Racial Masking..... Not Moi? Maybe Moi Afterall.....

I've just completed Shelby Steele's new book A Bound Man - Why We Are Excited About Barack Obama and Why He Can't Win. He talks in great length about how we present ourselves to white america always through a mask. He says: "Whites have trouble reading blacks because we are always showing them only what we want them to see, always pushing them this way and that. We always have two narratives: what we tell each other and what we tell whites." This one sentence has caused me some trepidation and I initially scoffed that this isn't true of me as I'm all about transparency and authenticity but if I am honest with myself I would have to admit that I would more freely share "dirty laundry" if you will with other black people rather than whites. So I'm bummed that I haven't risen above Mr. Steele's contention. But after some 2 or 3 hours of soul searching I can't come up with another example so I won't judge myself too harshly.

It was a quick read and much more substantive than this little snippet -- it's just that one sentence gave me pause.