{"id":29802,"date":"2022-12-07T13:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T21:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29802"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:54:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T21:54:18","slug":"right-issue-wrong-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/right-issue-wrong-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Right Issue, Wrong Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McWhorter\u2019s Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America<\/em> is a sociological and political polemic with the premise that a new wave of anti-racial justice functions like a religion. The author argues that the results of this approach accomplish the opposite of what it intends. A professor of linguistics at Columbia University and New York Times opinion writer, McWhorter, targets this book not to the conservative right but to liberals in two categories. First, he aims at those who have \u201cinnocently fallen under the impression that pious, unempirical virtue signaling about race is a form of enlightenment and political activism.\u201d[1]<\/a> Second, the author addresses \u201cblack people who have innocently fallen under the misimpression that for us only, cries of weakness constitute a kind of strength, and for us only, what makes us interesting, what makes us matter, is a curated persona as eternally victimized souls.\u201d[2]<\/a> With a similarly and continuously strident tone, McWhorter argues throughout the book against what he terms Third Wave Antiracism, also termed \u201csocial justice warriors\u201d of \u201cthe woke mob.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Central to McWhorter\u2019s argument is equating Third Wave Antiracism to a religion. His comparison does not intend the use an analogy but a 1:1 relationship. \u201cI do not mean that these people\u2019s ideology is \u201clike\u201d a religion. I seek no rhetorical snap in the comparison. I mean that it actually is a religion.\u201d[4]<\/a> The adherents of this new religion are the Elect,[5]<\/a> its leaders, the priests,[6]<\/a> its creation myth is slavery,[7]<\/a> the original sin is whiteness.[8]<\/a> I have felt the pressures of what the author claims to be a demanded adherence in the form of critique that our church does not speak about racism enough. The phrase \u201csilence is violence\u201d has been used to make that claim. I have also heard from another side that racism is not an issue and is advanced as a way to receive monies under the guise of restitution. Between the two extremes exists a place of acknowledging racism, a place needed by all, including the church. James wrote, \u201cMy brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.\u201d (James 2:1, ESV) John wrote, \u201cBeloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.\u201d (I John 4:7-8, ESV) Respecting all people with inherent God-given value manifests the heart of God and is an essential aspect of faith.<\/p>\n

The week after George Floyd\u2019s death, I spoke with a former Board Chair, an African-American named Reggie. Both extremes were in full voice about that awful incident. Reggie grew up in Alabama during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. He told me a story told to him by his father in Reggie\u2019s youth. His dad worked and saved to buy a bright yellow Cadillac and finally bought the desired car. On his way home from work one day, two white policemen pulled him over and checked the ownership of the vehicle. Everything checked out. One officer went back to the patrol car and returned with a bat. He said, \u201cThat\u2019s too nice of a car for a n***** to drive,\u201d and smashed the front and back lights. When Reggie\u2019s dad returned home, he expressed gratitude that the encounter did not go worse than it did. To deny the realities of racism ignores the obvious.<\/p>\n

McWhorter claims that strict alignment with the extreme version of antiracism works against the goal, creating inequity, not equality. The one statement Reggie made that stuck with me goes, \u201cwe just want the same chance and the same respect as anyone else.\u201d That sounds simple, but the broken heart of humanity often works against it.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, McWhorter\u2019s strongest argument aligns with Reggie\u2019s desire. McWhorter believes that people have value and dignity in their human identity alone. To categorize one group as demons and another as victims works against equality and robs both of identity. He creates a strong case that the extreme version of antiracism works against the goal it claims to achieve.<\/p>\n

As a critique of the book, I wonder if McWhorter\u2019s aim to convince others will sometimes miss its target because of his choice of language. For example, when comparing antiracism to faith, the author trivializes faith in ways that make it sound like irrationality. \u201cIt is inherent to a religion that, amid various other tenets and commitments. . .one is to accept certain suspensions of disbelief. Certain questions are not be asked or, if asked, only politely. The answer one gets, despite being somewhat half-cocked, is to be accepted.\u201d[9]<\/a> I feel that an unfair caricature and those targeted in this book may well feel the same.<\/p>\n

When talking about the \u201cwoke mob,\u201d McWhorter adds that the Elect are intransigent,[10]<\/a> unreachable,[11]<\/a> sharks,[12]<\/a> that reason like ten-year-olds,[13]<\/a> expecting one to bow down to their mendacities.[14]<\/a> I believe the strong parts of his argument get lost in language that enflames rather than informs or convinces. Poignant points like \u201cSociety is changing not out of consensus, but out of fear\u201d[15]<\/a> may not be heard above pejorative terms that often result in defensiveness.<\/p>\n

The answer to the real issue of racism will not be solved on the extreme of making it everything or the other extreme of making it nothing. Unique in the ancient world, the new community, the church, had a Roman official worship next to a slave, a Jew next to a Greek, and a man next to a woman, each following Someone greater than all and unifying all people in relationship to God and one another. Will the church provide help in the solution to the evils of racism? May its early days inform its present days.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> John McWhorter, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America <\/em>(New York: Penguin Random House LLC., 2021), xii.<\/p>\n

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

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

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 23.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 19.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 57.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 33.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 25.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid., 159.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Ibid., 152.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Ibid., 179.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Ibid., 139<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Ibid., 13.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Ibid., 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John McWhorter\u2019s Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America is a sociological and political polemic with the premise that a new wave of anti-racial justice functions like a religion. The author argues that the results of this approach accomplish the opposite of what it intends. A professor of linguistics at Columbia University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"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-29802","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\/29802","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\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29803,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802\/revisions\/29803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}