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A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win
In Shelby Steele's beautifully wrought and thoughtprovoking new book, A Bound Man , the award-winning and bestselling author of The Content of Our Character attests that Senator Barack Obama's groundbreaking quest for the highest office in the land is fast becoming a galvanizing occasion beyond mere presidential politics, one that is forcing a national dialogue on the current state of race relations in America. Says Steele, poverty and inequality usually are the focus of such dialogues, but Obama's bid for so high an office pushes the conversation to a more abstract level where race is a politics of guilt and innocence generated by our painful racial history -- a kind of morality play between (and within) the races in which innocence is power and guilt is impotence.
Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity.
Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man.
Says Steele, Americans are constrained by a racial correctness so totalitarian that we are afraid even to privately ask ourselves what we think about racial matters. Like Obama, most of us find it easier to program ourselves for correctness rather than risk knowing and expressing what we truly feel. Obama emerges as a kind of Everyman in whom we can see our own struggle to accept and honor what we honestly feel about race. In A Bound Man , Steele makes clear the precise constellation of forces that bind Senator Obama, and proposes a way for him to break these bonds and find his own voice.The courage to trust in one's own careful judgment is the new racial progress, the "way out" from the forces that now bind us all.
Steele writes of how Obama is caught between the two classic postures that blacks have always used to make their way in the white American bargaining and challenging. Bargainers strike a "bargain" with white America in which they say, I will not rub America's ugly history of racism in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Challengers do the opposite of bargainers. They charge whites with inherent racism and then demand that they prove themselves innocent by supporting black-friendly policies like affirmative action and diversity.
Steele maintains that Senator Obama is too constrained by these elaborate politics to find his own true political voice. Obama has the temperament, intelligence, and background -- an interracial family, a sterling education -- to guide America beyond the exhausted racial politics that now prevail. And yet he is a Promethean figure, a bound man.
Says Steele, Americans are constrained by a racial correctness so totalitarian that we are afraid even to privately ask ourselves what we think about racial matters. Like Obama, most of us find it easier to program ourselves for correctness rather than risk knowing and expressing what we truly feel. Obama emerges as a kind of Everyman in whom we can see our own struggle to accept and honor what we honestly feel about race. In A Bound Man , Steele makes clear the precise constellation of forces that bind Senator Obama, and proposes a way for him to break these bonds and find his own voice.The courage to trust in one's own careful judgment is the new racial progress, the "way out" from the forces that now bind us all.
143 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
8 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Shelby Steele
10 books302 followersShelby Steele (born January 1, 1946) is an African American author, columnist, documentary film maker, and a Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, specialising in the study of race relations, multiculturalism and affirmative action. In 1990, he received the National Book Critics Circle Award in the general nonfiction category for his book The Content of Our Character.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
May 29, 2009
This book was meant to be a caveat towards electing Barack Obama president. It is an honest look at the challenge of being a prosperous black man in American society. (Perhaps the author, Shelby Steele, acclaimed author and Fellow from Stanford University, also "black & white"; is envious, who knows?) The amazing thing is ... Obama blew his argument to pieces with his recent address to the nation about Race in America, given Tuesday, March 18th. Obama did what Steele said was impossible and the Barack was not capable of. In other words, Obama both "challenged" and "bargained" both white and black Americans. I think he did this successfully. It was a masterful speech, well beyond the imagination of Steele. what remains to be seen is whether Steele ultimately is proved right in that Obama can't win--not because of the reasons Steele puts forth, but because Obama is decades ahead of the zeitgeist.
February 7, 2008
Wow. Shelby Steele strikes again, except this time in a more digestable form; the pocket novel. I disagree fundamentally with most everything he says, but that is not why I gave this book one star.
Like many other academics (including some liberal ones) he is in love with his vocabulary and cannot seem to make a cogent point without invoking some archaic point of reference or term. When he gets down to brass tacks, his analysis falls flat, largely because he fails to pass his opinions off as the de facto position and "common sense" persepctive.
But hey. He serves a purpose, and I have yet to read a black conservative present an argument that is thoroughly researched or thoughtfully presented. And that streak continues.
Like many other academics (including some liberal ones) he is in love with his vocabulary and cannot seem to make a cogent point without invoking some archaic point of reference or term. When he gets down to brass tacks, his analysis falls flat, largely because he fails to pass his opinions off as the de facto position and "common sense" persepctive.
But hey. He serves a purpose, and I have yet to read a black conservative present an argument that is thoroughly researched or thoughtfully presented. And that streak continues.
September 29, 2025
This is a short and insightful book into the context surrounding the pre-2008 Obama phenomenon. I learned a lot from this book and I think it’s particularly useful reading in light of the whole 107 days dialogue.
August 16, 2010
When I selected this book from the library I thought it was going to be about policy and oh boy was I wrong instead it is all about race relations and I feel really comfortable saying the central premise of the book is completely misguided.
I really do not understand Steele maybe he is projecting his own issues onto Obama? Here is a sample of what you can expect to find in this book:
Shelby, assumes it is impossible for a Black man to truly feel and believe in themselves as being perceived by the general public.
Blacks are jealous of Obama's sublime and meteoric success.
Obama is conflicted because he has yet to come to terms.
Yeah I just disagree with all of it! Thank goodness this is a library book!
I really do not understand Steele maybe he is projecting his own issues onto Obama? Here is a sample of what you can expect to find in this book:
Shelby, assumes it is impossible for a Black man to truly feel and believe in themselves as being perceived by the general public.
Blacks are jealous of Obama's sublime and meteoric success.
Obama is conflicted because he has yet to come to terms.
Yeah I just disagree with all of it! Thank goodness this is a library book!
January 31, 2008
Gibberish by another mixed-race conservative. A wolf in the hen house. Failed to put together a coherent argument, or purpose for the writing. The one point we agree on is that Obama can't win. The author and I disagree on why. The more I try to give "black" conservatives a chance to see what they have to say in the marketplace of ideas and discourse, the more they simply show their true colors, or more accurately, lack thereof.
December 21, 2012
Throughout this book Steele draws comparisons between himself and Barack Obama on a minor point and then basically makes broad statements about the people of mixed-race and the black community. Since I don't know everything some of these theories could be correct but the majority are erroneous and not backed by facts.
April 8, 2018
Steele's an unusual character with some interesting ideas. I disagree with a lot of what he says and find his ill-defined categories both frustratingly arbitrary and limiting, yet by adopting this peculiar style he does open up an arena for new and interesting questions. This is no small point, as by doing so he, even if inadvertly, undermines a lot of sacred cows for proponents of this strange 'race industry' and that's a plus.
October 18, 2017
A surprisingly good book about the psychology of Barack Obama and of race relations in America. This book provides a clear understanding about why minorities refuse to move beyond their victim-hood mindset into the more powerful mindset of self determination. I have never understood Barack Obama or American race relations so well. Thanks to Shelby Steele for writing such an incredibly insightful book!
January 21, 2022
Author lays out an interesting framework for understanding, and more importantly predicting, public behavior. Most impressive that it was written while Obama was running for office and predicted well his behavior when push came to shove on this issue during his second term.
May 12, 2024
A fascinating commentary on "bargainers"- those who sell white people innocence by refusing to hold the history of racism against them- and "challengers"- those who hold white people accountable for all past sins. The only path forward, of course, is individuality devoid of race.
September 13, 2018
A very good analysis of the Obama presidency.
June 8, 2020
The most raw honest brilliance I have heard in a long time.
August 13, 2020
Very good.
January 11, 2013
An interesting approach to the potential to change the world through examining the possibility another presents as if it were one’s own actions which brought this possibility about. Shelby Steele was convinced – if one takes the subtitle of this book seriously – that Barack Obama would not be voted in as president of the United States. Yet he did get voted in, and now people are starting to feel disappointed by what he has been able to achieve in that position, I read this book in a way that would not have been possible for me at the time it was written.
Both men have mixed race parents. I am a Caucasian living on the other side of the world. My understanding and experience of racism comes from another place entirely from their experience. I read with deep interest, but a significant distance.
Yet many of the things presented through Steele’s analysis of Obama, and the society in which they both live, touches my own life and my own experience in a particular way. For me the experience of my mother and my father seeming to always present a united front to the seven children they had, is the same experience of unpacking what the expectations of the world seem to be against the experience of living with two very different individuals as if they believed and should represent the world to us as their own.
While Steele speaks on page 4 of the impossibility “to think of myself, … as half and half” because it is “a kind of bullying truth that pushes aside actual human experience” I experienced the sense that I am now aware of the mix from which I come. There is not one image from which I arise, but many. Just as the divisions are not how we necessarily live our lives, neither is the whitewash accurate either.
This was an altogether unexpected reaction.
Perhaps it is because of this reverse interpretation which occurs when looking in a mirror which made the Obama experience so present in the lives of so many people. Perhaps it was how the ability to question on one side of the equation could allow questions on the other which freed people up from their own bonds.
But Steele goes on to show how Obama used his inheritance to consciously activate particular expectations within himself through which he could act in alignment with particular causes to propel him onward. His argument is that these very allegiances are what will also bind him in ways that he need not necessarily be bound. He considers it a self-imposed limitation.
These few years down the track show that the limitations are not necessarily the more obvious ones of colour or race. The limitations are the ways in which any movement away from one position seems to insinuate a particular polar opposition. The limitation is within our thinking that this is so.
As with a Hall of Mirrors, there are many oppositions to one view. When we consider vertical or horizontal or back to front interpretations, there are many ways to read ourselves as different from each other. Steele uses this book to, in a sense, turn himself inside out. It is a process from which we could all learn a great deal about our own possibilities to continue the journey together.
A slim volume at 143 pages, but every one of them suggests ways in which we are bound for freedom. Do not be duped into thinking it anachronistic. There is much to be learnt here.
Both men have mixed race parents. I am a Caucasian living on the other side of the world. My understanding and experience of racism comes from another place entirely from their experience. I read with deep interest, but a significant distance.
Yet many of the things presented through Steele’s analysis of Obama, and the society in which they both live, touches my own life and my own experience in a particular way. For me the experience of my mother and my father seeming to always present a united front to the seven children they had, is the same experience of unpacking what the expectations of the world seem to be against the experience of living with two very different individuals as if they believed and should represent the world to us as their own.
While Steele speaks on page 4 of the impossibility “to think of myself, … as half and half” because it is “a kind of bullying truth that pushes aside actual human experience” I experienced the sense that I am now aware of the mix from which I come. There is not one image from which I arise, but many. Just as the divisions are not how we necessarily live our lives, neither is the whitewash accurate either.
This was an altogether unexpected reaction.
Perhaps it is because of this reverse interpretation which occurs when looking in a mirror which made the Obama experience so present in the lives of so many people. Perhaps it was how the ability to question on one side of the equation could allow questions on the other which freed people up from their own bonds.
But Steele goes on to show how Obama used his inheritance to consciously activate particular expectations within himself through which he could act in alignment with particular causes to propel him onward. His argument is that these very allegiances are what will also bind him in ways that he need not necessarily be bound. He considers it a self-imposed limitation.
These few years down the track show that the limitations are not necessarily the more obvious ones of colour or race. The limitations are the ways in which any movement away from one position seems to insinuate a particular polar opposition. The limitation is within our thinking that this is so.
As with a Hall of Mirrors, there are many oppositions to one view. When we consider vertical or horizontal or back to front interpretations, there are many ways to read ourselves as different from each other. Steele uses this book to, in a sense, turn himself inside out. It is a process from which we could all learn a great deal about our own possibilities to continue the journey together.
A slim volume at 143 pages, but every one of them suggests ways in which we are bound for freedom. Do not be duped into thinking it anachronistic. There is much to be learnt here.
February 10, 2009
Steele definitely has an ideological axe to grind. He portrays himself as an expert on life for all mixed race males in America, and thus provides a... colorful interpretation of Obama's motivations. This amounts to viewing Obama's every move as either insincere or nihilistic - it's unclear which. One can't help but coming away with the feeling that Steele is an objectivist ideologue, and he betrays his non-objective stance on many issues by portraying those issues via caricatures and with unsubstantiated arguments.
The book was clearly rushed to shelves to make it timely for the election. It is well-written, however, but at ~130 pages that's not a difficult job. I have the feeling that Steele's premise never would have withstood a 300+ page treatment.
In the end, the arguments were unconvincing (not only because Obama won - though "he can't win" could be seen as a metaphorical phrase and not a statement about electability), and, disappointingly, opinionated without substantiation. I gave it an extra star because at the very least it made me think.
Lastly, my girlfriend bought this for me as a joke for Christmas as she was a Hillary supporter who informed me that Obama would not win if he won the election. Like Steele, she was wrong.
The book was clearly rushed to shelves to make it timely for the election. It is well-written, however, but at ~130 pages that's not a difficult job. I have the feeling that Steele's premise never would have withstood a 300+ page treatment.
In the end, the arguments were unconvincing (not only because Obama won - though "he can't win" could be seen as a metaphorical phrase and not a statement about electability), and, disappointingly, opinionated without substantiation. I gave it an extra star because at the very least it made me think.
Lastly, my girlfriend bought this for me as a joke for Christmas as she was a Hillary supporter who informed me that Obama would not win if he won the election. Like Steele, she was wrong.
February 16, 2008
Quite simply, the best book on race I've ever read, written by a man who knows what he's talking about: Shelby Steele, who, like Barack Obama, the subject of his book, is the son of biracial parentage: a white mother and a black father. Steele's most important argument, however, only tangentially deals with Obama. It is his lucid and powerful case for the bargainer-challenger mask that blacks feel duty-bound to wear in modern America, either of which prevents them from realizing true individuality and progress for themselves and their race. Remarkable in its tone and sensitivity, A Bound Man made me, a white man, reconsider how I treat and am treated by blacks . . . all for the good, I might add.
September 22, 2008
"He is correct in categorizing Oprah Winfrey (and Michael Jordan and, to some degree, Tiger Woods) as "bargainers" just as he is correct in calling Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Spike Lee as "challengers." It is clear to anyone who takes the time to examine the behaviors and the successes involved. The tragedy is not that Steele categorizes people of color with these artificial terms; the tragedy is that one behaves in these ways in order to achieve recognition and success. The abandonment of self and one's ideals is an immense price to pay for the chance at success"
the author believes that once obama has to let down his "mask" and tell us what he really thinks, he will be unelectable.
the author says obama "masks" and is therefore an old fashioned black, not a new black
the author believes that once obama has to let down his "mask" and tell us what he really thinks, he will be unelectable.
the author says obama "masks" and is therefore an old fashioned black, not a new black
December 3, 2008
This was an interesting book to read, even though I really did not agree a tremendous amount of what the author was saying in this essay. Even so, the view point was a bit eye opening and person one that I cannot begin to relate to.
The author talks about how blacks in this country have to play a game of acceptance to fit into white America. There seemed to be no grey area (no pun intended). He just made his point and discussed how blacks must put on a "mask" in order to be successful. I had a hard time accepting this entirely.
It is interesting now that Obama is elected how to view this book.
The author talks about how blacks in this country have to play a game of acceptance to fit into white America. There seemed to be no grey area (no pun intended). He just made his point and discussed how blacks must put on a "mask" in order to be successful. I had a hard time accepting this entirely.
It is interesting now that Obama is elected how to view this book.
January 24, 2008
For a Barack Obama enthusiast, this book is both exhilarating and discouraging. Exhilarating because it elucidates the appeal that Obama has, and the role that he might play at this stage in our country's history. Discouraging because it analyzes the contradictions between the roles that Obama must play, moving past racist guilt for whites and affirming a racial identity for blacks. The book offers a thin hope that by asserting his own identity as an individual human being, he can transcend the racial roles in which the public wants to see him.
February 4, 2008
The author is incredibly astute, however the subject matter isnt as much Obama as it is the responses that would place a multiracial candidate into a possible winning position.
Its a hard book to consume because racial divides challenge you to continue. However the book states two aspects of being in a minority situation.
1. You can challenge by stating that the minority position isnt considered and likely persecutred.
2. You can bargain, by saying that you offer the benefit of the doubt that the minority is not persecuted and receive glowing rewards as such.
Its a hard book to consume because racial divides challenge you to continue. However the book states two aspects of being in a minority situation.
1. You can challenge by stating that the minority position isnt considered and likely persecutred.
2. You can bargain, by saying that you offer the benefit of the doubt that the minority is not persecuted and receive glowing rewards as such.
March 22, 2008
Interesting perspective. Don't know how much of this is one man's opinion. Basically states that Obama can't win both the white and the black vote because of the manner in which he must appeal to each side - either by being a bargainer or a more confrontive challenger. Gives you something to think about. Short book - read it in an evening.
March 23, 2009
an interesting analysis of race in america. we'll see soon enough if steele is right. on the other hand, the idea that obama can't win might go deeper than whether he can get elected. maybe steele also means that obama is in a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation no matter what his true views turn out to be.
Turns out he was wrong.
Turns out he was wrong.
May 21, 2008
Read this in a day and will probably read it again before discussing it in a book club next month. I think it will provide lots of fodder for discussion. Steele makes intriguing points that I want to think about further. In the end, the argument seemed simplistic and contrived for drama, so I am unconvinced that it describes race in America today or that it applies to Obama's ability to win.
April 17, 2008
i think (and hope) Obama will win - but a fascinating read nonetheless. an enlightening biography combined with an astute, fresh perspective on race relations and their political implications. engrossing, crisp read - perfect for a flight. highly recommended.
July 13, 2008
I appreciated the message of this book and its thought provoking nature. I think I should have started with a book written by Obama himself, as I beame frustrated with the degree of assumtion and hypotheses used by the author.
August 10, 2008
A sociological perspective on the political aspirations of Barack Obama from a position of race. Shelby Steele, author of The Content Of Our Character, looks at the implications of his bi-racial background & it's impact upon his presidential hopes.
January 14, 2009
I couldn't resist the title and found it so funny that I checked it out to see why Obama couldn't be elected president. so far it's more about the author than about Obama. I was quite disappointed in this book. Well written but if that is how race is in America, sad.
November 1, 2008
Saw author on Bill Moyers the other night. Had never seen this perspective on race from an American. update...tuesday will tell if he's right or not
February 15, 2008
I voted for the guy in the primaries and I do think he can win!
February 9, 2008
Huh? What a mess of an argument and doesn't even mention Obama that much. It would have been fine as a sociological analysis of identity and race in America but just didn't make an iota of sense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews