Debra Saunders Interviews John McWhorter on the Limits of Antiracism

Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, Americans have been engaged in a vast discussion on the state of race in America. Like many topics in the country, the issue has become a divisive, tense debate about how the country faces its racist past, the meaning of systemic racism, the role of critical race theory in K–12 schools and universities, and what it means to be “anti-racist” during this challenging moment in American civic life.

Discovery Institute Fellow Debra Saunders sat down with renowned linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter to discuss how this debate and discussion has been dominated by a “woke mob” that subscribes to theories that are illogical, unreachable and, ultimately, racist in their impact, however unintentional those effects may be. In his book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America, McWhorter argues that an “illiberal neoracism,” disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.