Anti-Racism Has Gone Too Far, says “Woke Racism” Author John McWhorter | Amanpour and Company
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- John McWhorter is a bestselling author and linguist, and he's out with a new book called "Woke Racism." Here he is with Walter Isaacson discussing his theory and solutions for a more just and equitable America.
Originally aired on November 11, 2021
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A very big threat against democracy is the polarization of society. America is very polarized right now. Listening to this man is a step in the direction of lessening that polarization and helping society find its balance.
It has always been polarized. Now its overt!
Better yet, listen and acting on his suggestions. He has suggestions on coming up with solutions and acting on them. No social problem will ever get solved if all people do is hem and haw. I5-10 years ago I've seen videos of people being shown how they contribute to the community like having community gardens that help feed the community or having sports programs that help the youth from getting off the streets. These types of projects need to be on the spotlight again, along with the emphasis that results take some determination, time, patience, and a little bit of work.
WTF!!
@@charmmaeonineza1501Solutions is whyte male disease.
You actually think that life is an illness.
Having been an activist on these issues for over 40 years, I welcome and embrace McWhorter's focus on the real issues. Coming from someone for whom words matter - he's a linguist after all - it is doubly important. Words have to describe the consequent actions, and not just be orphans limited to their condition. That is to say, our actions and activism must contain solutions, not just descriptions. That seems to be the generational divide that McWhorter speaks of.
Are you familiar with Zeno of Elea and his paradoxes? One cannot answer a question without asking it first. Or solve a problem without understanding its description. You are insinuating simply that one does nothing at all other than accept the status quo.
What does McWhorter actually do to focus on the real issues? All I have ever heard from him are the perils of woke-ism. This is not a big problem in society and I don't understand why he is obsessed with this except for the fact that a whole lot of white people love it and probably support his career.
@@ChordOfC as for primary motive, McWhorter has said in multiple interviews, including Bill Maher: "I don't want to feel condescended to".
@@ChordOfC Not a big problem? Tell that to everyone who has gotten fired or reprimanded behind woke nonsense. The AMA came out with a ridiculous woke vocabulary that they want doctors to use. How about the NBA and NFL putting criminals' names on their jerseys and helmets? Let's not even start with the schools. It's a problem in the USA.
@@jonanderson4825 I could probably count everyone who has been fired on one hand. Also explain to me how the vocabulary that doctors use affects you at all and causes problems. Educate me on the criminals names you’re talking about. And give me some examples about what is happening in schools. All of this is minuscule compared to the real issues that McWhorter apparently saved the last tiny bit of his book to talk about. His priorities are reversed.
Professor John McWhorter has one of the most sensible views on understanding and on solving the problem we face in all poor communities, but especially in the black communities due to the criminalization of drugs and the need for vocational training that lead to steady, good paying jobs. I became aware of those matters when I visited a black community on the south side of Chicago, and I would like to add the need for human kindness and respect, for a sense of empowerment and real opportunity that we need to enable in our country. I found out that one young black man really dreamed of farming, and one middle-aged gal just wanted a steady job with descent pay and benefits. A sense of feeling loved and accepted, free to be anywhere in the country without feeling the stares and awkwardness that one feels. A good start is training and steady work with good pay, and things get better when there's financial and employment stability. Happiness and contentment means drugs loose their appeal, empowerment means real freedom.
In a word: Opportunity
I think there is no role models for success in the black community other than music or sports. For some reason, black people despise technical stuff or engineering things, but they are obsessed with sports and music.
@@theblindprogrammerpart of it is what the media and entertainment industry pushes. When is the last time you have seen a Black carpenter sell shoes or a Black engineer sell a car? It doesn't happen because there is a narrative that is pushed for the Black community to aspire to. It's not the main reason for the shortcomings of the community but it plays a part. It's like a reinforcing subliminal message that a too large number of the community picks up on and emulates.
@@diggidy5367 yeah, who played all those models on the radio/TV stations they owned through the 80s and 90s? What group of people with disposable income bought all of it and reinforced that image? It doesn't make a lot of sense to blame the black community for this image when they weren't the ones financing the propaganda campaign.
Wokeness is simply a cry for justice. George Floyd's police report should be enough for all decent people to join.
We won't stop until complicit with murder is no longer a job qualification.
Wake up America!
One of the deepest, rational discussions of racism i have listened to . It is a complex issue with a long history. You might have to listen to it a few times to really understand what he is saying. If you are on the further left or right, listening to this with an open mind might help but it is useful for anyone to listen to IMHO.
Agreed
I lived in the Bay Area for a number of years, and what he said at 12:15 really struck a note. It reminds me of the things people would say out there whenever anybody brought up the homelessness crisis. Lots of finger-wagging and repetition of platitudes like "you can't criminalize homelessness!" without actually having a conversation or offering a solution.
He's a con man, Black conservatives are the most dependent black people in America, John is ignorant, and arrogant And And when comes to black self help and black self determination he has no interest, he's to full of him self
I'm Black and I fully agree with this man! There are Blacks who are afraid to speak out.
I completely agree with you. I'm black also and this man is speaking the truth !
Me three. I’ve been listening to him on Glenn Loury’s weekly podcast for almost a couple of years now.
Wokeness is simply a cry for justice. George Floyd's police report should be enough for all decent people to join.
We won't stop until complicit with murder is no longer a job qualification.
Wake up America!
@@randomlady6899 so after a couple years you must be able to tell me all the tenets of CRT and why they are bad?
If not at least you have heard McWhorter talk about how he doesn't want to be condescended to and that they don't have any kind of scientific structure to their arguments?
No One is "afraid" to speak out. Many have other things to focus besides supporting the conservative narrative. "Bigger Fish" to worry about in their everyday lives.
Yes to vocational education. Nobody knows how to do anything with their hands anymore, and will pay handsomely (perforce) for the labor of those who can. No matter the race of that person.
Plus, plumbing and electrician jobs will be the last job to be outsourced or automated, even though those jobs are young man's job. Once you hit in your 40s, your body will fall apart if you do the trades
@@theblindprogrammer I completely disagree that “your body will fall apart after 40”. I’d like to see some citations and evidence that this is remotely true for the trades in general. There’s a huge difference between being an electrician, and the numerous sub fields and specialities that accompany that field, and say a roofer; the same with jobs like welding and plumbing. Indeed, there is actual evidence that sitting at a desk in a cubicle for 40-50 hours a week is severely detrimental to the body and psyche due to the unnatural nature of such a sedentary occupation.
Yeah, but there's not that much demand for vocational workers.
High tech has decimated heavy and light industry.
We can thank China for that!
@@MH-be6hr in construction and home services there certainly is.
@@D00kerT I don’t know... I taught many students whose parents were undocumented immigrants in Vegas for many years, and it was an odd situation because, on the one hand, they didn’t value education since they COULD make good money in the trades... yet many of their parents, indeed, found it difficult to work in housekeeping and construction after they reached middle age because of its toll on the body-yet this also relates to health care; their difficult legal status and lack of health care meant that issues went on longer.
I am an American citizen who couldn’t even afford healthcare as a teacher in Florida, and moved abroad, so long story short, I think that health care must be affordable for those in the trades before they can be tenable as long term professions.
As a "red"person aka native American , my grandmother left the tribe and I married an Italian we are proud Americans be will not even identify as anything but Americans. We are not a color we are of the human race.
I just ordered this book. I am white, Vietnam and Civil Rights era, later lived for nearly 20 years in San Antonio and Houston, then Washington D.C. and Baltimore. McWhorter's analysis has been long overdue. Whether I agree with everything McWhorter says - I do not - I agree with his basic premises. I had black working class and middle class friends in Baltimore - I ate in their homes and later in the homes and churches of black friends in Northeast Ohio as well. Especially from my friends in Baltimore, the things I was told personally by these friends frequently took me aback because they spoke openly about the divisions INSIDE the black community. Baltimore was then 62% black, in 2022 it's 59% black - the black middle class is moving out. In 2000, my middle class black friends were talking about moving to the white suburbs to have good schools and safety for their children. One "30 something" woman, who enlisted in the Navy because she couldn't afford college, left the Navy with professional administrative training, found a good job paying at a good wage, and then had to listen to her own relatives calling her names because she was acting "white" - I won't repeat the words she said other blacks call her. These are the divisions within the black community that Black Lives Matter supporters pretend don't exist. Sadly, such divisions have nothing to do with equality, justice or raising up economically the entire black community.
And your white conservatives like your self are the only ones who will. He's distorting woke, he's pushing a false
narrative for profit.
Regardless of whether you agree with McWhorter, the interviewer was brilliant. He let McWhorter speak and asked open-ended, probing questions.
I mean WOW, John McWhorter brought his A game to this one. Looks like practice makes perfect. He somehow raised his personal standard after already being so high. I mean even if you ignore his (correct) opinion, listening to the way he talks is a learning experience.
Love this man so much.
He's a linguist professor, duh
The word "highly correct" seems an orwellian to me, why does the word "correct" need a modifier?
@@theblindprogrammer changed it
@@theblindprogrammer what I was really tryna say is. He has done countless interviews everywhere since he launched his book, as expected, and be mostly was just repeating himself, as you would expect.
But this time, I genuinely felt all those previous interviews helped him condense his message and say it in a very elegant way this time.
Talk about irony. This man is a genius: Let's get it done by doing things, not by virtue signaling til the end. I think the real message is END THE WAR ON DRUGS. It won't just help minorities.
Very interesting view! What I have observed as an educator over the 38 years of teaching young children is that the most accepting group of humans, no matter you skin color, is in Kindergarteners! Why can’t we learn from them.
Us Vs Them thinking is one of the most basic and common human cognitive and social traps. Zealotry and self righteousness are right behind. They always end up sabotaging positive movements if left unchecked. Good for John McWhorter for calling it out even when it's part of a noble endeavor.
Racism IS an "Us vs. Them" mindset. Being antiracist is inherently against such mindsets. Your argument makes no sense. What he is describing isn't antiracism. He is making up some perverted extremist view and pretending it is the "norm'. It's meaningless.
@@fusiondog77 Racism is a form of Us Vs Them mindset. That mindset is very common in humans and something we have to watch out for. I think some AntiRacist activists believe they are immune from it and end up falling into it pretty badly for that very reason.
Often we see that people can go seriously off the rails when they believe they are immune to basic human failings.
Also when people become very passionate they also tend to become blind to their errors and can become zealots.
@@willlinner44 I'm all for nuance, my problem is that he isn't. He is trying to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
@@fusiondog77 As someone who has read a couple of his books and listened to him talk quite a bit I couldn't disagree more. One thing he's definitely not guilty of...is that.
@@willlinner44 I've also read his books and seen many of his interviews and discussions where he basically admitted to emotionally motivated reasoning because he "doesn't want to feel condescended to". Even in the Bill Maher interview. He admits he has no scientific structure to his complaints another quote "we really need some kind of scientific structure to our arguments so we aren't just telling people they are whining".
I used to recommend his books on language and so I know he knows better than to conflate terms the way he does.
This guy has approached the topic from an apolitical viewpoint and reached a very true conclusion. Anti-racism is just a new form of tribalism. Tribalism begots tribalism. Racial tribalism of any kind ENCOURAGES an equal but opposite racial tribalism. Humanism is the only way forward, shunning tribalist thinking, not encouraging it.
your delusional and he's selling you on your delusion, yes by his books so he can profiteer off of you'
Hit the nail on the head......! Times are dangerous because of both the extreme left & extreme right us & them fever ! Nothing good can come of either! Thank you for this video & your book John McWhorter....we need many more like you willing to speak out & show viable, intelligent, compassionate solutions to problems we face in this tumultuous time !
There is no extreme left in the United States anymore.
@sr2291 what is a woman?
@@sr2291yup its just the left / democrat party. They done gone over.
@@DustyTail Funny how the left/Democratic party is actually on the Right.
Brilliant, fair-minded, thoughtful, and articulate. All rare these days.
not rare, but silenced, like the black professor Roland Fryer who was silenced by Harvard for not only speaking out like John McWhorter, but actually providing hard data through scientific studies. he became the youngest black professor to ever secure tenure at Harvard and won the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, the prize for the best economist under 40 in the world. he did not fit Harvard's woke agenda, so that was the end.
He's tells what want to hear not what you need to hear, he's treating you to Feast of your favorite lies'.
And you and him are not bring American together your furthering dividing America with your cynicism
There is a Zen teaching story that seems to fit here:
One day two student Zen monks were walking down a dirt road after it had rained. They came upon a large puddle that crossed the road and standing next to it was a woman in a beautiful kimono who could not cross because her garment would become muddy. One of the monks picked her up and carried her across the puddle and then set her down. The two monks continued on their way.
The other monk was quiet for some time and then he blurted out that as monks they were not supposed to touch or interact with women at their stage of training. He was quite upset about this breach of their protocol. The first monk asked, "I set the woman down on the other side of the puddle. Why are you still carrying her?"
What's the analogy?
@@nataliaturner4845 As it is a Zen teaching story, the student must meditate upon the situation presented. (Your answer, the analog, lies within the news story.)
The symbol of a Zen teacher is the pointing hand. The Zen teacher does not give the student the answer, but points the student in the direction of the answer.
How about “why didn’t you help?!”
@@r8chlletters Because all answers lie within. Each one of us has a direct connection to the universe and all of the knowledge it contains. Through meditation, drugs, study, or any other zillion ways one can find this connection within oneself. We each have to find it for ourselves.
@@pattoneill2402 hey. I don't think @r8chelletters was asking why you didn't help @Natalia Turner. I believe she was pointing out the lesson one probably should get from your story rather than the very surface concept of "leaving things in the past" I think you want people to take from it. Your pedantic tone about "proper application of zen" is, I suspect, just a smokescreen to avoid saying that directly.
That lesson only applies to the students complaints because they are bureaucracy and do not address a REAL need as the older monk did in violation of the status quo.
Maybe you aren't "doing zen" as well as you think.
John McWhorter needs more coverage. He's thoughtful and pragmatic, sensible and sensitive. He's a spokesperson for reasonable people of all races. THANK YOU JOHN!
He needs more investigation.
He is a sick man.
All racists are going to die - including the Uncle atoms who enable them.
@@ondolite3789 Nonsense,Lol.
@@stevelopez372 Thx for your input.
@ondolite3789 what is a woman?
I can't say I agree with everything he stated.
I support "Re-imagining the police and prison systems." The reason is I believe our expectations of our police are too high and we need the right type of professionals to manage certain types of emergencies. I also believe some communities are over-policed for the purpose of filling up prisons. I believe our prisons for profit is abominable and doesn't invest in rehabilitation nor preparing people to re-enter society. Instead, it is designed to keep cots full.
I believe it is unrealistic to ask White people to think differently. This is something I believe they have to make peace with through good education, experiences etc. As a Black person, I like participating in healthy, progressive conversations but at the same time I don't like wasting energy with people who are not ready to see beyond manufactured biases. We have to take ownership of our own progression and take advantage of inclusive opportunities or continue building our own.
Finally, I support voting for people who will participate in the providing solutions to the root causes of the problems. Impoverished communities with high crime rates need access to jobs, services, good nutrition etc. In Chicago they had a summer training program that was AWESOME. They provided classes in programming, English, and job search. They provided transportation and lunch money. At the end of the program, they had a recruitment program to help people find jobs with the skills they just learned. I participated in a program like this in 1983. I went from a single mom on welfare to having a thriving career in Software Quality Assurance where I traveled around the world working with people. If this investment is made and encouragement to participate in the programs, we should see a good reduction in crime and poverty.
You’re probably a racist too.
Yeah? He also doesn't believe Derek Chauvin had any kind of racist animosity toward George Floyd.
He's saying the obvious on police reform, duh.
@@colinreese she wrote a good piece and all you can do is come back with a pathetic, uneducated dumb statement. Or even better say nothing if you have nothing of any intellectual significance to contribute. Grow up!
@@mandyinseattle Have you dealt with your racism? You seem like a dirty racist to me. You’re basically P.W. Botha.
Very well said. I was born in Chicago and raised in Flint, Michigan. We had, and they still have great programs. I wish every city had programs available like you and I both experienced. The trouble with police departments is the initial reason they came to be. They're wealthy communities protection and often the bully of lower income areas. Debtors prison mentality along with the Prison industrial complex is a huge money maker. No one who benefits from that system is going to be willing to change it with their vote. Gerrymandering can affect funding for certain communities and that needs to be changed as well. In my own life most of my friends with single mother parents are educated and successful. I never understood that stereotype until I listen to some of Reagans speeches lol.
Got to give Walter credit for approaching Professor McWhorter in good faith and not immediately poisoning the well and questioning his motives as malicious. Sadly, among the vast majority of the MSM, that is the norm; intentionally misrepresenting the views of someone like McWhorter and intentionally not engaging with his actual arguments has become all too common.
People need to understand that "MSM" is not the root of the problem. The problem is social media and the attention market it brought about. The quality of the MSM is itself a victim of the likes/dislikes buttons. Of the need to grab people's attention in the way social media has formulated so well by now - By hosting content that is divisive and emotive. The answer is paid content. Media that does not need to resort to psychological manipulation of its consumers to survive financially. The best thing anybody can do in this issue is to subscribe to paid content, and be leery of being the product in the decidedly freemium attention market.
true. I still feel resentful with McWhorter because he is the darling of radical right wingers who manipulate his ideas but he lets them. I know that i am not being rational, but he also sounds so arrogant sometimes. We know he is linguist and maybe historian of philosopher, but he likes to rub it on people's faces.
I very much appreciate that there's finally someone who can acknowledge that the fact that there is racism baked into systems(by influencing decisions of those in said systems) does not mean that the people who merely exist within those systems bear responsibility for it. And I appreciate that there is someone who acknowledges that we can work to address those inequalities without first demanding that we find someone to blame for the equalities, be it right-wingers demanding black people accept fault for lacking prosperity, or stringent people on the left demanding that white people accept fault for supposedly being the cause of black people lacking said prosperity. The important thing is to work to solve the problem, not to first bicker over what caused it. I am very left-wing and continue to be very left-wing, but it is difficult to participate when I'm being accused of racism when that couldn't be further from the truth(and when I am actually significantly more comfortable in mixed groups of people).
Wokeism just further alienates people from participating. I won't bother trying to affect change now because I'm caucasian, (Ukrainian by heritage, actually). I believe I'll be accused of not helping and that presence is not welcome in any activist groups because, despite being poor and of immigrant heritage, I'll be blamed for the faults of other caucasians from two to five centuries ago.
So well done, wokeists. You've pushed allies away.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 Using the word "wokeism" is equally alienating, though. It's categorizing the legitimate complaints many people have along with the idea that a white person can't contribute to a discussion about racism and must be inherently racist. When people start to use big keywords over and over, that's a pretty good sign that they're disregarding other people's actual points.
@@theedgeofoblivious For sure. No one wants to listen to anyone anymore. A lot of incorrect summation boiled into catchphrases and single words, as you say. I think corporate media has a big chunk of the blame considering their tendency to create soundbites or to paraphrase complex, nuanced issues into consumables for an ignorant public.
There have always been many with his views, but until now, no one wanted to hear it.
A calm clear well thought out rational opinion and with real solutions. So refreshing. Education and skill building for young men to give hope, purpose and opportunity and reduce the senseless deaths by violence and fatherless children. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome!
Equity is no goal to attain. Equality is the golden apple.
Da fuck
@@nevetsnonnac3330 you’re a simpleton if you need this explained.
@@SusanKay- spoken like Uncle Joe.
I grew up in an all white neighborhood. but once I went to college it was a mix of countries and colors. It was like a smorgasbord of different tastes. It was so delightful. The rest of my life I gravitated to people who were different and enjoyed their perspectives. Color doesn't matter. This realization was one of the most important and satisfying stages in my life. I love variety.
My experience is color does matter.
Yeah, who needs to have anything in common with their neighbors?
His latest book gives me hope! Maybe my woke friends can be deprogrammed.
We really need some ideas to bring us all together. We need to do things to help each other, not make us hate more.
or we can just accept that we all wont be on the same page. also we already have something that brings us all together: a national identity.
Wow. A common sense, fact based discussion that doesn’t involve the participants calling each other names when they don’t agree.
It's an interview.
Its a golden goose
Mcworter is a professor at Columbia NYC
He didn't mention a single fact
@@ThomasMilne or maybe you just missed it.
This guy is rational. I could actually talk to him.
Great discussion. 2 very good and smart people. RS. Canada
To many of the commentors on this youtube thread, I have nothing to add. Your insights are hope-inspiring. Thank you for your wise and honest fresh air!
A two year degree or learning any valuable skill while in jail would save so many lives and families. People would come out with hope, a way to support himself, and a sense of place and belonging in society.
My friend was addicted to crack in high school and eventually went to jail. Somehow, he left with the ability to do A/C repair. I don’t know how it worked or the details, but that trade is the only reason he’s stayed clean and was able to make a good life.
On the other hand, two relatives are also addicts and spent time in jail for felonies-they were young when these arrests were made. Both had time upon release to turn their lives around. Both came out sober. No one would hire them. One eventually was hired by a man who regularly hires people with similar histories. He ended up working with addicts and started using himself, again. It’s very sad. There was just nothing for them after jail. Or prison or whatever.
We should use prisons as a chance to take kids off the street and educate them for something useful. Also get them some therapy and good food. Then maybe the pattern won't repeat.
Changing the American prison system so that it's not a business that needs a steady flow of "clients" would be a step in the right direction.
Why is this brother not a more powerful voice in our communities? This is what bothers me the most, I have to seek out intellectual individuals and they should be pushed to the front of the cameras so more people can see them and not some pointless celebrity.
Because his voice is compromised by his personal position -
He's in love with a white woman who he married, so he has demonstrated his highest value to ally and compromise with Whiteness
🤷♀️
It's a fair choice but his voice can no longer be a champion for a Black point of view
"Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians, race hustlers, and people who get a sense of moral superiority by denouncing others as 'racist'."
-- Thomas Sowell
Practically the most existentially vital thing the entire Western world can do is to moderate social media. The algorithms are geared to exploit, and thus promote, division and this format has found fertile ground and eager clientele in callous politics. Anybody who wishes for the debate of the day to be sane - Needs to support efforts to tackle this very real phenomenon.
In the end its all about getting to trust one another and cooperate for a better future. Society needs band aids and sutures - Not hacking and slashing by an army of untrained volunteer "surgeons" using social media as scalpel.
Amanpour/Isaacson are my new favorite journalists! Bravo to the heroic Ukraine coverage too.
Very thought-provoking, thank you for this interview. Looking forward to reading John McWhorter’s book.
His book is probably crap don’t waste your time. He sometimes acknowledges there are white supremacy thinkers but never explains why. He needs to write a book on how people become white racist and propose solutions to prevent. You will probably change only a small percentage of whites minds one they believe they are superior. Much better to prevent the teaching than to undue a belief taught as a kid. His idea is just don’t worry about it, you can still succeed in America even though there are millions of people trying to deny you the opportunity.
I agree wholeheartedly with this gentleman's point of view especially about the drug market....but I also thing a contributing factor is the poorer quality of basic education and the loss of state run trade schools.....
Beautifully articulated. I could listen to his logic and reason all day ❤️❤️❤️
Excellent interview! Sent
Thanks John for your reasonableness. You are an very important voice - especially in today’s world.
I’m a 75 year old white male. I was born and raised in the white section of Detroit. I went 12 years to all white Catholic schools. Black people were around, but no socialized with. I went to MSU. The only blacks in my all male dorm were football players. I was drafted into the military after graduation. Blacks and whites were together, but with little socialization. I worked for GM and other large corporations for 40 years. I recall the civil rights movement and the push back black received from some blacks and most of the white community. I always considered myself open and non discriminatory. 10 years ago I retired and move to the near south
Side of Chicago into a high rise condo building with 720 units. 90% of the residents are black. What a wake up call! I found that I had deep roots in “whiteness”. I had great difficulty processing that blacks could have professional careers, have PhDs, be well off.
I don’t know John’s background, but I fell he doesn’t understand the very deep roots of whiteness and privilege that exist in many, most whites. Most whites will say, as I did, that they believe they’re not discriminatory, but they don’t have the experiences or skills, and in some cases, the desire to examine
their deeply ingrained bias. Thus, whites in general need to be “woke” up. It’s painful and there is and will be (as there always has been) much pushback, but racism, white supremacy, and true US history needs to be openly discussed and taught, not only in schools, but throughout our country. Germany teaches openly and honestly about the holocaust and they heal themselves. Why can’t we do the same?
Excellent analysis sir and your experience counts for a lot. The USA still showers itself in far too much ultra-nationalist patriotism and any criticism of the past actions of the USA is often met with hostility ("love it or leave it"). A lot of the problems inflicted on black Americans have to do with economic discrimination, housing discrimination ("red lining"), school zoning, etc. White Americans don't like being told that their ancestors perpetuated violence against indigenous and black people. There is even too much white supremacy in the country. In my opinion, white Americans should think of their roots (German-American, Scottish-American, Polish-American, Italian-American, etc.) more than being "white". Better education will help as well.
Sounds like you hate yourself and other White people. Maybe work on that so you don’t die a racist, and break this ridiculous brainwashing to which you’ve been subjected. White people aren’t evil. We did *some* mildly bad things in this country, but nothing that bad.
You sir, got it right and that's all it takes.
Many thanks to Walter Isaacson for an excellent interview of John McWhorter. And my compliments also to John McWhorter for his excellent responses to Walter's penetrating questions. It seems to me that McWhorter's observations (I've read his book, Woke Racism) are absolutely valid. But it also seems so difficult for many to grasp his central idea: Our nation will make greater progress in fighting against racism if we do not continually castigate non-Blacks for not being Black. So much of what McWhorter says seems fundamentally true when one thinks calmly about the subject. But just talking about racism is like "walking on eggs."
I'm black and agree with this man! Especially what he said about making it hard / impossible for someone to make a living off of selling drugs and instead providing more opportunities for vocational training for ex.
Love the interview and it's again a great interview and topic. The best on PBS!
It really is. Questions asked and answered in good faith is so refreshing.
You notice he doesn't answer the last question?
The man is a clown and he’s been that for years … sad to throw all his education away …. He gets it but he’s profiting off anti blackness……. So many Blake people so this …… what would the ancestors say …. Sad
@@stephdrake2521 It is sad. Very sad. And harmful.
He did answer the question. He said yes, some of his arguments likely will be co-opted by the hard right but the alternative of qualifying everything he says to the point the message is significantly diluted is worse.
@@philibusters Why is everyone so scared or threatened by the hard right. They barely exist anymore. They are just some backwoods idiots that rarely come out. Are you thinking of the right wing? Because conservatives and right wing are different.
@@mandyinseattle The exact opposite. The woke culture is destroying this country and setting things backwards. Woke people are brainwashed psychopaths.
Thank you, Dr. McWortter…, for your clear and studied discussion of these issues…
I am flabbergasted at Walters articulation as well as his message. So refreshing to listen to a viewpoint from the bottom.
Amen. I’m all in on things that REALLY help people instead of fake anti racism.
@david noot,
The issue *isn’t evolved political* and *social consciousness,* which ‘woke’ is the American Africoid Lexicon (ex-‘Ebonics’) term for, it’s *NARCISSISTIC MOBBING.*
*NARCISSISTIC*
(sometimes site-specific termed: ‘academic’ or ‘workplace’)
*MOBBING.*
*That* is the issue we *must deal with* immediately.
Get the *issue correct* - *then* deal with the creators and causes of *that* issue. *Most are:* unchecked inappropriate/neglectful/abusive lax parenting, not teaching/reminding/encouraging ethics and humanity to the needed extent nor often enough, a huge amount of children/teens/young adults accessing anything on the internet at will, trend-following, influencer-following, poverty or arrested development or low self-esteem caused rejection/adult-tolerated bullying(!)/isolation, en masse social media and video gaming interaction/addiction, violent and personally curated immediately supplied and extreme porn, (war crime) rape and gang rape as sport, police coonhunt and slavecatcher culture sport murders as racist porn, uploading everything videographed/photographed/audio recorded without consent, readily internet-available illicit drugs, addiction, coercive control and every other type of abuse at home/neighbourhoods/school/work/in cliques/sub-cultures, poor education and toxic environments leading to psychological disorders/crime/homelessness, *the eight organised androsupremacist terrorist gangs/cults (‘Red Pill’ a.k.a. ‘Manosphere’)* seducing/recruiting/grooming/reprogramming/dehumanising the young - boys and men, from young childhood to young adulthood, especially - from suggesting - up to *dictating* that *followers intentionally become ‘Dark Triad’ personality disordered (insane) abusers(!)* (i.e.: narcopaths, psychopaths, sociopaths, pathological narcissists, machiavellianists, borderlines, anti-socials) and *caucasoid supremacist terrorist gangs* executing the same types of *recruiting/grooming/reprogramming/dehumanising* (there’s a huge crossover of the two sub-cultures - *destroying* boys and men, and the womxn, vulnerables and people of colour they end up believing are their OWNED ‘PROPERTY’ to ‘MANIPULATE,’ ‘PUNISH’ and ‘DESTROY’ as they see fit, at their personal will).
*...en masse narcopathic glorification of serial killers* and *inhumane hyper-violent entertainment, school and house of worship masse executioners, ‘male state’/’incel’ rampage misogynistic murderers, andrewtate’s fraudster ‘LoverBoy’ cultist androsupremacist misogynist abuser-army against girls and young and vulnerable womxn* ...need I continue?!
Please, permit us to *collectively DEAL* with the generational, classist, caucasoid supremacist, androsupremacist and predatory capitalist issues of, indeed, *needing* to put the interest, effort and time in to *learn an evolved level of sensitivity and actively inclusive language of political, domestic and social consciousness* - simply the *evolutionary changing* of outdated 1960s language *LATER,* please. It has been long-since overdue, anyhow. The changes should have occurred by the 1990s (before the North America Free Trade Agreement Referendum of October 1992). That issue isn’t *’woke’ or ‘wokeism’,* it’s simply *growing pains* due to *uncomfortable* but *necessarily further inclusive change.*
We’re *definitely doomed* if we permit *Dark Triads, Cluster-Bs* and their predatory *flying monkeys/enablers/bystanders* to continue to *lead,* as well as *NARCISSISTIC MOBBING* to perpetuate *anymore* than *already experienced.*
*Thanks* for reading, researching and *deeply considering all mentioned* herein.
Very enlightening interview with this professor/ author..it seems to me that the most important take away is that to help underprivledged blacks is through education leading to a decent living..
*professor/author. It
*takeaway (one word, when used as a noun)
*is that the best way to help
*underprivileged
*education, leading
*living.
I enjoyed that we are now talking about this... at one period of time nobody could have a word with extreme wokeism
What a great interview!! Way to go PBS!
one point that John misses is that many of the parents who are against CRT have no idea what they are really against. It’s a new boogyman. I do agree which some of his thinking though
they are against a particular set of ideas:
* white priviledge/fragility/accountability: they are against the idea that they or their children are morally responsible for things they didn't do and don't believe
* bias training: the assumption of racist intentions, the assumption that the training helps, the idea of "re-educating" people who disagree with you
* critical whiteness: the idea that everyone who identifies or can be identified as white is complicit in evil
I could go on. One way or another, these ideas are core tenets in CRT, and denying that is deceitful. We don't have to talk about the Frankfurt School to be able to call a spade a spade.
Interestingly, if you replace "whiteness" with "capital", it's actually communism verbatim
@@Stumashedpotatoes Well I am one who believes that most adults have some sort or degree of bias which includes racial bias. In my dealings with many white people (and non-black people) I have encountered it in one form or another and black people are not free of this either. I have had and have, non black friends who have racial baggage they are completely unaware of. Perhaps this is not saying it correctly. It’s really that they see nothing wrong in their thinking/actions/words which are to the detriment of black people. This includes clinging to stereotypes and defining black Americans by those who behave worst in the group. And yes, institutional racism really does exists and as a rule, preferred treatment has been bestowed upon white people. it’s worth learning that it exists and how it has operated, for those who don’t know. Another thing people need to learn is that welfare is not race.
What I understand of CRT, I agree with. Can there be and are there abuses in some teachings regarding it? Does that mean there should be zero race awareness training? I grew up a long time ago and I can assure you, I did not get the message that people cared much about the feelings of black children and of the messages we were receiving.
It’s not the subject that is wrong but HOW it is presented matters.
@@Stumashedpotatoes except I’ve seen multiple interviews now of people being against CRT who literally can’t even describe what it is.
@@TimothyMorigeau most people have absolutely no idea what CRT is. I have seen the interviews as well.
@@Stumashedpotatoes And they are against being the permanent victim to someone's permanent oppressor. I lived in Jim Crow when blacks really were oppressed. Many of my people don't want to accept that like any other race, some of our race are just sorry. They live on fantasies of great African kingships and patriarchies while not even realizing that Africa is a continent and not a "country." I am sick of it.
I like listening to Dr McWhorter, even though I disagree with him on so many things. I learn something from him each time.
What is he saying that you think is wrong? (not trying to be argumentative, I'd honestly like to know)
@@ivannano I didn’t say he was wrong. I said that I disagree. In general, Dr. McWhorter often appears to be dismissive of the experiences of people who land in the categories of POC and poor. He takes an academic approach where he can take compassion and reality. I respect his opinions, as I do everyone’s, but I’m not sure how he advances the understanding of the situation he describes.
@@neilifill4819 Are you saying his approach is too pragmatic and logical and not emotional enough? As someone who has read him (and who is also from Philly) my interpretation is that he's mostly making a class argument while saying that the solutions to racial disparities aren't simply down to white people being more pious. It's not an original argument, McWhorter just does a better job of making it.
@@ridesharegold6659 thanks, but I’m not saying that his arguments aren’t emotional enough. I haven’t read Dr. McWhorter, as you have. I’ve seen him on many TV shows and RUclips videos. I find him to be incredibly thoughtful and intellectual, but perhaps his arguments are too surface-level and ignore some glaring constructs that POCs and poor people face daily. I appreciate his solid analysis and the balance it brings to other academics of his ilk. But I find that he misses or ignores certain constructs. Perhaps I should read him as well. I can be wrong.
@@ridesharegold6659 no he doesn't. He conflates terms lazily and feeds right wing trolls while doing it. Race issues have been used by people manipulating poor white people for centuries. They derail class issues using race issues. Ignoring one causes the other to fester.
As a recent graduate of a master's degree in education, I can say that a variation of CRT is taught. We were basically forced to stand up before class and say we were racists if we were white.
The word "basically" when used in a sentence usually means that it is not basic but extremely vague. You were either "forced to stand up before class and say we were racists if we were white" or you weren't. You only ever say "basically" if there is some doubt. Due to the fact that you included the word "basically", I basically don't believe you.
Thank you, Dr. McWhorter, for calm, common sense discussion. Your solution example of free vocational education wouldn't have the net effect of costing society money. Rather, it would be an investment in the future of anyone not born with a silver spoon . We need to stop telling our kids that the only way to be "successful" is to go to college, and then set them up to fail with useless degrees and virtually usurious student loans.
He's part of the African American bashing industry, he panders to the racist and they're denial. I could profiteer by doing the same thing , but I chose not to because I have a conscience.
My race is unimportant but I believe this man is brilliant.
The most important man in America
My case (I was fired as a librarian) is central to such a discussion as this (I was fired for resisting Black Lives Matter), but the library world continues to censor it as a point of discussion. However, recently, a current writer for the ALA's "Office of Intellectual Freedom" blog has interviewed me and written about this subject. Open your eyes to what censorial institution's today's libraries are becoming at his Apolitical Librarian blog and his piece entitled "Internal Censorship, Punishment of Dissent and Personal Destruction Among Library Professionals."
Professor Mcwhorter should start a coalition. So many Blacks agree with him, but have been afraid to go against the Sha'Carri Richardsons of the world and the White empathists who support them.
Mr. McWhorter, thank you for having a spine and challenging the status quo.
Which aspect of the status quo specifically?
He's appears to have more spine than sense. I don't think he has either. I'll bet he's well compensated for his wacky ideas.
@@xman9190 oh yeah, guys like Dan love being told they can just completely dismiss all anti-racist concepts as part of a competing religion. He denounces CRT without ever speaking about its tenets.
McWhorter is to CRT as Flat Earther is to Astrophysics.
@@fusiondog77 What good does it to do generalize based upon one comment on the internet?
@@stevej.7926 click on his image and read the other posts from the user.
I agree, stop the war on drugs!
Read about how the drugs came into the inner cities so you can understand the entire picture …. That’s the problem … the government bought the drugs in those communities and they still are doing it …..so what??? Who’s bigger than the government ? I’ll wait …..
This guy is so smart. I personally believe most people are not racist and that we need to stop all this division in order to find real solutions that will improve the conditions of those kids who are caught in the crossfire of drugs, gangs, poverty and addiction. But the money, programs, time and efforts need to go to empowering those who TRULY need it: the underprivileged.
Here is an idea for you. Rather than rip down statues. Place a kiosk next to them and give the history so that people can judge the merits of the decisions and actions of the person within the historical context of the events that were occurring at the time when they were alive rather than projecting the context of our current society on the person and then judging their decisions and actions accordingly. Also, allow people to type in comments and allow others to view those comments so that we can learn from each other about how this statue makes us feel. That would lead to progress!
Awesome. Clarity on a complex topic.
What this man says is just common sense. When did we start losin’ it?
Some never had it.
Can't give as much thumbs up to this guy as I want to!
Well that was astonishingly agreeable
AWell balanced argument which you can respect and engage in, whether you agree or disagree with him. 👍
Jesus H. Christ, this guy is brilliant! I've NEVER heard anyone discuss this issue so intelligently, so articulately and with so much common sense! Over the last few months, I've become a huge fan!
You should rush out and buy his book! You are his target audience. All he's doing is re-packaging the Bill Cosby type attitudes only with bigger words. He's hoping to sell a lot of books to white people so they can further ignore the racism that is undeniable in this country.
@@pong320 You obviously didn't hear a word he said. So I'll chalk your accusations up to ignorance (which can be cured, by the way).
@@pcbacklash_3261 I listened very carefully. The difference is I listened and used critical thinking and discovered that just about all of his points were strawmen, hyperbole or lies. You want to believe him so you cheer him along because he is preaching to the choir you sit in. I mean seriously, your screen name is "PCBacklash" this is who you are. He claims that kids are being taught that the entire foundation of the nation has been kind of a shell game or a crime spree. They aren't and he can't provide any evidence for this. He claims that kids with brown skin, like his daughter, are being taught to be wary of the blonde haired kids. But they aren't being taught this. He claims that kids are being taught that the American experiment is a joke. Please, someone find some evidence of this (you can't). He claims that anti-racism is a religion to some on the left. Nonsense. He claims that kids are being taught a form of CRT in school: that white culture is bad and black culture is good. Examples? Nope, he doesn't have any. He just makes claim after claim after claim.
Then he moves on to lies. He said the curator at of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was FIRED after saying "reverse racism." This is not true. But to his audience of people like you, it sounds true so you don't bother to research it. I'm gonna guess you didn't and that you are "ignorant" of the story. There's a cure for that and let me help you out. The museum had realized that their collection was skewed and had very little work by female artists or artists of colour. So the museum sold a painting for $50.1 million to create a dedicated fund to acquire work by underrepresented communities, including female artists, artists of colour and LGBT artists. Now this is not them saying that art by straight, white males is bad and we are going to get rid of it all, it's just acknowledging that there is good art from people outside of that group. So after some new acquisitions of work by artists of colour were being presented by the curator he commented: "don't worry, we will definitely still continue to collect white artists." The man apologized and resigned. He wasn't fired.
So what did the author say that you thought was so brilliant? I'm gonna guess you can't cite a specific thing that can be examined but just that you generally really agree with him. He makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and smart.
@@pong320 Yes, I chose my user name for a self-evident reason. I oppose the brainless "woke" ideologues on the Left as much as I oppose the knuckle-dragging ideologues on the Right. And, no, obviously you did NOT listen to Dr. McWhorter, and you sure as hell didn't use "critical thinking." I'll provide you an obvious example. You claim he says his daughter is being taught to be "wary of the blonde haired kids." Here's what he actually said:
"..One of my children, who is nine, has learned about Sojourner Truth and what she went through in school. Good. But she's NOT being taught that the American experiment is a joke, or that she, with her brown skin, needs to be wary of the blonde kids in her class. If she WERE being taught that, I would write a column about it very quickly..."
This is the exact OPPOSITE of what you claim. Either you did NOT listen, or your "woke" single-mindedness blinded you to the truth of what he was ACTUALLY saying. But, you're not a liar, right?
You make much of the point that McWhorter used the word "fired" in referring to the Curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who actually resigned. You present it as one of McWhorter's supposed "lies," as if saying "fired" instead of "resigned" completely mischaracterizes the situation. Yet YOU, yourself, used the wrong word. McWhorter did NOT say Garrels was fired for "reverse racism." He said he was fired for "reverse DISCRIMINATION!" But using the wrong word is a deliberate "lie," right?
So, who's actually "lying" here? You say the man "apologized and resigned," as if it were simply a matter of the man admitting to a mistake and quietly leaving his job. You discreetly fail to note not only the details of Garrel's story, but the recent history that helped shape his decision. Garrel's resignation came after a petition by nearly 300 current and former employees of the museum, insisting that his removal was "non-negotiable," and it follows the resignations of FOUR other staff members who quit for issues related to racial bias. Clearly, the odds were not with him. But, sure. Okay. He "resigned."
You ask for examples of forms of CRT being taught in schools, and it took me LITERALLY ten seconds to find one. Here's an opinion piece on MSN that cites several:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/yes-critical-race-theory-is-being-taught-in-public-schools/ar-AAM2t1V
Even the NEA, the nation's largest teachers' union, defends the teaching of CRT (though they carefully try to re-characterize it as something else), even promoting the "Zinn Education Project." I don't know if you've ever read Howard Zinn's abominable "People's History of the United States," but if you have, you have your answer regarding whether children are being taught that the "American experiment is a joke."
I've learned over the years that people quite often and quite readily accuse others of their OWN offenses. This has become especially true in the age of Trump, who CONSTANTLY projects his own shortcomings and misdeeds onto everyone else. Your asinine and ignorant ideological rant here has provided the most recent example.
@@pcbacklash_3261 You need to work on your reading comprehension a bit. But, to be fair, my writing could have been clearer.
I did not claim that he says his daughter is being taught to be wary of the blonde haired kids. What I said was: "He claims that kids with brown skin, like his daughter, are being taught to be wary of the blonde haired kids." What this sentence means is that his daughter has brown skin and that there are other kids who have brown skin who experience some thing. This is like if I wrote: There are young girls in this world, who look like my daughter, going hungry and not receiving quality medical care. This isn't a claim that my daughter is experiencing this. So you clearly misrepresented what I wrote. This is him again exaggerating and warning of things that aren't actually happening, or if they are happening it is very rare. What he is clearly saying is that young dark skinned kids are being taught that they should be wary of blonde haired kids by implication. An implication is when a conclusion can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated. So is he wrong? Do you think that kids with brown skin are being taught to be wary of blonde kids? This is one of his central themes but all he can do is imply it is happening because he has no strong evidence of it happening.
I do not like to be called a liar. So I'll provide another example. Some kids, as young as my youngest daughter who is 8, are exposed to second hand smoke in the home. Am I a liar to state that my daughter is not exposed to second hand smoke in her home? Am I correct in raising the very real concern over young kids being exposed to second hand smoke in their homes? Mr. McWhorter is a talented writer and speaker and he invoked his daughter for emotional appeal. Clearly it worked on you.
You are correct that I mistakenly wrote "reverse racism" instead of "reverse discrimination." My apologies. But this is a distinction without a difference. You criticize me for not noting even more of the details of Mr. Garrels story, yet you give a pass to Mr McWhorter not providing ANY details about the story. That's convenient.
Also, I can play the pendantic game as well. You wrote that "He said he was fired for 'reverse DISCRIMINATION!' " but what he said was fired "for using the word reverse discrimination."
Again with your poor reading comprehension. When did I ask for examples of forms of CRT being taught in schools? What I did was criticize Mr. McWhorter: "He claims that kids are being taught a form of CRT in school: that white culture is bad and black culture is good. Examples? Nope, he doesn't have any." What I asked at the end of my reply was for something that Mr. McWhorter said that you thought was so brilliant. But you didn't do that, you provided a link to an opinion piece in the (pretty far right) Washington Examiner.
But OK, let's look at the Washington Examiner piece. This really does help make my point for me, so thank you. The first example is a tweet based report that 30 public school districts are "teaching" the book Not My Idea. This is their smoking gun that we should all be terrified of CRT? I'm not going to bother reading the 62 page picture (?) book so that I can see if the quotes are legit or taken out of context or implied. Whatever. The fact is that the smoking gun is that 30 school districts are "teaching" it. First, click on the reported and then look at the tweet, most of the damning evidence is that it is "Recommended reading." How exactly is that teaching? But the bigger, and frankly hilarious thing to me, is that there are 13,452 school districts in the USA and this book has been mentioned in 30 of them. So this terrible, scary, monstrous CRT is proven to (Kinda, sorta) be in 0.00223 of the school districts. This is your proof of CRT? Proves my point that the hysteria over it is ridiculous.
You make even less sense and poorer arguments than Mr. McWhorter. But I can see how you can fall for this quasi-intellectualism.
I'd been reading John's earlier writing on language and never knew he was an African American. That John McWhorter voice I was hearing as I read through his beautifully constructed prose was my own, and in no way could I accept that it (my voice) was infected with some internalised systemic racism. I plugged into his thought traces with gratitude, as I do all those greater minds I get to engage with. I could extend that to Walter, having read his wonderful biographies of Einstein, Da Vinci and Franklin.
If this man took the place of Al Sharpton we could make big strides in America 🇺🇸
Taxation created perpetual segregation. How? Legislators gave the taxes back to affluent communities. Better infrastructure and schools. It's that simple. Write that book.
Very pragmatic and insightful!
Wonderful clarity
Wish there were more people like him who think big picture applying common sense and general good
This was better than I expected it to be, and real credit is owed to the interviewer’s thoughtful and probing and relevant questions. I’d love to see McWhorter in a debate on these topics, with someone to his right and someone to his left. I bet he’s a good professor. I think he glosses over too much with the schools-to-prison pipeline, as well as the justifications behind the defund the police movement (assuming -safely in most cases- that the idea is a dramatic reduction (not outright elimination) in funding, as well as deep & meaningful reforms in PDs as well as reductions in discretionary policing, which too often allows lazy racists to simply drive around and indulge their biases, bigotry, and worse.
As evidenced by the demographic of those singing his praises on this thread. He strikes me as someone who likes to stroke his own ego and as someone who projects his own insecurities as being those of people fighting against racism.
@@machsimillian14 McWhorter is to CRT as Flat Earther is to Astrophysics.
I think you tend to ignore some of the negative effects of certain elements of black culture such as what is glorified in hip-hop culture. Is it any wonder that young black men are blasting one another? But yeah, ignore that.
@@Renwa82 who played these glorifications on their radio stations while ignoring socially conscious rap that was always there? Who played it on their TV stations? Wrote it into their movies? What audience with disposable wealth ate it up and fed the machine that painted the image in a systemic way to an entire nation of black and white people for profit when they could have used the platform in a constructive way? Who used their platforms to literally define these aspects of "black culture" for us?? Is it reductive AF, and a clear indicator you have absorbed those systemic ideas, to pretend that even with relatively high crime rates there aren't literally MILLIONS of black people in these cities living their lives like anyone else while you seem to want us to believe all those glorifications to be the average activity of someone with a dark complexion?
Do you not realize those "negative effects" are part of what people are talking about when they say we need to discuss systemic racism? But yeah, please stop ignoring all that.
@@fusiondog77 Stuart Scott would say: "Booyah"!
I love his solutions. I also think school choice, free vocational training, and incentives for men to raise their children would change not just black lives, but all American lives.
But only vocational training? Why is that?
@@fusiondog77 High need, high salaries & little competition.
@@Edgar-Friendly there is an ever increasing competition with trades from both imported goods and automation. We also have high need for medical professionals and other highly skilled fields in STEM, most of which are high pay.
None of that is a strong argument against multiple forms of higher education. Trades should definitely not be ignored, but half solutions get half results. It sucks for society when the next Einstein settles for a trade because they don't see chasing the education needed as feasible and everything they could have done is lost to some alternate advanced reality.
@@fusiondog77 Your hubris makes you feel better but solves nothing. There is a real need - immediate and with immediate financial rewards where you talk like a modern woman Kevin Samuels exposes. This is John's point where he addresses actual solutions. You talk and shit on an obvious and documented pathway to how generational wealth gets created.
@@Edgar-Friendly uh huh, you could just say: higher education scares me.
Can you define hubris, cause it doesn't seem like you are using it right.
There is immediate need for tech work, I hire for it. We are interviewing a lot of people from other countries cause US doesn't prioritize it. You talk like someone making stuff up and referencing appeals to authority instead of being able to articulate your own ideas.
I didn't "shit" on anything. Trade school is VERY good. Give it to everyone who needs it, but don't waste minds.
Also, are you asserting doctors and tech people don't generate wealth that could be generational? How does that make any sense?
A refreshing and very helpful point of view!--Also courageous!
Brilliant mind and thinker. I am great full for having heard John speak.
He makes sense.I went to a Quaker School too, and I understand where he comes from. Good
How was your personal experience in Quaker school? Been thinking about enrolling my child. Did you enjoy this experience, and/or did it help you develop your worldview and perspective? Thanks.
Goes mainstream in Canada. Thats cbc , Amanpour. I like this guy.
Wow! Well stated and pragmatic solutions to getting to real equality in an incremental and realistic way.
I don't agree with everything he says, but a lot of big problems are addressed in there.
That was unexpected, different, and outstanding.
Even though my opinions tend to run left of center, this was one of the most eloquently stated opinions regarding the race issue by a non leftist. No sensationalism, no extremism, just a common sense, practical viewpoint. Glad I watched.
You come off sounding like only a "non-leftist" can be rational, intelligent and have common sense
@@cocophillips9251 It's unfortunate that you read my statement that way. SMH.
It is extremely refreshing to hear more reasoned and intellectually nuances views on this highly complex and multi-faceted issue. Wow. I highly endorse this and have shared widely. Intellectually refreshing.
Intellectually enlightening. Amen
John McWhorter is concise, focused and on-target in this interview. It is difficult to make the arguments that he presents here because people are accustomed to sound-bites that fit the conventional narratives that they are used to hearing. McWhorter is interested in solving problems rather than virtue-signaling. It's a tough sell in an age like ours that thrives off of spectacles rather than substance. It is impressive to see him deftly avoid the pitfalls that popular culture usually uses to entrap critical thinkers. Kudos also to Walter Isaacson in conducting this interview.
His arguments are superfluous. It's insanity.
Only do you hear or see so-called "black elites" making such preposterous assertions. What John won't tell you is that "woke" isn't new. It's been around since the 1930s and this "extremism" is the result of a century of doing almost nothing.
Racism White Supremacy is extremism, and now that a segment of the country is pushing the social, political, and economic pendulum back the other way, intellectual elitists like John (and his groupies) are hyper-critical. But, where in the hell was John for the last century?
I saw John like one time in the last thirty years. And now here he is telling a traumatized society measure your response to Racism White Supremacy. John is not only Johnny come lately, but he's also false-hearted, and I question his sincerity.
What kind of person would tell a traumatized population, measure your response to that which traumatized you? He pretends like he's not who he is -- he's not Batman. We can see him and so can they.
@@kwakukumi4729 Thanks for taking the time to call out his BS. This guy is a ridiculous lightweight, dishonest and dumb yet full of himself, espousing straw man nonsense to smear the effort to end racism.
He's a cynic who sees the money being made by people of color who talk trash about anti-racism to provide some deniability to the racist right wing propaganda market, like Faux News.
@Greg Vinson @Kwaku Kumi
Agreed. All he wants to do is make white people feel better. That's probably what's paying his bills right now. He's catering to white fragility and it fosters inaction. My own friends love him and it's infuriating. In another talk, John opened by making four false comparisons between events where cops killed a white person vs a black person. He was SO off and led his audience to believe that "the exact same" police brutality is happening to white people. It is maddening. I researched each case he sited and found that they were entirely different circumstances. White people had a far greater chance of living and there were actual significant consequences for the shooters.
@@ChordOfC Excellent points; catering to the white fragility market is a perfect concise summation of what grifters like him and Candace Owens, are doing, cynically punching down on people who look like themselves. It's really sickening to see them humiliating themselves for cash by selling comforting racist lies to white bigots.
@@kwakukumi4729 Jesus Christ! Another psycho that thinks the boogeyman is white supremacy. Just a heads up from the outside looking in, you have been brainwashed. I am guessing that you are probably in your early to mid 20s and think that everything that is happening now is changing the world for the better?
Thank you 🙏 both.
John McWhorter’s ability to cross over into the mainstream media is a gift to us all!
Cross over from where?
@@JediNiyte I thought perhaps you had a non-trivial explanation.
@@JediNiyte Thanks. That helps.
Good to have moderates like John McWhorter.
There are many out there. We've just been drowned out by the noise makers on the right and left as well.
This guy has 3 things I admire: integrity, courage and common sense
Banking system- racists
Federal Reserve policies- racists
Tax policies- racists
Credit Bureaus- racists
Hiring practices- still racists but improving
Many in the Armed Forces- racists
Many politicians- racists
We still have long way to go...
Book added to Wishlist
Someone got a nice payday.
This guy is so right, not just about the excesses of woke-sim and white-fragility-ism, but also about real solutions to the problems of poor black people in America. Such a rational guy; it's a shame that guys like him rarely get the attention they deserve.
He has put forward few solutions . He mostly argues against others trying to find a way. Long on criticism short on answers.
He's a con-man I can play his game and make money by exploited your denial and black America just he dose
he is what a black accommodationist black accommodations' go all the way back to the slave plantation
and you no anything about woke.
@@doradodude140 I agree that he is short on solutions, but he is long on helping to understand that the problems are human problems that are compounded by selective restrictions (discrimination/racism), and not defects of the people involved. Solutions maybe can be had by a different type of thinker.
@@shells500tutubo I’d be curious if anyone here even knows what “WOKE” is. Its nothing to be afraid of. As simple as “Hip”. A finer focus on values almost all of us share. MSM has a stake in dividing us.
Think back , people hated Gays , discriminated against Blacks.
Being anti Woke is not pushing the human agenda forward.
I looked askance at the words of Dr. McWhorter -- until he started talking about his proposed solutions. The wisdom in his proposed actions snapped his views into focus and I saw the wisdom in his views as well.
This guy just red-pilled untold thousands of people. Good on him!
This whole channel does that
McWhorter is a highly intelligent man. Always enjoy his conversations.
I feel he is the liberal version of Thomas Sowell.
Thank you!! I'm a progressive, been standing by all my communities my entire life, and yes this movement has been scary. Feeling like I can't say anything without triple-checking every statement for being in-line with last-week's trends is as terrifying as it was being a kid in a eastern-block russian-style country. And I don't agree with the far-right (which I guess is now just 'the right'), I think they're even worse, but damn when I'm down to these two choices. When there's no nuance, no possibility of disagreeing with a method without automatically being attacked.
My mother once told me that if I shout someone into silence it doesn't mean I convinced them or won, it just means I ended that line of dialog - and damn me if she wasn't right. 'cause yea, I left a lot of discussions, a lot of groups I supported, quietly, because of that. Because I'm told that because the color of my skin I need to shut up and sit back or I'm a racist. I'm not even from this country. My people never colonized crap-all, we were enslaved as much as anyone, my grandfather spent most of his life in chain-gangs as a 'political prisoner', I grew up being mocked and pushed around for having an accent, my mother went from an IT job to working three minimum wage and factory jobs at once while being constantly told to 'go back where she came from', I have nothing-to-do-with-this-country's-history-of-racism! But I can't open my mouth about stuff that directly impacts my life, my taxes, my community, I can't speak to subjects I have actual knowledge of and research behind, or call out stuff that I think is absolutely idiotic (like red-scare style canceling anyone for voicing an opinion, or the part of 'defund the police' that actually believes the literal phrases instead of the ideals behind it), or my social life and possibly my job are freaking over. Half the cars on my block are suddenly getting broken into or stolen but I'm not allowed to say 'hey, we should stop that' or I don't have sympathy for the poor? I grew up poor, this isn't about being poor, its about not wanting my freaking car broken into, because I can't afford another one. So screw that, I just disconnected from supporting any of this until people regain their sanity a bit. I'll still try to block republicans where I can because holy crap that party's gone off the deep end of authoritarianism and radicalism (again, as someone who has lived under both I can easily see the symptoms, as can most migrants from these situations or historians), but that's it. Damn.
Thank you Mr. McWhorter, I hope folk listen to you so we can make progress instead of just wearing progressive pins.
Excellent sharing of your experience, thank you! People in our free world do not know how lucky we are....and there is real danger in all the devisive attitudes, engendering hatred....threatening our democratic way of life..We must be grateful, look for real solutions & quit attacking each other...or we may be stripped of our blessings, our democracy, our way of life.....which is far better than most places on earth !
As another “white” immigrant to the US, your comments struck a cord. I relate to most of what you said- about being progressive (I still can’t wrap my head around why making societal progress is seen as “radical” in the US, but that’s another topic…), about the experience of our parents being cut off at the knees and starting from the bottom despite their prior career accomplishments, about the irony and hypocrisy in being labeled as “white oppressors” when our own recent ancestors had been oppressed, about people assuming you’ve had it easy (and maybe even “bankrolled”) based on your appearance and education level, and also about acknowledging that race plays a significant role in poverty, but shouldn’t be used to dismiss hateful and hurtful behavior towards others.
The weird thing is, from a cultural standpoint, I often feel very “ethnic” among my white peers, and feel like I relate more closely with my peers of color. But it’s a really difficult concept to convey to either group bc US Americans seem to equate culture with skin color, and vice versa.
@Hypno Kitten,
The issue *isn’t evolved social* and *political consciousness,* which ‘woke’ is the American Africoid Lexicon (ex-‘Ebonics’) term for, its *NARCISSISTIC MOBBING.*
*NARCISSISTIC* (sometimes site-specific termed: ‘academic’ or ‘workplace’) *MOBBING.*
*That* is the issue we *must deal with* immediately.
Get the *issue correct* - *then* deal with the creators and causes of *that* issue. *Most are:* unchecked inappropriate/neglectful/abusive lax parenting, not teaching/reminding/encouraging ethics and humanity to the needed extent nor often enough, a huge amount of children/teens/young adults accessing anything on the internet at will, trend-following, influencer-following, poverty or arrested development or low self-esteem caused rejection/adult-tolerated bullying(!)/isolation, en masse social media and video gaming interaction/addiction, violent and personally curated immediately supplied and extreme porn, (war crime) rape and gang rape as sport, police coonhunt and slavecatcher culture sport murders as racist porn, uploading everything videographed/photographed/audio recorded without consent, readily internet-available illicit drugs, addiction, coercive control and every other type of abuse at home/neighbourhoods/school/work/in cliques/sub-cultures, poor education and toxic environments leading to psychological disorders/crime/homelessness, *the eight organised androsupremacist terrorist gangs/cults (‘Red Pill’ a.k.a. ‘Manosphere’)* seducing/recruiting/grooming/reprogramming/dehumanising the young - boys and men, from young childhood to young adulthood, especially - from suggesting - up to *dictating* that *followers intentionally become ‘Dark Triad’ personality disordered (insane) abusers(!)* (i.e.: narcopaths, psychopaths, sociopaths, pathological narcissists, machiavellianists, borderlines, anti-socials) and *caucasoid supremacist terrorist gangs* executing the same types of *recruiting/grooming/reprogramming/dehumanising* (there’s a huge crossover of the two sub-cultures - *destroying* boys and men, and the womxn, vulnerables and people of colour they end up believing are their OWNED ‘PROPERTY’ to ‘MANIPULATE,’ ‘PUNISH’ and ‘DESTROY’ as they see fit, at their personal will). *...en masse narcopathic glorification of serial killers, school and house of worship masse shooters, ‘male state’/’incel’ rampage misogynistic murderers, andrewtate’s ‘loverboy’ fraudster cultist androsupremacist misogynist abusers of girls and young and vulnerable womxn* ...need I continue?!
Please, permit us to *collectively DEAL* with the generational, classist, caucasoid supremacist and androsupremacist issues of, indeed, *needing to put the interest, effort and time in to learn an evolved sensitivity and language of domestic, political and social consciousness;* simply the *evolutionary changing* of outdated 1960s language *LATER,* please. It has been long-since overdue, anyhow. The changes should have occurred by the 1990s. That issue is simply *growing pains* due to *uncomfortable* (but necessarily further inclusive) *change.*
*Thanks* for reading, researching and *deeply considering* all mentioned herein. We’re *definitely doomed* if we permit *Dark Triads and Cluster-Bs* to take over and *continue to lead* anymore than *they already have.*
I think the speaker is a great voice for a line of thinking within the black community. Me and my friends express conservative values more ofter than not. However...we can walk amd chew gum at the same time. The issues the speaker refers to are the activism portion of protest for change. Awareness HAS to happen lest people be allowed to feign ignorance in lue of progress. We've seen this happen all too often. Dr. King did good but he knew thr job wasnt finished. We have to carry the mantle of extinguishing as much as we can...not through divisive rhetoric but through hard discussions and debates on topics that affect us all and individually. Great discussion 💯✌
I think Mr. McWhorter has said it perfectly! End the war on drugs! This will help tremendously to keep black men out of prison! Prisoning folks for making mistakes that can be rectified through education is not going to help anyone. Focus on solutions instead of the problems--most people, whatever genetic heritage they may be, already know what the problems are. We've heard about problems for decades. Solution solution solution! Turn and face the other way.