Shelby Steele (b. 1946) is a Black conservative author, columnist, and documentary filmmaker who specializes in the study of race relations in the US. He is a Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. Steele’s conservative political identity emerged in the 1980s, after years of struggling with leftist beliefs. His PhD in English and early career as an English professor inflect his writing, as evidenced by his references to literary works and the Chautauqua narrative form. His conviction that Black people can advance through hard work and personal responsibility stems in large part from his experience overcoming a working-class background to achieve academic and professional success.

Dick Gregory (1932-2017) is a second-wave Black activist who was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in the late-1960s. His turn of phrase, “raise your consciousness” became a rallying call for Black youths. Gregory capitalized on White guilt, promoting dependency in Black people and making Whites responsible for Black advancement. Steele uses Gregory as a foil for other civil rights leaders, notably, Malcolm X, whose “hard work” militancy called for freedom and equal treatment under the law, but not for a redistribution of responsibility.