Shelby Steele on Clarence Thomas

There are three issues that need addressing in Shelby Steele’s commentary on Judge Clarence Thomas’ nomination for the Supreme Court (Commentary, Aug. 11).

-- When Steele implies from black historian John Hope Franklin’s statement, “Self-help is admirable so long as it encourages initiative and achievement in a society that gives all its members an opportunity to develop in a manner best-suited to their talents,” that “self-help can only work after redress,” he is missing a deeper point. Man, in order to find life meaningful and fulfilling, must have a sense of the future, of possibility, of hope. Without this, the negative consequences to human development are far and many. This is Franklin’s point.

-- Steele may be correct in stating how blacks identify with victimization, and how this construct is not life-promoting. But that is why programs that help create a level playing field are so important in young black American minds; not to reinforce victimization, but to eradicate the seeming hopelessness that expresses itself through underachievement, resentment and anger. If Steele needs a crash course of the powerful influence external events have on the public mind, he should read David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd.”

-- When Steel concludes that the liberal party must reject Thomas “until complete redress is achieved,” he is basing it on a very narrow and convoluted line of reasoning. The greater issue for all those of a liberal persuasion, in my view, is to have a nominee whose credentials are impeccable, and whose compassion for others will not get lost in a jungle of mathematical, legal reasoning, but rather will serve as a reminder of the vision that gave birth to democracy.

SAMUEL J. HASSON, Glendale