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A review by jedwardsusc
Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter
2.0
What surprised me about "Woke Racism" is not the tone (I get that he's being polemical); it's the sloppy use of language. John McWhorter is a very well-credentialed linguistics professor. Yet he repeatedly asserts that circa-2020 anti-racism movements are a "religion." He then reduces "religion" to some simplified, fundamentalist version of Christianity. And then he warns readers that these pseudo-Christians are (of course?) a superstitious, witch-burning, mentally unbalanced "mob" who are coming for you, your children, your celebrity chefs, your culture, and the whole of post-Enlightenment modernity. And this isn't just some bizarre, fear-mongering analogy he tosses out once or twice; it is a major theme that runs all the way through the book. I suppose it's not a bad polemical choice to declare your opponents religious zealots who are incapable of rational thought, but (beyond counting up the fallacious and underdeveloped arguments) it doesn't make for particularly interesting reading.
It's easy for me to imagine a very different book in which McWhorter engages in some nuanced critique of Coates, DiAngelo, and Kendi while spending a lot more time developing and exploring the benefits and challenges of his three major proposals at the end (stop the war on drugs; teach phonics; and promote trade schools). I feel like I would have benefited from (and probably enjoyed) that book. I don't feel like I came away with much from this one.
It's easy for me to imagine a very different book in which McWhorter engages in some nuanced critique of Coates, DiAngelo, and Kendi while spending a lot more time developing and exploring the benefits and challenges of his three major proposals at the end (stop the war on drugs; teach phonics; and promote trade schools). I feel like I would have benefited from (and probably enjoyed) that book. I don't feel like I came away with much from this one.