📚 1 Books mentioned in "John McWhorter: How Anti-Racism Is Leaving Black People in the Lurch | People I (Mostly) Admire | 72" of People I (Mostly) Admire
Podcast: People I (Mostly) Admire
Episode: John McWhorter: How Anti-Racism Is Leaving Black People in the Lurch | People I (Mostly) Admire | 72
Published on January 20, 2023
Here’s a list of all the books mentioned in this episode. Click on the links to watch specific excerpts on YouTube and feel free to purchase the books if they caught your interest!
Woke Racism
Buy Woke Racism by John McWhorter on Amazon
After this short break, they’ll return to talk about John's book 'Woke Racism.' So our listener, I know, wrote us an email about the high gas prices we’re currently seeing as a result of Russia’s war with Ukraine.
In this segment, the podcast highlights the forthcoming discussion about 'Woke Racism,' a book by guest John McWhorter.
Your book entitled 'Woke Racism' was published last year, and the subtitle of that book is 'How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.' So how about we start with you defining the group, ideology, or way of thinking that you're reacting to in your book—the thing that you characterize as a new religion?
In this segment, Steve Levitt introduces John McWhorter's book 'Woke Racism,' highlighting its full title and subtitle. He sets the stage for a discussion by asking McWhorter to define the ideology that the book responds to, framing it as a new religion.
So 'Woke Racism' was not a book meant to just complain about the woke; it's not a book that Tucker Carlson would have written. What I was writing was that black people are being hurt by people who call themselves helping us and that we need to start being able to tell the difference.
In this segment, John McWhorter elaborates on the goals of his book, 'Woke Racism'. He emphasizes that the book aims to critique the harmful impacts of the so-called 'woke' movement on Black individuals, rather than merely expressing discontent with it.
You know what that woman is? That’s who I wrote 'Woke Racism' for; that is exactly what I mean. That is somebody whose heart is very much in the right place, but she’s so afraid of being called the dirtiest name other than pedophile in our current cultural vocabulary that she’s basically hamstrung.
John McWhorter discusses how the situation of a white mother hesitating to invite a black girl for a play date exemplifies a key argument in his book 'Woke Racism', illustrating the complexities surrounding racial dynamics and fear of societal judgment.
So towards the end of your book 'Woke Racism,' you suggest a few ideas that you believe would actually make a positive impact on black America, and I want to talk about one in particular which is about teaching kids to read using phonics. I'm not a specialist in education, but I know just enough to know that teaching kids how to read by sounding out the words is more effective, especially with kids from homes that don't have many books in them, than teaching them how to read through a more holistic process where you teach them to recognize the outer contours of the words and surround the kids with content-rich material and give them a little bit of social justice ideology along the lines of teaching empathy in educational schools.
The podcast host refers back to 'Woke Racism' to initiate a final discussion point on solutions the guest proposes within the book.