional People because they had no resolutions about fighting for a place in American Life. They were founding members of the racial equality. I grew up as what you call a core baby. A red diaper baby and then core babies. I marched all through childhood and demonstrated and that was the ethos that i came out of. They lived there entire lives fighting for civil rights and they were true, admirable people. Host were they wrong . Guest they were not wrong. They were right. This is something i think it is important. They were not wrong. In their day this was a deeply blanketed racist society. I grew up and we could not go here or there. I never ate in a restaurant until i was 17 on the Swimming Pool because blacks couldnt go in the restaurant. Segregation was everywhere. They were fighting a real, concrete unapologetic enemy in American Society that said listen, you will stay inferior and be treated that way and forgot about. Or a famous essay in the 50s said you are probably right but go slow. You never heard of patrick henry. You will give me freedom or give me death. Well, my parents were give me freedom or give me death. They were never apologetic and fought until the bitter end. I grew up seeing all of that and certainly had an impact on me. Now, many 50s year later, america is a different place. America is not racist. Racism is no longer stops the dreams and hopes of any black person in American Life. You can do anything you want. You can be the president. You can see a ceo. You can be a dish washer. You can be anything you chose to be in america today. Does that mean that every white person is going to love you . I dont know and i dont care. What is important is you have that opportunity. The opportunity is what it is all about. Civil Rights Movement today is very different than back then. They are not fighting against a real racism. A real enemy that is going to stop their lives with bigotry. They are fighting for the rewards and their manipulating white guilt. They are using the story of black victimization to manipulate the largest society into entitlements and have a group of black leaders that do nothing but shake down the corporations. This is not the civil Rights Movement i grew up in. Host what is your connection to Stanford University and the Hoover Institution . Guest i am a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at the stanford of university which i have been happy about. It is great institution, great people, great environment, and colleagues and it has meant everything to me and my work and i have facilitated that. I am a fan. This is your 10th or 15th book . Not that many. And there were some that were here and there. But it is probably the fifth book i have written on racial matters. Shelby steele has been our guest on booktv, shame how americas past sins have polarized our country. Dr. Steele, one final question. Is there a specific reason you are here at freedom fest . Yes, i have a son who is a young documentary filmmaker and he has a film, a new film out, he is showing here called i am how jack became black and it is a look at identity politics. Jack is his son