Since 2016, I have hosted a weekly podcast through our denomination. I sit with authors, theologians, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, or practitioners each week to discuss relevant topics for congregational leaders, clergy, and churches. I also have the privilege of over 20 publishing houses sending me advanced reader copies of hundreds of books throughout the year, asking me to consider having their authors on the CBF Podcast Conversation. Before 2020, the number of books sent to me on the topic of racism was less than a handful. Since 2020, that number has reached a new level.<\/p>\n
Conversations around racism, discrimination, and systemic injustice are now commonplace. This is leading to a lot of overdue discussion and changes. At the same time, these conversations underline many unhealthy assumptions, old habits, unconscious biases, and toxic emotional responses from various individuals. The intensity of these discussions is uncomfortable for many people, especially privileged white people who have mistaken a sense of guilt for an opportunity for positive change and an elevation of equity.<\/span><\/p>\n John McWhorter, a Columbia University professor of English and comparative literature, penned \u201cWoke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America\u201d as an alternative voice to what he has deemed a new religion of antiracism. He wants to engage in a social, historical, and philosophical conversation on racism from a \u201cdifferent way of being black.\u201d As a Black American, McWhorter is concerned with the effects of the most recent form of antiracism affecting the employment of \u201cinnocent individuals,\u201d stating, \u201cIt is neither progress nor messy for people to lose their jobs and reputations for not putting the overturning of power differentials at the very core of every single thing they ever do, express, or feel.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Woke Racism<\/span><\/em>\u00a0focuses on what McWhorter calls the Third Wave Antiracism, defined as \u201csocial justice warriors or the woke mob.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0In the author’s mind, this latest form of antiracism has cultivated a religious fervor with Calvinistic underpinnings that those who get it are the elect and those who do not are the fallen. \u201cAn anthropologist would see no difference in type between Pentecostalism and this new form of antiracism. Language is always imprecise, and thus we have traditionally restricted the word religion to certain ideologies founded in creation myths, guided by ancient texts, and requiring that one subscribe to certain beliefs beyond the reach of empirical experience.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n McWhorter is concerned with how he believes this approach to antiracism is pitting white people against black people, black people as the oppressed and white people as the oppressor, white people as perpetrators and black people as victims. The scholar even argues that this new form of antiracism is actually a new form of white savior mentality. He wants his readers to pause before impulsively blaming everything on systemic or structural racism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Racism will always be with us, the McWhorter would argue. As he wrote, \u201cWe should hope for its eventual disappearance, but if this is impossible\u2014and it likely is\u2014it must be kept on the margins of our existence, just as smallpox is.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Woke Racism<\/span><\/em>\u00a0creates an alternative viewpoint to other leading black scholars and theologians, such as Jemar Tisby, Ibram Kendi, Esau McCulley, and Anthea Butler, many of whom I have interviewed on the Podcast. However, this book should not be used as an excusatory or apologetic catalyst for White Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n As I stated before, too many White Christians are focusing too much on the guilt felt by these open conversations about historical, systemic, and structural racism. Guilt is a God-given emotion. But guilt can also mislead into misgivings, such as anger, resentment, denial, entrenchment, and misplaced judgment. As Dr. King stated, \u201cThe Negro needs the white man to free him from his fears. The white man needs the Negro to free him from his guilt.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Guilt is a healthy recipe for revelation, empathy, and repentance. All of these things seemed to come from the lips of Jesus. And as leaders, our organizations are filled with people all over the map in these conversations. Therefore, creating space for healthy, honest, and safe dialogue is critical for cultivating a place for everyone to feel seen, heard, understood, and invited into the process of real change.<\/p>\n Woke Racism<\/span><\/em>\u00a0provides another sociological, historical, and philosophical layer to the conversation of racism. It invites readers to pause on some of their assumptions, asking us to think critically about how these conversations directly affect our black neighbors.<\/span><\/p>\n [1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0McWhorter, John H,\u00a0<\/span>Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America<\/span><\/em>, (New York: Portfolio\/Penguin, 2021), 183.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [2]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid, 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [3]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid, 23.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n