Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America

Rating:
Summary: This Book Opened My Eyes & Changed My Life!
Review: As a child, the greatest gift my dear-departed mother ever gave me was an appreciation of the value of an education. As one of six children, this appreciation helped me rise from our poor surroundings in inner city Cleveland to become the successful black professional that I am today.

Heeding this lesson, however, was also the genesis of years of verbal abuse, ostracism and criticism I was forced to endure from other black people from elementary school through graduate school. During these years, I was accused by my black brethren of "acting white" for using correct English, making good grades and having a sincere love of learning for learning's sake.

I could not understand why this happened until I read John McWhorter's 2000 book "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America." To quote John 9:25, "Where once I was blind, now I see."

Professor McWhorter outlines in surgical detail three aspects of modern day black American cultural mentality, or "cults," that hold us back as a people. First is the Cult of Victimology. In it, victimhood is not seen as a problem to be overcome but an identity to be nurtured. In the Cult of Separatism, the uniqueness of our history is used as a justification to exempt us from the rules that govern the rest of American society. Lastly, in the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism, an affinity toward education is seen as running counter to an "authentic" black identity.

The anti-intellectualism cult really hit home with me, and McWhorter's book let me know that I was not the problem.

All of this reminds me of an experience from graduate school. While enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, I always actively and enthusiastically engaged in my own learning process: asking questions and engaging professors and other students on various topics. One of my fellow graduate students, a black woman from New York City, felt it necessary to talk to me about my behavior.

I was told of her concern that white students in our program who hadn't grown up around blacks and who were not used to being around "intelligent, articulate black men" like me would be "intimidated." She felt they might try to use that against me in the future. In other words, white students might discriminate against me because of my love of scholarship! Thus, she advised, I should basically tone down my intellectual zeal.

I never forgot that conversation. After reading "Losing the Race" two years later, I realized that this woman's "concern" for my well-being was merely her own anti-intellectual attitude toward me cloaked à la "whitey." In other words, this culturally (and thus, authentically) "down" sister from Brooklyn was dumping her own academic insecurity on me through the specter of supposedly socially ignorant white students who would supposedly retaliate against me for supposedly making them feel mentally inadequate. []

Losing the Race opened my eyes to the three cancerous aspects of black American cultural groupthink. It also re-ignited the love of learning that my mother instilled in me as a child. That love, as well as a faith in God, enabled this poor boy from Cleveland to become his high school valedictorian, become his family's first college graduate, earn a master's degree in public policy and management and ultimately become a U.S. Foreign Service Officer.

My life has taught me that education is arguably the most important means to achieving professional success and economic independence. There is no way I would sacrifice that just to gain the myopically fleeting acceptance of my "peers." This is a race that I plan to win.

John McWhorter has rendered a scholarly and tremendously bold contribution to the discussion on contemporary American race relations. People like himself, Shelby Steele, and Thomas Sowell are not sellouts or traitors by any means; they are heroes.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Work on the Black/White Gap
Review: In "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America," John McWhorter shows in devastating detail what is behind the stunning failure of black Americans to do what so many other once-depised minorities have done as a matter of routine in American history: rise to a level of intellectual (and thus economic) parity with the majority of the nation.

McWhorter's work is a stunningly painful personal account of racism (or the lack thereof) today, and the lingering psycho-social effects of past racism and discrimination on black Americans. McWhorter is in a fine position to write such a book. He's a professor of linguistics at Berkeley, an African American who grew up in comfortable homes, in safe suburban towns, in a family without financial problems, who attended excellent schools with supportive and dedicated teachers, whose mother was a college professor, and who never experienced serious discrimination on account of race. You'd expect success of anyone who's fortunate enough to have grown upin such privileged surroundings.

And you probably wouldn't expect success of anyone growing up in poverty, studying in dilapidated schools, with no family history of academic success.

The problem is: you'd be wrong on both counts. As McWhorter makes clear, black Americans who grow up with all the advantages do worse in academics than white and Asian students who come from poorer families, attend worse schools, and so on.

McWhorter analyzes all the easy answers that would explain black academic underachievement. He examines and discards theories that the underachievement is caused by lower family income, by racism of teachers or society generally, by underfunded schools, and by the practice of "tracking" students. Rather, McWhorter shows that the culprit is an attitude within black America, an anti-intellectual bias.

McWhorter's book is extremely intimate. He describes his experiences at Berkeley, the apparent disinterest in academics shown by many black students, and the unintended effects of affirmative action in university admissions. He also recommends steps to take to eliminate the anti-intellectual bias among African Americans.

This book is a terribly important addition to the literature on the black/white gap in American education and society.

...

Rating:
Summary: Penetrating, incisive work.
Review: I doubt you will find anything new or overly interesting in my review of this excellent book but it deserves as many accolades as can be heaped on it. Dr. McWhorter is brilliantly incisive in every facet as a writer. While his premises are solid and on point, his conclusions are even more so. This man should be a part of every discussion on race to take place in this country.

Rating:
Summary: Should Be Required Reading
Review: My first thought half way through the book was: This should be required reading in every high school and college English/Sociology/Black Studies, you name it, course. McWhorter deserves universal accolades for a book that is a breath of intellectual fresh air. With the deftness and precision of a skilled salesman selling a mechanical kitchen tool, McWorter slices and dices each and every myth and argument used by many Black leaders to lay claim to perpetual victimhood for their people. The destruction of these myths and arguments is complete. His logic is impeccable. His scholarly approach to a subject that is frought with emotion is remarkable. (Well, he is a PhD Linguist after all.) But, his writing style is not pedantic in the least. He is a true academician, in love with the search for truth. I could go on and on in praise of this book, but I will end by saying: If you want the know the truth about the current racial climate in America, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK".

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Summary: Losing the Race is a Credit to the Race
Review: Losing the Race is a book that should be read by all Amafricans, (i.e., coloreds, Negroes, Blacks, African-Americans, people of color, chose your most cherished equivalent). However, I suspect that John McWhorter, sadly, will be preaching to the choir with this excellently documented book. I say that because the material covered is old news. I would reference similar ground covered by "Black Skins, White Masks" by Frantz Fanon, ISBN 0802150845, available from Amazon.com and, humbly, my own out-of-print work, "A Rose Don't Grow In Sand", now available to read for free at my site... under the non-fiction link. My book was specific to the impact of what Dr. McWhorter writes with regard to Amafrican medical students. Frantz Fanon wrote about the same attitudes on an international scale. Neither book, and especially that of Dr. Fanon has made a perceptible dent in defeating the memes against which Dr. McWhorter, Dr. Fanon, and I, have rallied. Still, I will champion his book and his concepts with the hope that his voice, to mix a metaphor, will be the straw that breaks the camels back of these self-defeating notions.

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Summary: Every black teacher should read this book
Review: I happened to come across an interview of Mr.McWhorter on C-Span's Booknotes. He was talking about his book, and I found the topic interesting and picked it up.I am a teacher in an all black middle-class suburb in New Jersey. The Parents here are teachers,police officers,computer programers,nurses,and ex..In a privilaged crimeless community many of McWhorters claims about a rejection of learning in the black community are true.I have students in class that make all of the statements McWhorter mentioned in his book and it frustrates me.some in the black community associates being smart and having a love for learning as being white and this is a dangerous way of thinking.If to be smart is acting white then to be black is to act dumb.This is not good. McWhorters book is a hard read for a black person because he is speaking the truth and sometimes the truth hurts I struggeled over these pages. This book is not what I would consider racist and can not be compared to The Bell Curve.McWhorter says the problem is not biological but it is culturally, which means the black community can unlearn its bad habit of anti-intellectualism. He actually traces the problem to white racism of the past...slaves not being allowed to read, Jim Crow laws of the South, where it could be dangerous for blacks to try to learn. McWhorter says the black community is not innocent either because now that we have the opportunity to recover a love for education and learning we do not.The only flaw I see in book is that sometimes McWhorter gives his opinions on subjects he did not master. He is a linguist, but feels he is qualified to attack Afrocentricity as some type of quack study, with out really touching on the issue aside from a few paragraphs.I suggest he read Richard Poe's book Black Spark White Fire the arguments are strong especially on the race of the Egyptians who phenotypically look closer to East Africans than to West Africans or Europeans.He ask whether Saddat was a brother, and I had to laugh because one could argue that Saddat is darker and phenotypically looks more African than Mr.McWhorter.He also at times seems a bit sarcastic and insensitive when making his points.Though I believe McWhorters general thesis to be true he would get many more black converts if he would use less harsh language...which I know he will have no problem doing because he is a linguist.I do feel as though any teacher working in a majority black school system should have this book.It is essential to solving the problem.

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Summary: Truth Isn't Always Popular
Review: Although I do not agree with all his conclusions, seldom have I read something so delightfully truthful! I'm not surprised at some of the negative reviews here. One person suggests that Dr. McWhorter isn't as aware of the African American community as he claims to be (i.e. making unsubstantiated assumptions about the African American community), and then proceeds in the next sentence of his review to assume that Dr. McWhorter is married to a white lady, and "obviously had it easy growing up". LOL! Another person repeats over and over the assumption that Dr. McWhorter is blaming the victim. This person uses the analogy that he was shot in the leg and now walks with a limp. I think a rational reader would see very clearly that Dr. McWhorter isn't "blaming the man for having a limp"; but rather, he is asking the man to stop picking off the scalp, thus preventing the leg from truly healing, in order to continue receiving sympathy from others! The focus of the book is to address some of the fallacies in the racial issue dialogue, not the injustice done (which Dr. McWhorter not once denied exists in our society) which the reader should already know as a prerequisite for reading this book. It's like taking a calculus class, and complaining that there's no discussion on basic algebra in the lectures! Again, LOL!

Rating:
Summary: Blaming the victim..........
Review: Mr. McWhorter's book is another situation in which we as a society blame the victim and not the assailant... He comes across as saying African-Americans are to blame for their situtation. Here's an analogy for him to chew on...1)If someone (White America)takes a gun and shoots me (Black America) in the leg several times, you have no right whatsoever to get mad at me for walking with a limp! You cannot blame me for needing a crutch to get around with...McWhorter seems to forget this point.

Despite all the progress that has been made by whites for blacks and all of the things that blacks still need to do for themselves which he points out, letting White America "off the hook" will not help toward that goal. After all, if you take a knife with a 6-inch blade and stick it completely into my back, don't tell me you're helping me out or doing me a favor by pulling the knife out only 3 inches. There is still a lot this country needs to do to help the plight of the less fortunate, Black, poor or otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: Epiphany
Review: To quote John 25: "Where once I was blind, now I see."

Rating:
Summary: confessions of a sell-out
Review: When I initially picked up this book, I had no idea that I would be reading a bunch of justifications for the treatment that African-Americans receive in this country. He even went as far as to justify the bombings of African-American churches by saying that white churches were burned over seven times that amount in a year. Bottom line, this guy is a sell-out who obviously had it easy growing up, and fails to realize that racism still plagues society. He knows nothing about the black community, is probably married to a white lady, and lives in the suburbs. Mr. McWhorter, I am very disappointed in this book and I know your ancestors are too. As a matter of fact, tommorrow I am going to the store to get my money back!!