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A review by helpfulsnowman
Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter
5.0
I think the big thing to say about this book and its thesis is that it feels almost taboo to read it and give it five stars.
This book, by a black man, that is so leftist that it proposes, as a full third of a plan to improve the lives of black people, the complete end to the war on drugs, is taboo to read.
It feels taboo because while the ideas are leftist, they aren’t the same kind of woke-ism proposed by so many others.
And that’s the weirdest thing about it. This book that proposes an alternate method by which racism can be addressed (a more concrete, solutions-based system that prioritizes improving the lives of black people rather than a lot of the more emotional, feelings-based soul-searching proposed by some others) feels taboo, but not because of what I’d hear from someone who believes racism isn’t real or the earth is flat or something. It feels taboo to talk about with left-leaning people who want to improve the lives of black people.
I just think that’s a weird feeling to have about a book, especially this particular book.
If you’re afraid to read this book, don’t be. It will not make you into a monster.
The only other thing I have to say is that reading this has spurred me on to take another shot at Coates and Kendi, just because I want to see for myself whether what McWhorter says about their work is true. After my first attempt at Between the World and Me, I didn’t move on to other texts on racism. I felt…preached at. I felt that reading other texts that saw the world differently was somehow disrespectful. And because so many people I know loved that book so much, I felt like it was a sin to step away from it feeling, well…like it was assigned reading. To be a good person, you had to read it, and you had to either love it or just not talk about it.
I’ve only experienced this sort of thing with religious texts before. Never a memoir.
But I’m giving it another go because now I feel like there’s some context. I think reading it as sermon as opposed to hard journalism is a good approach for me. I think maybe it’s meant to evoke feeling more than it’s meant to be a quantitative thesis on race in America.
What’s important about that is that I read two books on the same topic. One slammed on the brakes for me. The other hit the gas. One left me feeling confused and talked at. The other left me feeling like I wanted to learn more.
This book, by a black man, that is so leftist that it proposes, as a full third of a plan to improve the lives of black people, the complete end to the war on drugs, is taboo to read.
It feels taboo because while the ideas are leftist, they aren’t the same kind of woke-ism proposed by so many others.
And that’s the weirdest thing about it. This book that proposes an alternate method by which racism can be addressed (a more concrete, solutions-based system that prioritizes improving the lives of black people rather than a lot of the more emotional, feelings-based soul-searching proposed by some others) feels taboo, but not because of what I’d hear from someone who believes racism isn’t real or the earth is flat or something. It feels taboo to talk about with left-leaning people who want to improve the lives of black people.
I just think that’s a weird feeling to have about a book, especially this particular book.
If you’re afraid to read this book, don’t be. It will not make you into a monster.
The only other thing I have to say is that reading this has spurred me on to take another shot at Coates and Kendi, just because I want to see for myself whether what McWhorter says about their work is true. After my first attempt at Between the World and Me, I didn’t move on to other texts on racism. I felt…preached at. I felt that reading other texts that saw the world differently was somehow disrespectful. And because so many people I know loved that book so much, I felt like it was a sin to step away from it feeling, well…like it was assigned reading. To be a good person, you had to read it, and you had to either love it or just not talk about it.
I’ve only experienced this sort of thing with religious texts before. Never a memoir.
But I’m giving it another go because now I feel like there’s some context. I think reading it as sermon as opposed to hard journalism is a good approach for me. I think maybe it’s meant to evoke feeling more than it’s meant to be a quantitative thesis on race in America.
What’s important about that is that I read two books on the same topic. One slammed on the brakes for me. The other hit the gas. One left me feeling confused and talked at. The other left me feeling like I wanted to learn more.