Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside
Listen to a clip from the audiobook
audio play button
0:00
0:00

Woke Racism

How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America

Author John McWhorter
Look inside
Listen to a clip from the audiobook
audio play button
0:00
0:00
Hardcover
$28.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Portfolio
On sale Oct 26, 2021 | 224 Pages | 9780593423066
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

See Additional Formats
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed linguist John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.

Americans of good will on both the left and the right are secretly asking themselves the same question: how has the conversation on race in America gone so crazy? We’re told to read books and listen to music by people of color but that wearing certain clothes is “appropriation.” We hear that being white automatically gives you privilege and that being Black makes you a victim. We want to speak up but fear we’ll be seen as unwoke, or worse, labeled a racist. According to John McWhorter, the problem is that a well-meaning but pernicious form of antiracism has become, not a progressive ideology, but a religion—and one that’s illogical, unreachable, and unintentionally neoracist.
 
In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of this new religion, from the original sin of “white privilege” and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervor of the “woke mob.” He shows how this religion that claims to “dismantle racist structures” is actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. The new religion might be called “antiracism,” but it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.
 
Fortunately for Black America, and for all of us, it’s not too late to push back against woke racism. McWhorter shares scripts and encouragement with those trying to deprogram friends and family. And most importantly, he offers a roadmap to justice that actually will help, not hurt, Black America.
 
© Eileen Barroso
John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is the host of the podcast Lexicon Valley and writes a weekly column for The New York Times. McWhorter is the author of twenty-three books, including Nine Nasty Words, Woke Racism, The Power of Babel, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue. View titles by John McWhorter

About

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed linguist John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.

Americans of good will on both the left and the right are secretly asking themselves the same question: how has the conversation on race in America gone so crazy? We’re told to read books and listen to music by people of color but that wearing certain clothes is “appropriation.” We hear that being white automatically gives you privilege and that being Black makes you a victim. We want to speak up but fear we’ll be seen as unwoke, or worse, labeled a racist. According to John McWhorter, the problem is that a well-meaning but pernicious form of antiracism has become, not a progressive ideology, but a religion—and one that’s illogical, unreachable, and unintentionally neoracist.
 
In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of this new religion, from the original sin of “white privilege” and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervor of the “woke mob.” He shows how this religion that claims to “dismantle racist structures” is actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. The new religion might be called “antiracism,” but it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.
 
Fortunately for Black America, and for all of us, it’s not too late to push back against woke racism. McWhorter shares scripts and encouragement with those trying to deprogram friends and family. And most importantly, he offers a roadmap to justice that actually will help, not hurt, Black America.
 

Author

© Eileen Barroso
John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is the host of the podcast Lexicon Valley and writes a weekly column for The New York Times. McWhorter is the author of twenty-three books, including Nine Nasty Words, Woke Racism, The Power of Babel, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue. View titles by John McWhorter

Additional formats

  • Woke Racism
    Woke Racism
    How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
    John McWhorter
    9780593423073
    Ebook
    Portfolio
    Oct 26, 2021
  • Woke Racism
    Woke Racism
    How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
    John McWhorter
    9780593509906
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Oct 26, 2021
  • Woke Racism
    Woke Racism
    How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
    John McWhorter
    9780593423073
    Ebook
    Portfolio
    Oct 26, 2021
  • Woke Racism
    Woke Racism
    How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
    John McWhorter
    9780593509906
    Audiobook Download
    Penguin Audio
    Oct 26, 2021

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles

Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)