McWhorter Contra 'Systemic Racism'

Good News: John McWhorter's penetrating insights into wokeism keep getting media attention: This week, it's a substack piece of his titled, "Can We Please Ditch the Term 'Systemic Racism'?" which `delves into the many problems that this idea is causing regarding inequalities between black and white Americans, specifically regarding education. Two excerpts will give you an idea.

First, insofar as racism was responsible in the past for many of these disparities, it can't be undone and it isn't the only reason for them now:

Image by the CDC, via Unsplash, license.

[Clifton] Casteel's study pointed up a quieter aspect of something richly documented nationwide -- a sense among black teens that school is "white" and that real black kids don't hit the books. Black academics and media people tend to dismiss this as a myth, but based solely on an impatience with addressing black problems as due to anything but racism. The facts are plain: the idea that "acting white" is a myth is, itself, a myth. [bold added, link omitted]

Worse, parts of the proposed solutions remind me of a phrase McWhorter doesn't use -- here, at least: the soft bigotry of low expectations:

But here is where we get whites smiling nervously and pretending to think that actually getting the answer is white, that being competitively tested is white (unless, I guess, it's on a basketball court or in a rap battle?), that being expected to raise your hand and give an answer is white. And anyone who misses that this is exactly the way Strom Thurmond wanted it is all but working to be ignorant. [bold added]

Yes.

As I said, these two passages give a flavor, but they do so without doing full justice. For example, McWhorter handily demolishes the purported explanations for academic inequality leading up to the first of the above quotes. This will be valuable for anyone confronting the woke mob as an educator or a parent, and indeed for anyone committed to racial equality and individual rights.

To do his piece and these noble causes justice, please consider reading the whole thing.

-- CAV