Tuesday Talk*: The Catechism Of The Elect

At Persuasion, possibly because the newest New York Times columnist couldn’t get through the editorial gate, John McWhorter presents a ten point catechism of the new religion of neoracism.

He’s given the high priestesses the title “The Elect,” because they take SJW and woke as derogatory and, outside of their ideological views on social justice, are otherwise perfectly nice people who do ordinary jobs and are fun at parties. They’re not zealots, he explains, except when their zealots.

Whether this sticks remains to be seen, but McWhorter rejected “inquisitors” as being a bit too mean and is trying to find a way to move forward without offending these Elect so he can get them “off the bottom of our shoes,” which doesn’t sound a whole lot less offensive than calling them SJWs. But I digress.

Here’s the catechism.

1. When black people say you have insulted them, apologize with profound sincerity and guilt. But don’t put black people in a position where you expect them to forgive you. They have dealt with too much to be expected to.
2. Black people are a conglomeration of disparate individuals. “Black culture” is code for “pathological, primitive ghetto people.” But don’t expect black people to assimilate to “white” social norms because black people have a culture of their own.
3. Silence about racism is violence. But elevate the voices of the oppressed over your own.
4. You must strive eternally to understand the experiences of black people. But you can never understand what it is to be black, and if you think you do, you’re a racist.
5. Show interest in multiculturalism. But do not culturally appropriate. What is not your culture is not for you, and you may not try it or do it. But if you aren’t nevertheless interested in it, you are a racist.
6. Support black people in creating their own spaces and stay out of them. But seek to have black friends. If you don’t have any, you’re a racist. And if you claim any, they’d better be good friends—in their private spaces, you aren’t allowed in.
7. When whites move away from black neighborhoods, it’s white flight. But when whites move into black neighborhoods, it’s gentrification, even when they pay black residents generously for their houses.
8. If you’re white and only date white people, you’re a racist. But if you’re white and date a black person, you are, if only deep down, exotifying an “other.”
9. Black people cannot be held accountable for everything every black person does. But all whites must acknowledge their personal complicity in the perfidy throughout history of “whiteness.”
10. Black students must be admitted to schools via adjusted grade and test score standards to ensure a representative number of them and foster a diversity of views in classrooms. But it is racist to assume a black student was admitted to a school via racial preferences, and racist to expect them to represent the “diverse” view in classroom discussions.

Is he right? Has he put too much in. left something out? Is it as contradictory as he presents or can sense be made of it? Or is it worse, less rational, then he presents? It’s not necessarily an all-or-nothing proposition, either, and while some are good, others fall short. Did McWhorter nail the inherent contradictions or has he missed the point?

*Tuesday Talk rules apply.