Chapter 2, Race-Holding Summary and Analysis

Steele is a Professor at a large state university in California. He has a white wife and mixed-race children. He is often accused of being inauthentic, not so much because he has a white wife but because he has faded away into the middle class. In the eyes of many blacks, has failed to recognize the priority of the race. Many other middle class blacks have done the same. They have chosen individuality over the race. They have "race-fatigue" and are tired of thinking in racial terms.

However, race is still an issue and often produces "integration shock" in both whites and blacks, which occurs when either side realizes that they are in a mixed-race situation. Race fatigue often leads to integration shock when race relations become an issue again. This shock often leads blacks to refuse to see...