A review by stephenmeansme
Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter

2.0

This is a difficult one to rate. I more or less agree with McWhorter's sentiments but he's better in audio than in text on these subjects; and his insistence on calling the "woke" turn a literal religion strikes me (an atheist!) as weird if he's trying to reach Normie America. The other annoyance is that in some of the anecdotes he leans too hard on a "victim of the woke mob" narrative, when (1) focus on the bizarre, self-flagellating, and/or overwrought statements by said mob would do fine; and (2) when the situation is actually a bit more complicated and would count as a normal "group decides member isn't adhering to group standards and parts ways" if there wasn't additional loud wailing about isms and deeply-rooted whatevers and the-work-doings.

The question is, who would I recommend this book to, when I think I could articulate McWhorter's position in my own words in a fraction of the time? Or recommend his Times articles, or his his review in The Atlantic of WHITE FRAGILITY? It's hard to say, so I can't rate this highly.

2.5 stars rounded down.