John McWhorter is an American linguist and associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, where he teaches linguistics, American studies, philosophy, and music history. He has authored numerous texts on language and race relations, and has had pieces published in multiple prominent magazines criticizing the abhorrently racist book “White Fragility” by self-proclaimed white racist Robin DiAngelo.
Currently, McWhorter is writing a brilliantly penned book titled, “The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and their Threat to a Progressive America” which he is serially releasing via his Substack “It Bears Mentioning,” publishing it a chapter at a time.
I have not read the other excerpts from this book yet, however, I can attest to his Substack article being a truly incredible breakdown of the religion of “woke” insanity that has infiltrated our nation at every level. I strongly encourage you to read it, though it is decently lengthy and his style of writing took some getting used to.
In one portion, he suggests, “Anyone who smirks “What’s the big deal?” is either ignorant (possible), cynical (unlikely), too young to understand that the Overton Window – that which we think of as normal – is shifting (understandable) or, quite simply, religious without knowing it.”
In describing this woke religion he writes, “The Elect will insist that what they are doing is not founding a replacement for Protestantism, but acting upon what I have seen phrased as “an enduring white responsibility for deconstructing our own privilege and the systemic pervasiveness of white supremacy.””
He explained that the canceling of a certain museum director over saying “reverse racism” ““functioned” as it were to make his inquisitors feel noble, and look noble to one another. They were doing their duty as religious parishioners displaying their faith, not forging societal change.” This assertion amazed me. Though I have referred to the woke Left as a cult, I had never perceived it in that particular manner.
If Elect philosophy were really about changing the world, its parishioners would be ever champing at the bit to get out and do the changing, as were Jane Addams and Dr. King.
It would be a problem among their flock: persuading adherents to sit tight and engage in the navel-gazing, set-jawed, hermetic reprogramming exercises rather than going out to do real things for real people in need.
Professor John Whorter
McWhorter goes on to convey how these zealots distort reality, “After insisting that what they are doing is about changing society rather than about virtue signalling, The Elect are especially given to claiming that what I am describing is not a serious problem.” Depicting antiracism as, “warning against the pitchfork mob of Electness are just obsessing over a few crazy overstretches and pretending it means the sky is falling in.”
He then proceeds to disprove common fallacies about justifications behind the wokeness of antiracist rhetoric such as, “It’s just some college kids finding themselves,” and “It’s just something going on in some colleges and universities,” or “The real problem is the right-wing, racist zealots!” You can read his breakdowns of why they are irrational excuses in his Substack.
You get First-Wave antiracism and think of segregation as an ancient barbarity.
You’re right.
You get Second-Wave anti-racism – i.e. roughly equivalent to what Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan did for feminism — and think we should all work to truly see black people as equal to whites and deserving of all that whites get.
You’re right.
You see Third-Wave antiracism telling you are morally bound to conceive of ordinary statements like “I don’t see color” as racist that once were thought of as progressive. That if you are white you are to despise yourself as tainted permanently by “white privilege” in everything you do. That you must accept even claims of racism from black people that make no real sense, or if you are black, must pretend that such claims are sacrosanct because the essence of your life is oppression. Whatever color you are, in the name of acknowledging “power” you are to divide people into racial classes, in exactly the way that First- and Second-Wave antiracism taught you not to, including watching your kids and grandkids taught the same, despite that progress on racism has been so resplendent over the past 50 years that an old-school segregationist brought alive to walk through modern America even in the deepest South would find it hard not to turn to the side of the road and retch at what he saw.
You don’t get it. You are right again.
Professor John McWhorter
He correctly assumes that to any logical being that, “all of that nags like an eyelash caught behind your contact lens,” and brilliantly clarifies that it’s because “you are watching a religion being born. That its adherents don’t realize they are under the influence of a religion is precisely evidence that this is what it is.”
They insist that self-mortification is political activism – fail. They insist that being black is ever and only oppression from the white man – fail.
Professor John McWhorter
Naturally, to most people, this new wave of wokeism is confusing and offensive. How could these people believe this insane rhetoric? McWhorter elucidates, “only religion can explain why anyone would think that all of this doubletalk is sense. You, black or not, are not crazy to get that this stuff doesn’t wash.” According to these crusaders for antiracism, “your job is to learn to cover your ears against what feels like verbal jiu-jitsu from those whose sense of significance is founded in denying reason and teaching people who have already been through enough to build their identities around a studied sense of victimhood.”
You may be wondering if antiracism is a religion, then where/who is their God? McWhorter concludes this chapter with a logical explanation “as Eric Hoffer put it, religions don’t need a God but they need a devil, and The Elect have that down quite comfortably. Superstition, clergy, sinfulness, a proselytizing impulse, a revulsion against the impure – it’s all there. They think of it all as logic incarnate.”
I implore you not to brush this rapidly spreading insanity off and let these extremists fundamentally deform our society, our culture. These people are mentally deranged and they are taking over our country spreading the word of their ludicrous woke dogma. Silence is compliance. Compliance will usher in a disturbing transformation of our predominantly morally balanced culture.
All white people are not privileged racists. All black people are not oppressed victims. Opposing or insulting someone of a different race does not indicate that it was based on racist ideology. Not liking someone of another race should lead to the conclusion that the dislike stems from racial discrimination. No one should be instructed to apologize for their race. No one should be ordered to kneel before anyone of any race. Anyone who tells you otherwise is toxic and attempting to be intentionally detrimental to our civilization.
John McWhorter is an absolute genius, and completely obliterated the antiracism philosophy that has swept the nation. I’m pleased to witness that there are still educators who are not communists attempting to indoctrinate our youth. I also must admit that I am amazed he has retained his position as a University professor.
