John McWhorter and Don Lemon discuss anti-racism on CNN, July 28th 2015.
“Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion” (2015) is an opinion piece written by John McWhorter, a Black American writer and professor of linguistics at Columbia University in New York. In the past, he has argued that racism is pretty much dead. In this piece, he argues that anti-racism is a religion, one that merits a capital A: Antiracism.
Like a religion, or McWhorter’s stereotype of one, it has holy writings, priests, unquestioned beliefs, original sin, rituals, people who spread the faith, an End of Days and a lack of policy proposals to make this world a better place.
It is strongest among the educated in blue (left-leaning) states of the US, stronger than even Christianity, particularly among the sort who read the New York Times, the New Yorker and listen to NPR. Even right-wing David Brooks is counted a believer. News to me.
Father Coates
Jealous much, McWhorter?
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a priest: New York magazine called him “revered”. A.O. Scott said his new book, “Between the World and Me” (2015), is “essential, like water or air.” Toni Morrison “anointed” him the next James Baldwin. McWhorter said the readers of “The Case for Reparations” received it “as, quite simply, a sermon.”
Some Antiracist beliefs:
- America’s past was built on racism and that racism still permeates the national fabric, as preached by Father Coates.
- Police brutality is a more appalling threat than Black-on-Black crime.
- Standardized tests are racist.
- Black people have just as much intelligence as Whites.
- Questioning these beliefs is inappropriate, if not racist.
Antiracists cannot give the facts and reasons for their beliefs and do not like being questioned about them. It is a faith.
Original sin: At the heart of this religion is the idea that all Whites are born into the original sin of White privilege. They can lessen their guilt by the Acknowledging: regularly “acknowledging” that they possess White Privilege. Antiracists bring those in the outer darkness into the light.
The End of Days comes when America as a whole “owns up to” or “comes to terms with” structural racism.
And that is all. It is all about making White people feel less guilty. Antiracists say that understanding White privilege is just a step in fighting structural racism, but say little about what the other steps are, other than pie-in-the-sky stuff like reparations.
McWhorter seems to have in mind mainly the Tim Wise sort of anti-racism, but then uses that to dismiss anti-racism as a whole.
The main drawback of Antiracism, according to McWhorter, is that it leads people to believe that racism is the only thing holding Black people back. That means Antiracists waste time on fighting stuff like police brutality instead of Black-on-Black crime.
It is hard to believe that McWhorter would not know that there are reasoned arguments against things like standardized tests or his beloved Black-on-Black crime argument, that they are not just unquestioned beliefs. It is also hard to believe that he does not know why some Blacks do not like being questioned by the wilfully obtuse – like McWhorter himself.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- external links
- wilfully obtuse
- Coates v McWhorter
- White privilege
- The Black-on-Black crime argument
- Tim Wise
- Rented Negroes
- Don Lemon
- John McWhorter
- Black counter-frame
- Anti-racism as (not) taught in American high school history books
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Abagond 
Religion seems to be an overly broad category that does not really work in this case. Maybe civil religion? Seems more like a partly developed philosophy. To be a “religion,” anti racism would need a much bigger structure and all encompassing powers.
As you say, anti racism ignores that everyone and everything is in part guilty of and a product of racism and White Supremacy.
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So it’s either or? Address intraracial homicide/violence or police brutality? Has he even tried to delve into WHY certain areas are a hotbed for the former? Afraid of where those trails lead? Addressing the latter is a waste of time in comparison? I mean come on, I know he has to make his book money but I see no reason to give this clown any attention.
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Kerchief head of the year award goes to this fool! P.S.; I think he is jealous of Coates.
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I just can’t with this fool, I don’t get him. I actually wanted to read his book The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language. I think he knows what he’s talking about when he stays in his lane linguistics. But when it comes to talking about race relations /politics he doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about.
Black people like him just cause me to grind my teeth to powder. I just don’t know what to make of him. Where has he been living under a rock? I wonder what his solution to all the killing of black people by police brutality? I can’t help but think of him as a handkerchief head. He is the ultimate house negro. SMDH.
I do plan to read Ta-Nehisi Coates new book. I think a lot of the so call black intelligentsia maybe jealous of him. I thought his reparations essay was brilliant. When it comes to what is going on with black people and our anger about what is happening to us in this country then he needs to just shut the hell up.
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Looking at McWhorter and Lemon reminds me of that comedy skit from In Living Color with the Wayans brothers The Two Toms.
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Is McWhorter so obtuse he can’t see what is happening to black people and see why many of us are disaffected? I hope he never gets lit up by a thug racist cop or worse loses his life. Just because he is a respectable negro doesn’t make him immune. He’s a fool if he thinks so.
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idk
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John McWhorter is a COON! He makes Bryant Gumbel look like Louis Farrakhan.lol
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The MSM love to trot out the “Tom of the Week” whenever it fits their purposes.
Every network and major newspaper has one of these shameless sellouts on staff. The fact that Coates is drawing so much media attention is predictable because he MAKES SENSE.
McWhorter, on the other hand, is a self-hater of the first order and is always writing these self-imagined “Booker T Washington” (self-examination/ Bootstraps) pieces. Worst of all is that his work wears the trappings of intellectualism that don’t show the least bit of understanding/research into the counter narrative that has been accepted in our communities among “true” intellectuals (Coates?) because of the DEPTH of research they use to support their thesis’ like Coates’ “Reparations” piece.
Look, I think that our community is better off by listening to all ideas and judging those who espouse them based on the MERIT received because of the depth of research that supports the veracity of their assembled facts. I think that McWhorter fits the profile of the “Negro” writers whose work is welcome in the homes of the Tea Party.
Charter Schools, anyone…???
Such a waste of intellectual potential………..
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Because the police are just doing their job of regulating the Negro problem, so a serious analysis and reformation of police conduct is wholly unnecessary because said conduct is considered normal.
Like Black Sci-Fi says, McWhorter’s a pseudo-intellectual who’s viewpoint on black issues aligns perfectly with white conservative narratives. Because for guys like him, that’s where the money is. Ka-ching!
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Antiracists cannot give the facts and reasons for their beliefs and do not like being questioned about them. It is a faith.
this is such bullshit.
racists pretend as though they have claim to scientific “evidence” when they can only rely on discredited scholars and terrible evidence.
Intelligence among humans has low genetic variance:
1) Strong selection removes genetic variance on a trait
2) A low beneficial mutation rate means that genetic variance will not be added or increased often during selection
3) Intelligence was very strongly selected for in hominids (unlike something such as height)
4) Intelligence has a low beneficial mutation rate
5) therefore intelligence among humans likely exhibits low genetic variation (and this, just for individuals; doubly so for groups)
IQ is not intelligence:
1) “g” is considered to be general intelligence
2) IQ tests measure intelligence, according to HBDers, insofar as they measure “g”
3) Under this theory, “g” should be highest on culture reduced tests and lowest on culture loaded (dependent on prior knowledge) tests
4) The exact opposite is true
5) Therefore “g” does not measure or refer to general intelligence; instead it measures accumulated prior knowledge
Support for IQ not being genetic intelligence:
1) FE gains have happened in time spans too short for any genetic explanation
2) several IQ gaps around the world have closed in time spans too short for any genetic explanation
3) No gene for normal IQ variation has been identified despite millions of dollars and a century’s worth of research
4) These gains follow development , wealth infusions, and in the case of ethnic groups, political empowerment.
5) Twin studies, etc. the evidence relied upon by HBDers deploy EEA, which is a false assumption, and MZA studies do not deal with twins raised very far apart; further, several studies (esp. ones with links to the pioneer fund) withhold data and upon examining unpublished data reveal nearly the opposite of what the study’s authors claim.
Support for intelligence exhibiting low genetic variation among humanity
1) the only genes known that affect intelligence are mutations that cause noticeable breakdowns in day-to-day functioning
2) the only universal indicators of human intelligence: language, art, etc. are shared by all peoples; virtually all humans can learn language, virtually all humans can learn to read
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it’s time to stop pretending that there’s any “legitimacy” to the other side.
the most damning fact of all is that “behavior genetics” (many of these racist ideologies rely crucially on innate tendancies) has failed to produce a single polymorphism connected with behavior in the normal range
it is tarot cards, starcharts…only entire groups of people are being maligned.
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Why do clowns like McWhorter always pretend that Black people don’t “care about” or fight against “Black-on Black” crime? They know better and if they don’t, they’re purposely ignorant. He’s this era’s Shelby Steele. Hopefully there’s a Claude Steele around to put the smackdown on him.
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I agree that anti-racism can be a religion, but only under Oxford’s last definition of religion: “A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.” Consumerism, technology, science, democracy, capitalism, environmentalism, etc. would all qualify as religions as well under this definition.
@”Antiracists cannot give the facts and reasons for their beliefs and do not like being questioned about them. It is a faith.”
I agree that this is complete BS, because antiracists have ample evidence to prove racism:
– criminal justice statistics that show blacks get harsher penalties for the same crimes
– illegal drugs that are disproportionately used by blacks are subject to harsher penalties than illegal drugs that are disproportionately used by blacks
– more whites encounter police officers (and more whites are arrested) than blacks but blacks are more likely to be killed by police officers
– blacks are less likely to get bank loans than equally qualified whites
– blacks are less likely to get jobs than equally or less qualified whites
– whites have instituted a system of racial slavery and racial apartheid in the US and many other countries that have lasted 75%+ of the last 400 years.
For any reasonable person, the above is enough to suggest racism is institutionalised and not just based on faith and belief. It also suggests that a lot of the problems within black communities, like black-on-black violence, extends from the legacy of this institutionalised racism.
Clearly, McWhorter needs his black wake up call badly, just like Henry Louis Gates. That seems to be what it takes these days…
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The irony is that whenever someone asks rhetorically about “black on black” crime you know right away that they don’t give a s*** about black people being murdered. They’re usually a racist white or some Uncle Tom ass Negro like Don Lemon or his guest. The term pops up whenever police kill an unarmed black person. It’s code for,
“You black people are killling each other so we should get to kill you too. It’s RACIST to complain when white people kill black people and you are doing it. And, while we’re talking about injustices, let’s to end the n-word discrimination so that all will be right with the world”.
Yawn.
I automatically tune out anyone who starts to use the term “black on black crime” to dismiss racism. I put y’all on mute! We don’t hear about “white on white” crime despite the fact that most crime is intraracial. It’s not “black on black” crime it’s just CRIME. That’s no reason to deflect from racism especially when some of that crime is a result long-standing inequalities.
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@Kiwi
Regardless, the calling out of “black on black” crime in the context of discussions about race is usually a diversionary tactic. Crime is not a phenomenon unique among black people within the capitalist system even *if* it has a unique etiology.
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in all the racism articles, i haven’t seen anything about behavioral genetics.
IMHO the latter (especially when combined with IQ tests, etc.) is pseudoscience used to justify the status quo.
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Paul Mooney:
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well there is a sort of ‘rolling up’ if you will, in an accounting or administrative sense of ‘issues’ and it’s a sort of ‘civil rights’ (ish) agenda? i think, on the democrats’ side that is polarizing or sort of ‘crystalizing’ around a sound bite? certain topics, like you can’t ignore the support for gays, and i guess that’s like defining yourself as ‘such and such’ a ‘lifestyle’ but then its not that, it’s ‘race’ phenotype, i do believe that but.. and on and on….
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