Gordon Lewis

Black American Minority Group:

An Examination of the Viewpoints of John McWhorter

In one of the discussions in class, a point was made that minority and immigrants groups continue to evolve.  Groups of people change and it follows that as a group changes the descriptions of that group need also to evolve to reflect those changes.  John McWhorter has written three books, Losing the Race, 2001, Authentically Black, 2003, and Winning the Race, 2006.  In these three titles, McWhorter argues that after forty years of the social and legal changes brought about by the civil rights movement in the sixties and seventies and the wide variety of programs developed by the Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and other similar legislation, it is time to reexamine the Black minority group and the descriptions of this minority group need to reflect the significant social and legal changes that have occurred.

McWhorter is well positioned to write these books.  He has well established academic credentials as a College Professor of Linguistics at University of California, Berkley, and he has recently joined the Manhattan Institute in New York as a senior fellow.  He is Black, and thus by definition is a member of the minority group and has personally experienced the changes that have occurred over the last half century.

I have previously looked at the first two of these titles, and this assignment provided the motivation to examine the new title, Winning the Race.  The new title continues the themes of the first two books, with additional documentation and some new material in the concluding chapters, so it is useful to consider all three books together in that they have a similar tone.

McWhorter argues that three major concepts plague black America and the first of these is the “Cult of Victimology” that encourages black Americans to focus on the remnants of racism, both perceived and real.  Victimology is based on the belief that most black people are poor, blacks are paid less than whites for the same job, there is an epidemic of arson aimed at black churches, the CIA funneled crack into South Central Los Angeles, the Justice system is racist, and that police brutality against blacks is proof of ongoing racism.  Victimology does have historical roots which help make belief in associated myths all the more prevalent.

The second concept he identifies is “Separatism.” which encourages people to view black Americans through a prism in which they are held as less accountable than others because of the oppression they have been subject to.   The premises of Separatism are that the mainstream culture is identified as white, and thereby excludes blacks, and the ghettoization of academic work where some subjects are not considered appropriate or of interest to blacks, such as the study of the German Language, and where sometimes subjects are modified to fit a black agenda that may not be historically accurate but advances the cause of the separatist motif.  An additional element of separatist thinking identified by McWhorter is that “Black People Can Do No Wrong.”  This category includes events like the Simpson trial where public opinion was widely divided on racial grounds.

The last concept McWhorter addresses is Anti-intellectualism, which McWhorter believes is an attitude that dominates the culture and is thereby the causative factor of black academic underachievement.  Academic success is equated with “acting white”.

What McWhorter does in his writings is point by point demonstrate that the thinking of the past about the black minority group is no longer valid.  His point is that after forty years of affirmative action, college educations of two generations of blacks, and the improvement of visibility of blacks throughout the society where now major government positions and major corporate positions are held by blacks, it is time to redefine the black minority group.  In this new book, Winning the Race, in the concluding chapters he uses the term the New Negro to identify the black man or woman of the twenty first century, and he calls for new Black leadership for this new black identity because he believes that the current black leadership is oriented to conditions of the past.

Although many classify McWhorter as a black conservative, this picture is not clear.  For example, he is criticized by conservatives because he has acknowledged that he did not vote for Bush in the last two elections.  My reading of him is that he has a fresh approach to a difficult subject and that he has a great deal of insight, and much of it seems accurate. I do not believe that his work would have been as well received if he were not himself black.  Relative to the political spectrum, it appears as if his writings may appeal to those who are conservative, but McWhorter himself does not identify himself as a conservative and he does not endorse other elements of the conservative agenda.  He comes across more as an independent voice.  Irrespective of where he falls on the political spectrum, I think he has an interesting point of view that should be considered by those of us in education.

Works Cited

Clegg, Roger.  “Winning the Race:  Beyond the Crisis in Black America.” Book Review.  National Review Online. 24 Feb. 2006. 12 June 2006

<http://www.nationalreview.com/books/clegg200602240914.asp>

Martin, Dutch.  “Winning the Race by John McWhorter. Review.”  Townhall.com 3 Feb 12 June 2006 <http://www.townhall.com/opinion/
books_entertainment/reviews/DutchMartin/185049.html>      

McWhorter, John H. Authentically Black. Essays for the Black Silent Majority.  New York:  Gotham Books, 2003.

McWhorter, John H.  Losing the Race.  Self-Sabotage in Black America.  New York:  The Free Press, 2001.

McWhorter, John H.  Winning the Race. Beyond the Crisis in Black America.  New York: Gotham Books, 2006.

Orland, David.  “Defending the Race.  A Review of John McWhorter’s Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America.”  Boundless Webzine. 2000.  13 June 2006 <http://www.boundless.org/2000/departments/pages.a000385.html>

Thernstrom, Stephan and Abigalil Thernstrom.  “Demolished:  the liberal dogma that racism causes all the troubles blacks suffer today—in this powerful conservative Manifesto for American blacks.  Winning the Race by John McWhorter.”  2006. 13 June 2006 <http://www.nrbookservice.com/porducts/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=

            c6869>

Wright, Elizabeth.  “Alienation as Self-Medication. Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America, John McWhorter.”  27 Feb 2006.  12 June 2006

<http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_02_27/print/reviewprint.html