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A review by kalifer
Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 41%.
I got to the chapter "What Attracts People to this Religion?" and I just couldn't take it anymore. I was struggling a lot. I couldn't help but be astounded by how tone-deaf this book read. Presenting the idea that anti-racism today is some new religion with black-and-white thinking while reiterating talking points of the "Elect" in a very black-and-white way is just very...hypocritical. When he lists certain talking points that contradict one another, he does it while lacking the nuance of the actual arguments. Of course things are not going to align perfectly; those who are anti-racist don't all think the EXACT SAME WAY nor do they rail against racist institution in THE EXACT SAME WAY. He presents such takes as if all anti-racist activists are a monolith, which just isn't fair at all, and very disingenuous.
He references multiple writers throughout this book, some of which I've actually read their work, and it just seemed like he was using them to prove his point, but I didn't understand how so. Is he saying that these writers and activists lack any sort of nuance? He presents them as, like, the misguided leaders of these movements, using so to imply their religious status. It really seemed like he was misrepresenting their arguments, and, again, using them to present black-and-white dichotomies of what people are ACTUALLY saying. I could not wrap my head around how absolutely preachy this came out, from someone who wants to "save" black people.
And it seems like he doesn't even address, from what I read, how this book can come off to people. I think I saw another reviewer mention this; he doesn't recognize, vocally at all, that his book can be seen by racists and other extremist as aligning with their previously held beliefs that "the woke mob" is actually wrong and hurting people.
I didn't like how he seemed to be very harshly in defense of white people who have "done wrong" and being attacked by the "Elect" for being even slightly racist. I had to really quit when it seemed like he was defending someone who wore black face?? I'm white, I do not feel defended in this book. If anything, I feel embarrassed by his show to constantly uphold white people who have been "wrongly convicted" in a social sense. And he makes sure, at the beginning of his book, to make it seem like anyone who disagrees with his book is part of the misguided "Elect" and anyone who agrees with him is inherently righteous. Maybe that's not exactly what he said, but it sure damn felt like it. The way he presents himself as righteous in the name of anti-racist "religion," is just ridiculous, I cannot state that enough.
Conservative people are going to find this book and use it as a token of the one black man who agrees with them about the "woke mob," and he, as I and others have said, makes no mention of this. He choses to leave out, at least from what I read, any mention of the fact that he's spewing a lot of conservative talking points.
I couldn't take it anymore. I hope that he eventually has something good to say in later chapters, but I cannot, for the life of me, read anymore of this.
He references multiple writers throughout this book, some of which I've actually read their work, and it just seemed like he was using them to prove his point, but I didn't understand how so. Is he saying that these writers and activists lack any sort of nuance? He presents them as, like, the misguided leaders of these movements, using so to imply their religious status. It really seemed like he was misrepresenting their arguments, and, again, using them to present black-and-white dichotomies of what people are ACTUALLY saying. I could not wrap my head around how absolutely preachy this came out, from someone who wants to "save" black people.
And it seems like he doesn't even address, from what I read, how this book can come off to people. I think I saw another reviewer mention this; he doesn't recognize, vocally at all, that his book can be seen by racists and other extremist as aligning with their previously held beliefs that "the woke mob" is actually wrong and hurting people.
I didn't like how he seemed to be very harshly in defense of white people who have "done wrong" and being attacked by the "Elect" for being even slightly racist. I had to really quit when it seemed like he was defending someone who wore black face?? I'm white, I do not feel defended in this book. If anything, I feel embarrassed by his show to constantly uphold white people who have been "wrongly convicted" in a social sense. And he makes sure, at the beginning of his book, to make it seem like anyone who disagrees with his book is part of the misguided "Elect" and anyone who agrees with him is inherently righteous. Maybe that's not exactly what he said, but it sure damn felt like it. The way he presents himself as righteous in the name of anti-racist "religion," is just ridiculous, I cannot state that enough.
Conservative people are going to find this book and use it as a token of the one black man who agrees with them about the "woke mob," and he, as I and others have said, makes no mention of this. He choses to leave out, at least from what I read, any mention of the fact that he's spewing a lot of conservative talking points.
I couldn't take it anymore. I hope that he eventually has something good to say in later chapters, but I cannot, for the life of me, read anymore of this.