How to Think About Race
Speaking of race – is a form of social suicide. Yet it must be addressed. But before you open your mouth, open your mind with these books. Tweet
Highlights
If you think math is hard, try understanding America's problems with race.
Intellectual difficulties aside, the social environment is more conducive to screaming than discussion.
If you find it hard to think and talk about race—white or black—it is not because of a flaw in today’s discourse. It’s a feature.
Recently, PM published a review of Red, White, and Black: Recovering the Grounds of Black Pride and Patriotism (Emancipation Books)—a fine collection of essays written by a cadre of black writers. It sings with clarity about how we ought think, talk and act with regard to race and our differences. Buy, it read it, quote its insights at the next HR training meeting—and trick your mind coach into calling a leading black intellectual a racist.
John McWhorter’s mind, character and radiant soul are outstanding.
One of guys in this collection is an old friend of mine, John McWhorter. His mind, character and radiant soul are outstanding. Following his mind as he navigates our present insanity is a pleasure. He is great man and a great American. Every morning, I use RealClearPolitics as my intellectual morning cup of coffee. And there was was my old buddy at the tippy top of the pile.
In his Substack post, which is built around a book you should not buy — Christine DiAngelo’s White Fragility — John gives honorable mentions to a few books that ought to be on our radar: “There is other work on race being done by people who are interested in real things rather than recreational angst.”
Here they are:
The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
“The tenets (referring to Black Fragility) are the heart of Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s brilliant The Coddling of the American Mind from a few years back. They analyze these as counsel given to students, today, in general. However, this extends to black America as a whole.”
Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism by Wilfred Reilly
Wilfred Reilly offers an invaluable lesson about the victimization mindset I wrote about here that bedevils black Americans unduly. Specifically, we must beware of this “impact matters more than intent” thing, because, sadly often, black people, gripped by this victimization mindset, exaggerate or lie about racist acts and even attacks.
Hate Crime Hoax by Wilfred Reilly
“Don’t be misled by the fact that the subtitle and cover feel a touch ‘headline-y – cablenewsy’ – publishers must sell their books. The issue is the content, and this book teaches lessons that are 1) sad, 2) understandable (again, see my post), and 3) urgent.”
Maverick by Jason Riley
Jason Riley has written a biography of the great black conservative thinker, Thomas Sowell. Anyone under the impression that to be a card-carrying conservative and a black person at the same time guarantees that one is caught somewhere between naïve and cynical knows little of Sowell’s lucid work and unforgivably underacknowledged volume of achievement.
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