Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America

Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America

By: John McWhorter  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Berkeley linguistics professor John McWhorter, born at the dawn of the post-Civil Rights era, spent years trying to make sense of this question. Now he dares to say the unsayable: racism's ugliest legacy is the disease of defeatism that has infected black America. Losing the Race explores the three main components of this cultural virus: the cults of victimology, separatism, and antiintellectualism that are making blacks their own worst enemies in the struggle for success.

More angry than Stephen Carter, more pragmatic and compassionate than Shelby Steele, more forward-looking than Stanley Crouch, McWhorter represents an original and provocative point of view. With Losing the Race, a bold new voice rises among black intellectuals.

According to the author, victimology "has become a keystone of cultural blackness to treat victimhood not as a problem to be solved but as an identity to be nurtured," while "separatism encourages black Americans to conceive of black people as an unofficial sovereign entity, within which the rules other Americans are expected to follow are suspended out of a belief that our victimhood renders us morally exempt from them." Anti-intellectualism is a belief that "school is a 'white' endeavor." McWhorter suggests that only blacks embrace such opinions, placing most of the blame on them while underemphasizing the institutional racism that facilitates such views. Needless to say, McWhorter has no love for the likes of Al Sharpton, Hazel Carby, June Jordan, or Patricia Williams and their ilk. His chapter on Ebonics, his specialty, is the most nuanced, though certainly not the final word on the matter. And though some readers will be turned off by his use of tired anti-affirmative-action, right-wing clichés, anyone interested in the education of African Americans in the post civil rights era will find Losing the Race a worthy read. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Release Date: 2001-07-31

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Brilliant - This book is brilliant and one of the few roadmaps for understanding the problem and painting the way forward. I don't know how I missed it when it was released. I couldn't put it down. 3 days later I was done and eager to share with others. And now I am reading the second book. I have purchased 20 to give to friends who are stuck in the victimology mentality and now they are seeing the light and getting on with their lives. Pity the author does not travel overseas because he would be a big hit here in Bermuda.
Dale Butler

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
This book still holds up!! - This is my second John McWhorter book that I have read, and he is now my new favorite author. He thinks outside of the box. The only major issue that I disagree with him on is the O.J. situation. I don't think that the Prosecution had a slam dunk case, but I digress. Mr. McWhorter hit the nail on the head when he address making yourself a victim, the black community's natural aversion to intellectual activity, and separating from mainstream society. (to the point where it hinders your upward mobility) Two things in this book have stuck in my mind. I am currently writing the second volume of my series on race called Plain Talk. Plain Talk - Volume 1 In the second volume I write about people calling things racist, when it may be something else. Mr. McWhorter brought out how some people may not be racist, but they have a "lack of imagination". I have seen this barrier in so many aspects of life. I am grateful to those who have broken barriers. People like Jimi Hendrix, whose artistry knew no boundaries. The other thing that stuck in my mind is a part towards the end of the book, where he says we have to switch to the second phase of the Civil Rights movement. The first phase was getting a level playing field, now the second phase is actually getting out there and playing!!! Great analogy!! Please read this book as well as Mr. McWhorter's other books. My next book to tackle is Winning the Race. I can't wait.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
An outstanding book - I had read two of Professor McWhorter's books on linguistics and was searching the bookstore looking for other books written by him. I found this book and had to double check the author's picture to make sure that it was the same John McWhorter. I knew that Professor was a highly respected linguist. I did not know (until I found this book) that he wrote books on politics (or social studies, or however you want to categorize this book.)

This book is just outstanding. In addition to showing how African-Americans are harming themselves, Professor McWhorter also turns his focus on White Americans and shows how White Americans have aided and abetted in the decline. The book is written in Professor McWhorter's straightforward and often humorous style, but the subject matter is always treated with gravity and earnestness and unflinching honesty.

I look forward to reading the rest of Professor McWhorter's works.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
It's difficult to say it, but it's the truth... - What McWhorter is saying is not simply anecdotal, because he looks at the SAT scores and the data out there to make his case. His arguments have some empirical foundations. He also looks at the fact that the majority of African Americans are middle class. The fact of the matter is racism is out there for so many groups like Asian Americans, Arab Americans and what not, but their parents don't make excuses for them, they are still expected to excel despite the prejudice they sometimes face. And in the year 2009, there is so little racism vis-a-vis African Americans compared to 1970. I mean it's so common to see African American executives, politicians etc.. Also, interracial marriages are so, so, so common. They are not unusual in so many parts of the country. Racism is not dead, for sure, but America has more of a class problem than a racial problem, in my opinion. I mean a white guy who has come from poverty why should he say be denied a place in a university if he has higher scores than a wealthy African American? Is it fair or just? No. People need to compete for the American dream. Affirmative action made sense back in the day, but not today. I love people of all races and to have equality there has to be opportunity for people of all classes and less of a focus on race.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Enlightening Content, Problematic Writing Style - Like other readers, I found John's writing style to be a bit challenging at times. I can appreciate the necessity of long sentences with embedded clauses, parentheticals, and asides when it comes to complex, logical arguments. But I felt at times that John was writing for an academic reader or letting the linguist in him get carried away with love of syntacital possibilities for their own sake!

As a college teacher with over twenty years of experience, I have witnessed some of the same trends that Mr. McWhorter describes, and I have had black students attest to being bullied for liking "books" and otherwise trying to be "white." Like McWhorter, I have also seen amazing dedication, commitment, and interest from immigrant and second-language students.

Many posters here argue that McWhorter minimizes racism as an ongoing, potent force causing low-performance amongst contemporary Black students, even those who are from stable, middle class families. This includes those who know as little about the struggles of their ancestors as some young Chinese-American students know about the Cultural Revolution (i.e. "Oh, yeah, I think my aunt said something about that"). I should add that plenty of white students from families that have been here for generations are apathetic and low on basic skills, and that is part of a wide, general trend.

It's hard not to be persuaded by McWhorter's accounts -- corroborated by my own teaching experience -- of highly achieving immigrant students who have fled, in some cases, very dire political and economic situations, not to mention having to read and write in a new language. They have also faced discrimination.

One of the most accomplished groups of students I've taught recently is middle-age African-American women. It's interesting to see how little they have in common with their younger African-American classmates (who, like their own age peers, can't seem to leave their IPods and cell phones alone long enough to write notes or ask a question). Of course, this is no scientific sampling, but it does tell me that students who are "ready" often do well. At the risk of being merely anecdotal here, let me say that one of these women wrote an essay in which she said that "black males are committing genocide against each other." She went on to write that, as a young woman, she'd endured a broken family, child abuse, teen pregnancy, and drug addiction. She was outspoken about racism, but, again, what moved me was her readiness to be a student and behave responsibly.

Contrary to what others have written in criticism, I think that McWhorter did include adequate research about how conditions have improved for Blacks in this country. He doesn't deny that racism is still a problem, and he doesn't deny that it can be internalized. Yes, he does include quite a bit of anecdotal experience, but that is what he knows best, no? He doesn't survey students or teachers, and maybe that would have been to his advantage.

My limited understanding tells me that ANY student is more likely to excel if her or his parents stress "books" at an early age. That is supposed to be one of the strongest predictors of later academic success and sheer interest. And, yes, within ANY family you are going to have kids who are naturally drawn to books more than their siblings are. It sounds to me like McWhorter benefitted from both.

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