Posted on 11/08/2001 12:21:26 PM PST by mafree
For better or worse, when John McWhorter, a professor of linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley, published his book "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America" last fall, he became the leading voice of a new generation of Black conservatives. The 35-year-old McWhorter has argued that anti-intellectualism, a tendency toward defeatism, and a love of victimhood have kept Black America behind in recent decades. He took the time recently to share his views in an exclusive interview with BET.com:
Q. What do you think the primary impediments to Black progress are today?
A. The primary impediment to Black progress today ... is the mistaken idea that ... until there is no racism in any White person's heart, that all Black success is a matter of chance, or a matter of remarkable ability, but that in general, conditions are such that the ordinary person is incapable of achieving. That simply isn't true. And more to the point, Black people before the late '60s did not operate under that impression, but that general impression has become a kind of common wisdom among Black people of all classes and all levels of education, and it is the main factor in keeping us from getting to where we really should have been a good 20 years ago.
Q. What role, if any, do you feel race or racism plays in America today?
A. The one kind of racism that is still an issue today is the criminal justice system and police brutality. Even those issues are not as simple as we're often told.
Even there we have to remember that the laws that put so many Black men in jail, starting in the mid-1980s, were enthusiastically endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus, the idea being to protect the innocent people who were in the nation's ghettos. And, we do have an unfortunate tendency for Black men to commit a larger proportion of crimes than is often mentioned when we hear about the crime and race debate.
Other than that I really think that we've got White people down to about as little racism as we're going to get without us doing the rest of the job ourselves.
Q. Why are you against reparations for the descendants of America's slaves?
A. It's not that I'm against reparations, it's that we already got them. When welfare was expanded specifically for the benefit of unwed Black mothers in the late '60s -- that was an acknowledgment of the injustices of the past. When affirmative action was instituted in the late 1960s, that was a clear acknowledgment of the injustices of the past that were a hangover from slavery, and affirmative action is particularly interesting because if you talk to many Black people today you just ask them point black, what does affirmative action help and how did it help you? Generally the response is a general sense that we deserve affirmative action because of how bad things used to be. That's what's really on everybody's mind about affirmative action, that we deserve it. Well what's that, reparations?
These things were never called reparations, but they were.
Q. What about specific claims against companies, like the revelations recently that predominantly Black prisoners in Alabama were leased out to private companies until 1928, some that still exist, and also the claims against MetLife and other insurance companies accused of continuing to collect higher premiums for lower coverage on policies sold in an era when corporate discrimination was the norm?
A. Yes, specific injustices deserve redress. Where you draw the line, I'm not qualified to say. But for example, if we're talking about something that stopped in 1928, you know, you're going to have what, two living [survivors]? Give them reparations. I wouldn't say that their children necessarily would get them, but in the case of MetLife, sure there are things that can be done. But there's another problem with reparations, which is that, for better or for worse, it was too long ago. You know, who's Black?
There are Black people who owned slaves. It's a messy, messy case, for the simple reason that a lot of time has gone by. None of us ever knew any slaves. That's how long it's been.
Q. Why do you oppose affirmative action, albeit outside the field of medicine (where you argue Black doctors are needed to serve Black patients)?
A. Actually, I think intelligent affirmative action in business is still a good thing. In education, affirmative action was a nice first step. There was a time when you really did need to have Black people just beat the doors down. But once you've got a certain presence, and you've got a new generation of Black students, the fact is that diversity, if it is weighted over excellence, has a very pernicious effect, and that simply is that there's no way for African Americans to learn, to teach one another, for it to get inculcated into the culture, how to do really top-rate work.
The very sad fact is no matter how horrible the past has been, if you're going to teach people to do as well as everybody else, there's a point at which they have to do it themselves.
Q. What is your stance on racial profiling -- do you think it exists and how big of a problem do you think it is?
A. Yeah, it exists. There have been excesses. Luckily, those have become socially incorrect and so we're working on it, but yes, definitely, there is all evidence that there are cases where Black people are being stopped disproportionately and for inappropriate reasons like just [stopping] Black people on the New Jersey Turnpike. It's been shown that Black people were not being turned up with drugs in high enough numbers in comparison to White people for that to make sense. However, when it comes to whether you were going to stop a young Black man or a middle-aged Korean grandmother in New York City, if you're in an off neighborhood and you're looking for drugs? Frankly, I think if we did not profile we'd be condemning a lot of innocent people to being shot and killed, and that's something that we need to face.
Q. Given what you have said and written in recent years, do you feel the Black community has marginalized you?
A. No, actually I feel very warmly received by Black America. I get so much mail. Literally everyday, when I'm out on the streets -- and this has happened on both coasts -- a Black person stops me and says that they like something they saw me say on TV or they read something I wrote and they liked it. I've got my detractors out there, but I think that they are a vocal minority, who have got a lot of access to the media.
Q. You have argued throughout your work that racism is self-evidently on the wane in America. What do you think the decline in racism will mean for the future of the Black community -- if there is such a thing -- in this country, and more broadly, race relations in general?
A. When there's no racism, and there's nobody pretending that there's more racism than there is, something is going to happen that I think scares the Black community to death -- which is that, we're going to keep mixing. Mariah Carey and Tiger Woods are the future, and the sense that we have that there's this separate species called the Black American is going to go away, because there's no racism, because there's no mutual hostility, there's no weariness. And when there isn't, people fall in love, it's very simple.
His comments were pretty wishy-washy. Try Larry Elder, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, or Robert George.
This is what we gotta do in addition to the rest of the stuff. We CAN win black and Hispanic votes with our agenda, but it will take work and the right candidate to do so.
How can we here at FR best organize for the coming elections to most effectively work for Conservative Republican Majorities in both Houses of Congress in 2002?
I realize that's the question every election cycle, but each time it has to be answered again. Times change. New opportunities arise. This site is growing and has wider impact than ever before. How best to put it to good use to get the people this country needs into high office?
bump
This is the first I have heard of, or read the views of Professor McWhorter.
I don't know that I buy most blacks actually enjoy "victimhood", perhaps too many like the appearance of victimhood, as an excuse.
"Anti-Intellectualism", at least in the popular culture probably is a stumbling block. Again, I don't know that blacks are to blame for the popular media. Last time I looked I didn't notice they owned Time-Warner, Disney or any of the media giants who glorify gansterism. Perhaps there are willing consumers, but If they had a little bit more power in the media I'm sure we would get songs, movies and images of the black experience that aimed a little higher.
McWhorter makes a good point that reparations, essentially, have been signed sealed and delivered to some in the black community. I guess where I have a problem with affirmative-action is when the son of a wealthy middle class black family gets preference, on a racial basis, over some white kid from a disavantaged background.
As for crime, I think there would be less of it if the black middle class expanded. I'm not using poverty itself, as an excuse for criminal behavior, but I strongly believe the two parent middle class family, of whatever color would make a difference. The need for "profiling", which is an abstract science, would go down, as the black crime rate declined.
Race mixing, does not, personally threaten me. I had a couple of black girlfriends, when I was younger, and I would have no problem with my sons marrying the same. I just feel threatened, honestly, by some blacks who want to get job advantages or educational advantages that work to my or my children's detriment, by reasons of color. Any honest person would say the same.
Again, thanks for the article.
Her win must get more publicity. The local black talk radio show didn't mention her win at all though it talked about other races.
You are right in pointing out that this permeates the whole culture. It's just that the effects on blacks are more devastating (especially when coupled with victimology) since we can least afford it.
Also, much of blacks' anti-intellectualism was copied from popular culture. A lot of blacks only adapt attitudes and behaviors that they see sanctioned in the larger culture. Sad but that's the way it too often is.
Second, we need to determine who the RINOs are as opposed to Republican moderates.[1] RINOs get no support, while we will support a moderate in the general election over a Demonrat.
We need to spread the word out to friends, family members, and others. We need to find out early who they are for, and if we can convince them to support our guys. We also need to be able to counteract the lies the Dems use firmly. We also need to point out the skeletons in a Dem's closet.[2]
In short, we gotta do a lot of the dirty work. We need to be anti-Clinton in our style as much as possible. We will be honorable and decent, and when we do criticize him, we have the stuff to back up the criticism.
[1] The difference between an Republican moderate and a RINO is defined as such: A Republican moderate may not agree with us on all the issues (the most likely differences would involve guns or the pro-life issue), but in a general election, he will back our guys 100%. See Bob Franks and Tom Kean. RINOs are the ones who will stab our guys in the back if they don't get their way. See Donnie DiFrancesco and John Warner.
[2] The important thing in this case is to have the proof. Nothing will hurt our side more than a charge that cannot be proven.
It's perfectly OK with me if you want to consider yourself an American but you can't tell me that intermarriage is or can be the antidote to racism.
First of all, some will always be opposed to intermarrriage, especially between blacks and whites. That doesn't always mean they're prejudiced- it simply means those folks will have to find other ways to help end racism. Secondly, it just isn't necessary to intermarry in order to have better race relations- simply making an effort to know, understand and accept each other accomplishes that. Oh yeah, the other thing that would help a lot is for all of us to drop the victimization game.
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