Shelby Steele's article, Witness: Blacks, whites, and the politics of shame in America
in the WSJ, is a must read:

No doubt it is easier to overcome racism than an inferiority of development grounded in centuries of racial persecution. Nevertheless, if New Orleans is a wake-up call to government, it is also a wake-up call to black America. If we want to finally erase the inferiority that oppression left us with, we have to first of all acknowledge it to ourselves, as whites did with their racism. Our scrupulous witness of whites helped them become more and more responsible for resisting the shame of racism.

Read it all.

Maria sent the link. For some reason, the WSJ page doesn't show Mr. Steele's full name.

I highly recommend Shelby Steele's book The Content of Our Character. I'm pre-ordering his upcoming White Guilt right now.