Rating: 
Summary: Ellen Harper: Perfect example of anti-intellectualism
Review: In reference to Ellen Harper's "review" (Sept. 19, see below) of John McWhorter's powerful indictment of victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism in current American Black culture, what better example of these self-defeating tendencies can there be than this long, incoherent, inept tirade against a book Ms. Harper admits in her first sentence SHE HASN'T READ!
Rating:
Summary: A Book That Answers Questions About Black Americans!
Review: Why do African-Americans perennially score lowest on SAT tests? Why can't Blacks climb out of their ghettos, when Vietnamese did so in two generations (and they couldn't even speak English)? Why does every Black criminal, no matter how red-handed he is caught, yell, "Racism"? How could Blacks acquit O.J. Simpson in the face of incontrovertible DNA evidence, when even they now say, "Sure he did it, but . . ." Why did Blacks fight so hard for integration, and then hang out only at the Black Student Union in colleges all over this land? And why, with all the billions of dollars this country has poured into special education for minorities, is it only African-Americans whose scores on all forms of educational tests have not closed the gap between Whites and Asians?Every five or ten years I read a book that changes my world view, in some important way. This book profoundly changed the way I view African-Americans. It gave me answers to questions like those posed above, and many more. It gave me principles which can be applied to future questions that will surely arise in race relations in this country. Professor John McWhorter's logical presentation and defense of each of his three theses is, in my opinion, unassailable. And lest you think that Prof. McWhorter is some racist red-neck, know that he is an African-American professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkley, one of the premier, liberal universities in this country. He posits that Blacks are "Losing the Race" because they have a built within their community a "cult of victimology". This has fostered a strong "cult of separatism" and perhaps most damaging, a "cult of anti-intellectualism". He tells of students who excel in school being abused with taunts of "going White" and being an "oreo". He concludes that Black Americans have the mental powers to succeed (contrary to the thesis of The Bell Curve) because Africans and Caribbean Blacks who emigrate to this country excel in academia, they not being inflicted with the Black American anti-intellectualism to stifle their pursuit of educational excellence. While Prof. McWhorter's logic is impeccable, his writing style leaves something to be desired, which was all the more distracting because he is, after all, a professor of linguistics; though perhaps I expected too much from such a language specialist. He needed a good editor to eliminate a number of glaring typos and incomplete sentences, which distract somewhat from the compelling ideas he presents. In a word, this was one of the best, most mind-changing books I have ever read. If African-Americans worked as hard to excel in school as they do on the athletic field, the occasional incident of racism would pale in comparison to the achievements of Blacks rich and poor. Were it within my power, I would send a copy to every Black journalist and African-American leader who thinks racism is the only thing that keeps Blacks down and out in America and losing the race in every important arena except the sports stadium.
Rating: 
Summary: Misnaming the Race
Review: A writer in the mold of Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams, and William Sobel, John M. McWhorter, an African American linguistics professor at University of California, Berkely, simply restates many points in the debate about race relations in America rather than add anything substantial to the debate. His argument, couched in that age-old point-counterpoint format, declares like the prominent African Americans mentioned above that black people have to blame themselves for the unjust and excruciating struggle for equality they find themselves in because they have allowed themselves to be victims of, surprise, "victimology." Much like Dinesh DeSouza, McWhorter proclaims the end of racism in the United States. By the time we get to page 6 of the book, we have also reached the end of McWhorter's revelations. In 1960, says McWhorter, 55 of black people were poor and today only one in four black persons fits that description while the white middle class has risen by only five percent. He goes on proclaim that the seven tenets of the faith of victimology he enumerates are all false. Let me cite here one such tenet he attacks: "The number of black men in prison is due to a racist justice system." The author patronizingly declares that racism in America has "left a disenfranchised people on the margins of society and most vulnerable to antisocial behavior," and flatly tells us that there is a direct correlation between the number of blacks in prison and the number of crimes they commit. The author also does not believe that there is a disproportionate number of blacks on death row. While anybody hardly questions the value of self-reliance and courage as core values of American life, the author's refusal to understand that those values have rarely been allowed to flourish in Black America is difficult to accept. If McWhorter were right, I wish he were, how do we explain the entropic state of inner city schools, the paucity of blacks in the U. S. Senate, the need for the United Negro College Fund, historically black universities and colleges? The writer addresses the entire spectrum of "ugly sociological problems," as he calls them, in the black community. Because he is a stranger to the concept of civil society which obligates society to ensure everybody's participation in its life, he is content to give his books the subtitle: "Self-Sabotage in Black America." Blaming the victim, after all, is the easiest way to ignore the problem.
Rating:
Summary: A Sudent's Approval
Review: McWhorter is both courageous and articulate in using examples of his personal experience as an African American student and professor to help us better understand the unfortunate consequences that affirmative action has had on African American students. He is honest about the adverse effects of methods aimed at minority advancement, such as the use of Ebonics as a tool for English and the use of racial preferences in university admissions. Those who are afraid to admit that blacks don't need special treatment anymore will hate this book, as it will successfully disprove any argument they could present.
Rating:
Summary: McWhorter raises our awareness on an important issue
Review: With this book, discourse on race and culture advances to a new level. Facing some of the most important issues in identity politics, McWhorter raises our awareness on the taboo subject of black cultural values. While there is much to criticize in this book, these issues have to be faced before we can more forward. That a moderate Democrat can produce this critique gives us all hope for the future of our country.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistic Analysis of a Complex Problem
Review: Conservatives and neoconservatives alike are, no doubt, rejoicing atthis latest find: a "black" man who confirms their verynotions about "his people." Because in finding andsupporting what he has to say they take the heat off of themselves fortheir racial bias. ....Is there truth to McWhorter's notion ofself-sabotage in the Afro-American community? Of course there is. .... Where McWhorter is wrong is the same place hisfans are wrong: lumping all Afro-Americans together as part of thisphenomenon and claiming that it is the victim mindset that is theprincipal problem holding Afro-Americans back.An Afro-American canbe the brightest, most driven person in American society and stillencounter huge obstacles to his success, not the least of which istrying to function in a Caucasian male dominated culture that isthreatened by the first sign of an Afro-American (particularly male)with the same brash self-confidence and determination to take risksthat is applauded in charismatic, swashbuckling Caucasian males. ....McWhortercastigates people like Ellis Cose, whose excellent book "Rage ofa Privileged Class" documents just how difficult life is for thevery kind of proud, intelligent, ambitious, hardworking Afro-AmericansMcWhorter imnplies there aren't enough of. Shelby Steele's brother,Claude Steele, a psychologist, has conducted studies which clearlyestablish that it is society's marking of Afro-Americans as somethingapart that plays a role in convincing Afro-American students that theycan't excel. Hence it is a major contribution (probably the majorcontribution) to low academic performance. Which is to say that theproblem is symbiotic.And one must wonder how it is that McWhorter,if he has any self-respect, has allowed himself to fall into the trapof claiming that every small advance made by Afro-Americans is a causefor celebration if you measure it in comparison to their predicament50 years earlier. This is a favorite argument of the two Caucasians(the Thernstrom duo) who have blurbed the back of his book and smacksof the same mentality of segregationists in the early 20th century whotold Negroes not to complain about Jim Crow because compared to wherethey were in 1860 (working the fields as slaves), their lives hadregistered a major improvement. Never mind that the typical ambitious,educated Caucasian today would hardly accept second class treatmentfor a minute by using the rationale that at least he wasn't in thepredicament of, say, his poor Irish immigrant ancestors at the end ofthe 19th century when signs read "No dogs or Irish allowed."So he should count his blessings.Lastly, McWhorter, like theconservatives and neoconservstives who are applauding him, takes weakexamples of "racial progress" and claims that Afro-Americansare overlooking them as part of their insistence on remainingvictims. For instance, there is his example of Hollywood buddy filmssuch as the Danny Glover/ Mel Gibson Lethal Weapon series. That Gibsonalways played the more well-rounded character and Glover played secondfiddle, is, in the opinion of McWhorter, nothing to be concerned about(I take that to mean "blacks" should be grateful that Gloverwasn't playing Gibson's valet or caddy). Similarly he cites the film"One Night Stand," starring Wesley Snipes and NastassjaKinski as adulterous interracial lovers who eventually marry, asanother example of progress in Hollywood. But he doesn't go all theway in his analysis. I remember when "One Night Stand"premiered. And it wasn't Afro-Americans intent on seeing life throughthe lens of the victim who played the crucial role in turning thatmovie into a box office flop. The film wasn't even principally aboutthe Snipes/Kinski romance. And there wasn't a single frame in whichtheir racial difference was mentioned. It was also about a straightmale (played by Snipes) confronting the slow death of a gay friend(played by Robert Downey Jr.). And it was Caucasian film critics whozeroed in on the interracial romance to the exclusion of all else,asking the rhetorical question, "Will Americans go see a movieinvolving romance between a black man and a white woman?" Theanswer was a resounding "No!"All of this is to say thatMcWhorter's book is another disingenuous tome that doesn't serve upthe truth. It merely functions as one more cog in a polemicalsteamroller bearing down from the right that searches for simpleanswers to complex questions.
Rating: 
Summary: Look at History
Review: Although I disagreed with him on several issues (like affirmative action and author Shelby Steele), after reading "Losing the Race" I was ready and willing to give Dr. McWhorter "mad props" for having the courage to write about the Satanic traps that we as a people have fallen into in this country. However, to do so would risk putting myself in the same company of some of the other reviewers of the book, and I can't see myself going out like that. For instance, one reviewer wrote of encountering African children in Kenya who couldn't understand why their African American counterparts weren't acheiving at their same level. Of course, this reviewer was so ignorant of American history that he had no answer for these African youth, save his own limited experience and political agenda. He could have reminded the kids that no other group in American history has experienced 400 years of chattel slavery, been stripped of language and nationality, horrific lynchings, brutally enforced segregation and discrimination, laws making it illegal for us to read and write, and the list goes on and on. Blacks who were motivated and acheivement-oriented were often the targets of lynchings and violence, and labled as "uppity" and "not knowing their place". This history has affected our present-day mindset. In other words, we've had 400 years of being told that we're "less than" and "what we can't do", and too many of us believe the lie. This isn't victimology, this is fact. NO other immigrant group has had that stigma. That's why other immigrant groups can come to this country and do so well. Nobody has launched a systematic effort to tell them they can't. That reviewer should have told the Kenyan youth that it is a miracle of GOD and tremendous effort that Blacks Americans have been able to do as well and accomplish what we have, given the obstacles we have had to overcome. To do any less, as Dr. McWhorter points out, would be to dishonor the trials and sacrifices of our ancestors. Remember, the first things newly freed slaves started were colleges and businesses! We used to be on target. But the problem of African Americans, as "Losing the Race" highlights, is that we have started to believe the lies of our enemies. For instance, another reviewer supports "The Bell Curve" theory of racial intelligence and says that African Americans should just accept the fact that they are less intelligent than Whites, just like he has accepted the fact that Whites are less intelligent than Asians. Wait a minute. Isn't that the kind of thinking that had led African Americans into some of the problems spoken of in "Losing the Race"? Why should I believe I am "less than" just because others choose to? As a Black man, I am not a child of a "lesser god", but a child of GOD almighty, fearfully and wonderfully made. The issues brought forth in Dr. McWhorter's book highlight what happens to African Americans when we forget who we are in GOD's eyes and take on the beliefs and value systems of others who devalue us. And yes, "Losing the Race" is correct when it says not all of our problems are due to racism, but they're not all self-inflicted either. It's a complex mix of issues. But as long as people choose to ignore the historical foundations of what is occuring in America today, we'll never make any progress in narrowing the racial divide. But how do we as Americans of African descent begin to solve the problems presented in "Losing the Race"? Well, like our foreparents did so well, we should "seek ye first the Kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto us!" In the meantime, I recommend you give the book a look!
Rating:
Summary: Highly thought-provoking, but 1 issue left almost untouched
Review: The author (a fellow Mt Airy-ite) has a thesis which ought to be highly incendiary--which is why it surprises me that to this point it seems to have generated so little heat. For example I note that there are no editorial reviews of the book on the Amazon listing, and I only saw one myself (in Time magazine). Nevertheless, this is clearly an issue worthy of discussion. The author suggests that the primary reason that blacks continue to lag behind all other groups in our society is not because of racism, or other externally-based factors over which blacks have no control, but rather due to various internal "self-sabotaging" factors, which they impose on themselves. These include (1) constantly perceiving of themselves as victims of racism and other evils ("victimology" as McWhorter calls it), (2) holding themselves as separate and apart from all other groups in society ("separatism"), which prevents them from being fully integrated into society as a whole (which is rather ironic because this means that blacks have voluntarily imposed upon themselves the very same "separate but equal" doctrine which was the heinous law of the land for the first half of the last century until it was rejected in Brown v. Board of Education) and (3) the cult of anti-intellectualism, in which blacks essentially ostracize those among them who endeavor to excel academically. I was thinking about McWhorter's book just this morning, when the headline on page 1 of the local paper said something to the effect of: "Test score disparity between blacks and whites is widening." Thus, it would appear that the effects which McWhorter is describing are virtually unassailable. The question is: Has be adequately covered all of the possible causes? What I was kept thinking while reading this fascinating book (which was certainly reminiscent of Shelby Steele's equally excellent "The Content of Our Character", to which McWhorter acknowledges his debt) is: What about the potential 6,000 pound elephant sitting in the room? (And now let me be even more incendiary than McWhorter.) It is possible that another explanation for the symptoms which he so persuasively lays out is that there is some merit to The Bell Curve and that blacks are not as smart as whites on average? This is a question which McWhorter seems to hover around from time to time but one as to which he never really seems to provide his real views on (other than at one point to say "Don't go there", which doesn't help a whole lot). Let me make two qualifying remarks here. First, if we take away this specific comparsion (i.e. blacks versus whites in the field of academic performance), is it not an unremarkable proposition to suppose that there may be inherent differences between various groups in various areas? If you think that the answer is no, read the book "Taboo" about black athletic superiority, to take just one example. I have also read that Asians tend to be smarter, on average, than white people. And I have no problem acknowledging that another group may, on average, be smarter than mine. This leads to my second point, which explains why I can readily acknowledge the potential "average" superiority of another group. Note that I have repeatedly used the qualification "on average" in the preceding paragraph. This is significant. To illustrate, take a left to right sliding scale from 1 to 100, where 1 is the least intelligent and 100 is the most intelligent. Then take millions of grains of sand and pour them along this scale. Each grain represents a different person in our country (or on our planet.) Each ethnic group is assigned a different color (say white, black and brown). Even though the "average" brown (Asian) grain of sand may be farther to the right than the "average" white grain of sand, this is not to say that there may not be millions millions of individual white grains which are further to the right than the average brown grain. And there probably are. Similarly, millions and millions of black grains are probably further to the right than either the average white grain or brown grain. Indeed a white or black grain may be furthest to the right of all. (In fact, McWhorter seems to be pretty darn far to the right himself, and much further than I am.) Based on all of this, I can tell myself (as can we all) that whether or not I am in the smartest "average" group or not, I myself may theoretically be the grain which is farthest to the right of all. (Well, very probably not, but you get the idea.) The points are that (1) possible inherent differences between ethnic groups does not seem to be an automatic impossibility, and (2) wherever an "average" group sits on a scale with respect to a given area of skill may say very little about where any individual member sits on that scale. I say all of this because I think that the issue is important enough to at least be included as part of the discussion as to whether this is in additional factor for the problems McWhorter describes. Another way to analyze this is whether he may have the "cause and effect" reversed. In other words, he suggests that the some of the causes are the "self-sabotaging" factors and the effect is the failure of blacks as whole to achieve in our society in proportion to their numbers. But could it be that another one of the causes is the Bell Curve factor (in which some blacks may try at first and not succeed), and only then seize onto the self-sabotaging factors as a means of explanation? I have read The Bell Curve and although it seems quite persuasive, I confess that I have no idea as to whether what it says is true or not. I know that many feel it is not. But I do feel that this issue at least warrants some discussion in the context of McWhorter's fine book.
Rating:
Summary: An important milestone, a must read
Review: I generally agree with what the earlier reviewers have noted, with some important 'buts': McWhorter does a slam-dunk of a job in characterizing key issues and problems, but Melissa is correct in stating that the greatest weakness of the book is not pointing forcefully enough to possible solutions and directions we need to take. I do qualify her sentiments with an important qualification, though, as noted below. I see 'we' here, as an American on non-African ancestry, because I consider the elimination of race in American society as an issue that concerns and involves everyone, and one which should actively engage all Americans. I don't agree with the review Victor wrote, stating that McWhorter is not saying anything new. O contraire: unlike the baldly politically motivated books by the various and sundry 'poster children' of the conservatives, I consider McWhorter's eloquently written book a sincere reflection of a new generation of young Americans tired of perpetuating the no longer relevant realities of earlier generations of Americans, in particular those of African ancestry. McWhorter may be working with ideas and themes that important writers like Fanon have addressed earlier, but as an American fully immersed in contemporary, 21st century culture, he gives these ideas a life and substance that imbue them a entirely new relevance. I may be reading too much into McWhorter's book, but underlying his narrative is our need to recognize and understand that race has played, and continues to play, a particularly destructive role for identity building for Americans of African ancestry, and not just for the country as a whole. The need to continue to cling to 'race' as an identity building concept for African Americans will only continue to lead to self-destructive behavior. Race is, after all, a pernicious concept devised by Europeans in the 18th century to define 'The Other'. I thus regard this book as an incisive and penetrating analysis of our social reality from the perspective of 'beyond race'. Hats off to McWhorter for an eminently successful exposition.
Rating:
Summary: Misses the big picture
Review: Great premise, but McWhorter does little to address feasible solutions to the anti-intellectual culture he identifies. A boon for conservatives who would like to attribute the problem of at-risk black youth to cultural underpinnings, but a slap in the face to those who live with and try to work through the problem of inspiring and motivating black youth everyday. Read Marian Wright Edelman's The Measure of Our Success for an alternative (and ultimately, more measured) vision.
|
