The Neoracists

[Chris]

The Neoracists is an excerpt from John McWhorter' new book, The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and their Threat to a Progressive America.

It is a surprising warning from a liberal.

One can divide antiracism into three waves. First Wave Antiracism battled slavery and segregation. Second Wave Antiracism, in the 1970s and 1980s, battled racist attitudes and taught America that being racist was a flaw. Third Wave Antiracism, becoming mainstream in the 2010s, teaches that racism is baked into the structure of society, so whites’ “complicity” in living within it constitutes racism itself, while for black people, grappling with the racism surrounding them is the totality of experience and must condition exquisite sensitivity toward them, including a suspension of standards of achievement and conduct.

Third Wave Antiracist tenets, stated clearly and placed in simple oppositions, translate into nothing whatsoever:

1. When black people say you have insulted them, apologize with profound sincerity and guilt. But don’t put black people in a position where you expect them to forgive you. They have dealt with too much to be expected to.
2. Black people are a conglomeration of disparate individuals. “Black culture” is code for “pathological, primitive ghetto people.” But don’t expect black people to assimilate to “white” social norms because black people have a culture of their own.
3. Silence about racism is violence. But elevate the voices of the oppressed over your own.
4. You must strive eternally to understand the experiences of black people. But you can never understand what it is to be black, and if you think you do you’re a racist.
5. Show interest in multiculturalism. But do not culturally appropriate. What is not your culture is not for you, and you may not try it or do it. But—if you aren’t nevertheless interested in it, you are a racist.
6. Support black people in creating their own spaces and stay out of them. But seek to have black friends. If you don’t have any, you’re a racist. And if you claim any, they’d better be good friends—in their private spaces, you aren’t allowed in.
7. When whites move away from black neighborhoods, it’s white flight. But when whites move into black neighborhoods, it’s gentrification, even when they pay black residents generously for their houses.
8. If you’re white and only date white people, you’re a racist. But if you’re white and date a black person you are, if only deep down, exotifying an “other.”
9. Black people cannot be held accountable for everything every black person does. But all whites must acknowledge their personal complicity in the perfidy throughout history of “whiteness.”
10. Black students must be admitted to schools via adjusted grade and test score standards to ensure a representative number of them and foster a diversity of views in classrooms. But it is racist to assume a black student was admitted to a school via racial preferences, and racist to expect them to represent the “diverse” view in classroom discussions.

...

[Mister D]

I won't mention names but we have quite a few left leaning members who have indulged this ideology and have internalized it to some extent.

[Standing Wolf]

I won't mention names but we have quite a few left leaning members who have indulged this ideology and have internalized it to some extent.

Name two.

[Mister D]

Name two.

Dr Who and Adelaide That was easy.

[Standing Wolf]

Dr Who and Adelaide That was easy.

What's easy is accusing without any evidence. I daresay you'd be hard pressed to find any post by either member to support your accusation.

[Chris]

Dr Who and Adelaide That was easy.

Who just about any time she posts regarding social justice, especially when the meanings of words are dissected. Ade sometimes when she posts on psych studies regarding racism. That's what I recall, it's not blatant, but it's can be seen. Ain't no one going to go finds posts, that's silly.

[Mister D]

What's easy is accusing without any evidence. I daresay you'd be hard pressed to find any post by either member to support your accusation.

I'm not going to waste my time looking for posts. It's much easier asking them if McWhorter is correct in his descriptions, that this ideology is nutso and watch them balk.

[Mister D]

Who just about any time she posts regarding social justice, especially when the meanings of words are dissected. Ade sometimes when she posts on psych studies regarding racism. That's what I recall, it's not blatant, but it's can be seen. Ain't no one going to go finds posts, that's silly.

Those are just the first two that came to mind. For example, how many times were we told here that the perceptions of black people need to be validated and respected even when they're totally irrational and at odds with the facts? Cops running amok and murdering unarmed black men? "Systemic racism"? Perception is reality! Except when it comes to stolen elections, I suppose.

[Chris]

Those are just the first two that came to mind. For example, how many times were we told here that the perceptions of black people need to be validated and respected even when they're totally irrational and at odds with the facts? Cops running amok and murdering unarmed black men? "Systemic racism"? Perception is reality! Except when it comes to stolen elections, I suppose.

I recall many times being told #4: "You must strive eternally to understand the experiences of black people. But you can never understand what it is to be black, and if you think you do you’re a racist." Even when citing a black in some article or video.

[Standing Wolf]

I'm not going to waste my time looking for posts. It's much easier asking them if McWhorter is correct in his descriptions, that this ideology is nutso and watch them balk.

At which point you would no doubt accuse them of "backtracking" or of being disingenuous.

I found the list of "Third Wave Antiracist tenets" to be accurate and fairly comprehensive, insofar as it describes the ideological basis for much of the race-based nonsense we see coming out of the universities and elsewhere. I would characterize it as ignorant and seriously short-sighted rather than "nutso", but...semantics.

I can see either Adelaide or Who possibly exploring, in a post, the origin of some of this thinking - some of these attitudes and convictions - without necessarily agreeing with or attempting to validate them. Both members are scrupulous in reading up on and researching a matter before posting on it, and sometimes an expression of understanding can be mistaken as approval or agreement.