ELI STEELE: The terror of being called racist is crushing free speech in America

When my father, Shelby Steele, author, columnist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, began publishing his essays on race in the late 1980s, my teenage self was often by his side when he gave speeches. After each speech, the same scene unfolded as a crowd of people gathered to the side of the podium, each wanting a word.

I remember one man in particular who hurried to reach my father first. He wore a corduroy sports coat with leather elbow patches. He said, "Dr. Steele, that was truly a remarkable speech. I want to thank you for saying the things you said up there."

My father thanked him, and the man lowered his voice and leaned in as if to share a conspiracy. "You know I can't say those things." My father leaned back and said, "Why not?" The man smiled, as if to say, come on, "I am a White man."

My father had spent the past hour arguing for moving beyond the stifling limits of racial identity to the far greater possibilities within the American identity. The man agreed with every word, yet he could not bring himself to say them. He did not do so out of modesty but out of fear. To escape the charge of racism, he reduced himself to his race. The fear had done to him exactly what racism does. So, he stayed silent and let others like my father speak for him.

No charge in American life carries more destructive power than the accusation of racism. Once charged with this modern-day Scarlet Letter, how do you disprove it? Do you trot out your Black friends and have them testify to your innocence? Or do you look into your accusers eyes and say the words that no one believes: I am not a racist? You cannot disprove it — the accusation is the verdict.

This terror has reigned since the civil rights era, when the nation admitted to centuries of racial horror and rightfully vowed never to repeat it. Americans wanted to be better.

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For many, this terror came to overtake even the biblical sins. A man could be forgiven for greed, a lie, or even adultery, but not racism. Those sins of the Bible had a way back through confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Racism had none. There was no amount of confession that absolved it. There was only endless penance.

Some Americans went further. They believed that their nation's founding principles were stained with racism to the point that they no longer held any legitimacy or role in their redemptive efforts. They embraced the Marxism of liberation ideology, dividing us into White oppressors and oppressed people of color. And when they came to understand the full power of this White guilt terror, they molded it to their advantage.

Anyone who stood in their way also stood in the path of justice. The charge was racism if you were White. It was race traitor if you were Black.

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At first, this terror enforced our behavior from the outside, and then it began to seep into our minds.

On the nightly news, in newspaper headlines, or before our own eyes — we saw people or companies shamed as racist for not being diverse enough, for a word taken out of context, or for a donation to the wrong cause. Careers ended. Offenders were socially ostracized.

We saw all of this, and we began to p