{"id":29790,"date":"2022-12-07T08:01:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29790"},"modified":"2022-12-06T20:20:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T04:20:35","slug":"a-new-kind-of-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-new-kind-of-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Kind of Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McWhorter has a PhD in Linguistics from Stanford and teaches at Columbia University. Interestingly, he has a focus on creole languages and Black English. Black English \u201cis the set of English sociolects spoken by most black people in the United States and many in Canada\u201d and is \u201ca dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacular English to a more standard American English.\u201d[1]<\/a> Given the book’s topic, it is worth noting that John McWhorter is an African American as Woke Racism<\/em> is a sociological book to challenge our understanding of racism, especially since the death of George Floyd in March of 2020.<\/p>\n

Before we jump into Woke Racism, <\/em>it is helpful to understand McWhorter’s opposition to Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. <\/em>A term coined by DeAngelo, \u201cWhite fragility refers to feelings of discomfort a white person experiences when they witness discussions around racial inequality and injustice.\u201d[2]<\/a> Though he believes the author was motivated by good intentions, he states that despite \u201cthe sincere intentions of its author, the book diminishes Black people in the name of dignifying us.\u201d[3]<\/a> He further states, \u201cShe operates from the now-familiar concern with white privilege, aware of the unintentional racism ever lurking inside of her that was inculcated from birth by the white supremacy on which America was founded.\u201d Taking DiAngelo’s white fragility a step further, McWhorter comments, \u201cRefer to a \u2018bad neighborhood,\u2019 and you\u2019re using code for Black;<\/em> call it a \u2018Black neighborhood,\u2019 and you\u2019re a racist; by DiAngelo’s logic, you are not to describe such neighborhoods at all, even in your own head.\u201d McWhorter encapsulates his critique as such,<\/p>\n

White Fragility <\/em>is, in the end, a book about how to make certain educated white readers feel better about themselves. DiAngelo’s outlook rests upon a depiction of Black people as endlessly delicate poster children within this self-gratifying fantasy about how white America needs to think \u2013 or, better, stop thinking. Her answer to white fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people<\/strong>. The sad truth is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist a whole new way (bold print mine).[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, Woke Racism.<\/em> The book aimed to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To explain why so many black people are attracted to a religion that treats us as simpletons.<\/li>\n
  2. To show that this racism is actively harmful to black people despite being intended as unprecedentedly \u2018anti-racist.\u2019<\/li>\n
  3. To show that a pragmatic, effective, liberal, and even Democratic-friendly agenda for rescuing black American need not be founded on the tenets of this new religion.<\/li>\n
  4. To suggest ways to lessen the grip of this new religion on our public culture.[5]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    McWhorter claims that we are experiencing what he calls the third wave of anti-racism, which came into being around 2010. This anti-racism<\/p>\n

    teaches that because racism is baked into the structure of society, whites \u2018complicity\u2019 in living within it constitutes racism itself, while for black people, grappling with the racism surrounding them is the totality of experience and must condition exquisite sensitivity toward them, including a suspension of standards of achievement and conduct.[6]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    McWhorter firmly believes that this new wave of anti-racism is incredibly damaging, most notably for black people for whom it was intended to defend. In this new way of thinking, espoused by a group of people he calls \u201cthe elect,\u201d he states,<\/p>\n

    To apologize shows your racism; to be refused the apology, too, shows your racism. To not be interested in black culture shows your racism; to get into black culture and decide that you, too, want to rap or wear dreadlocks also shows your racism.[7]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Simply put, the polarity created by this way of thinking is a lose-lose situation for everyone \u2013 whites, blacks, all people.<\/p>\n

    McWhorter confronts the teaching of the elect, which<\/p>\n

    teaches black people that cries of weakness are a form of strength. It teaches us that in the richness of this thing called life, the most interesting thing about you is that the ruling class doesn\u2019t like you enough. It teaches us that to insist that black people can achieve under less than perfect conditions is ignorant slander. It teaches us that we are the first people in the history of the species for whom it is a form of heroism to embrace the slogan \u201cYes, we can\u2019t!\u201d Elect philosophy is, in all innocence, a form of racism in itself. Black America has met nothing so disempowering – including the cops – since Jim Crow.[8]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    If not the way of the elect, then what shall we do instead? McWhorter provides three simple solutions: end the war on drugs, teach reading properly, and get past the idea that everybody must go to college.[9]<\/a> Chapters 5-6 further explore these topics.<\/p>\n

    Upon reflection on this book, I certainly have experienced \u201cwhite fragility\u201d \u2013 discomfort in reading and considering matters of race. As a middle-aged white guy, I am certainly mindful of white privilege. <\/em>However, I also feel that my perception of race has been further fashioned by living and working in low-income, diverse neighborhoods for more than two decades. Additionally, as a multi-ethnic family, my understanding has been further broadened by watching my adopted children engage in our current very-white state of Montana as two \u201cbrown\u201d children. I look forward to further exploring items discussed in this book with trusted brothers and sisters who are people of color and have been invaluable to me in my journey to understanding matters of race.<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> \u201cAfrican-American English,\u201d Wikipedia<\/em>, December 2, 2022, accessed December 4, 2022, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=African-American_English&oldid=1125093421.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> \u201cWhat Is White Fragility, and Why Is It a Problem?,\u201d last modified June 12, 2020, accessed December 4, 2022, https:\/\/www.medicalnewstoday.com\/articles\/white-fragility-definition.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> John McWhorter, \u201cThe Dehumanizing Condescension of \u2018White Fragility,\u2019\u201d The Atlantic<\/em>, last modified July 15, 2020, accessed December 4, 2022, https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/07\/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility\/614146\/.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> John H. McWhorter, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America<\/em> (New York: Portfolio\/Penguin, 2021), ix\u2013x.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Ibid., 5.<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Ibid., 10.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Ibid., 148.<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Ibid., 140\u2013143.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    John McWhorter has a PhD in Linguistics from Stanford and teaches at Columbia University. Interestingly, he has a focus on creole languages and Black English. Black English \u201cis the set of English sociolects spoken by most black people in the United States and many in Canada\u201d and is \u201ca dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2464],"class_list":["post-29790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcwhorter","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29791,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29790\/revisions\/29791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}