Shelby Steele, a conservative author and Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote and narrated a new documentary, “What Killed Michael Brown?”, exploring race and violence in America.
Directed by Eli Steele and set to premiere on streaming platforms on October 16, “What Killed Michael Brown?” is meant to examine race relations in the United States and the reactions to the deaths of young black men such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
“America’s original sin is not slavery. It is simply the use of race, as a means to power,” the trailer states. “Was it really racism that killed Michael Brown?”
While Steele claims that growing up as a black man during segregation and the civil rights movement showed him the importance of the black advocacy craved by many of the people in Ferguson and other cities, he claims that many black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “exploit these situations” for political gain.
According to Steele education and broken homes are areas that black people are ignoring in exchange for targeting racism.
“We use racism and white racism as an avoid, as an escape from the real work,” Steele said
“One thing that burns me up with black relatives is that they believe in whites being the agent of black fate. They believe more in whites than they do in blacks. They believe we’re weak. They believe we’re inferior and that we’re not gonna do anything,” Steele added. “That’s what black people, very often, too, believe. That’s what that has to be changed.”
Moving forward, Steele said he believes that black people need to embrace the freedom that they have as Americans to embrace that change.
“Freedom is a frightening thing. And when the responsibility for your life is put back into your own hands, that makes us all nervous. But let’s face that. Let’s deal with that,” he said.
In June, Steele told The Federalist that today’s racial tensions are caused by the explosion of a racial change during the civil rights movement and the development of “redemptive liberalism.”
“The left has discovered that there’s enormous power in claiming to be redemptive, claiming and putting yourself on the side of the good. And so the left always is a constant scream of political correctness and do-gooders in one kind or another and claiming the mantle of power in order to say ‘We will redeem America. We will be the ones who make America achieve its dreams of equity for all,’” Steele said.
