“You see Third Wave antiracism telling you that you are morally bound to conceive of ordinary statements that once were thought of as progressive, like ‘I don’t see color,’ as racist,” he writes. McWhorter is well aware that his arguments may be dismissed out of hand, but he is cogent and forthright in his discussions. It demands adherence to positions that one must accept on faith or else be treated as heretical (i.e., “problematic”). At the core of McWhorter’s critique is his claim that wokism (or “Electism,” as he wants us to call it) has literally become a religion. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo have made so popular in recent years. Flying in the face of mainstream liberal orthodoxy, McWhorter writes in unapologetic opposition to the brand of anti-racism that authors like Ibram X. But nothing he has said or written previously has been as controversial as the thesis he advances in his latest book. McWhorter, a professor of linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia, has been a prominent figure in the public discourse around race since he published Losing the Race in 2000. A far-reaching, full-throated polemic against “Third Wave Antiracism.”
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