#452 — Is Wokeness Finally Dead?

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• John McWhorter believes that while peak nationwide "wokeness" may have passed, the ideology is deeply entrenched and potentially unrootable in academia and the arts, merely shifting labels (like DEI) to continue practices like racial preferences.  Copied to clipboard!
• Sam Harris expressed hope that the political liability of far-left positions, exemplified by Kamala Harris's political struggles, signaled a cultural tipping point away from extreme ideology.  Copied to clipboard!
• The core error in the national response to George Floyd's death, according to McWhorter, was the widespread, statistically unsupported belief that Black men face a unique, racially motivated danger from police, which social media amplified into an article of faith.  Copied to clipboard!

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Podcast Access and Guest Introduction

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(00:00:06)

• Key Takeaway: The Making Sense podcast is subscriber-supported and ad-free, requiring subscription for full episodes.
• Summary: The initial segment serves as an administrative note, informing listeners that they are hearing a preview and must subscribe at samharris.org for the full conversation. The podcast relies entirely on subscriber support as it does not run advertisements. Sam Harris then introduces his returning guest, John McWhorter.

Wokeness Persistence in Academia

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(00:01:03)

• Key Takeaway: Wokeness ideology is considered potentially unrecoverable in academia and the arts because it is self-perpetuating through graduate student pipelines and hiring decisions.
• Summary: McWhorter suggests that the ideology’s roots in academia make it difficult to uproot, as those who hold the view gain authority over graduate students who become future professors. This system influences hiring and curriculum decisions, making it hard to reverse the trend, which he likens to toothpaste that cannot be put back in the tube.

DEI Evasion Tactics

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(00:03:01)

• Key Takeaway: Official dismantling of DEI programs by political forces will likely result in the ideology going underground, continuing under new labels.
• Summary: McWhorter argues that even if political forces remove the DEI label, the underlying concepts, largely a euphemism for affirmative action and racial preferences, will persist by adopting new terminology. He lacks imagination to see how this fundamental shift in institutional thinking will be reversed by external political pressure.

McWhorter’s Academic Isolation

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(00:04:02)

• Key Takeaway: McWhorter maintains an eccentric, isolated position within Columbia’s Linguistics program, limiting his direct involvement in broad departmental hiring machinery.
• Summary: McWhorter clarifies that his small linguistics program, ensconced within Slavic studies, keeps him out of most major faculty meetings and tenure committees. Despite this distance, he observes the climate through assignments and readings, noting the significant influence of ideologically aligned professors on departments.

Music Theory and Ideology Example

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(00:05:06)

• Key Takeaway: The assertion that music theory is inherently racist, exemplified by Philip Ewell’s critique of musicology, demonstrates the absurd extension of ideological thinking into objective fields.
• Summary: McWhorter cites Philip Ewell’s argument that music theory is racist as an example of an absurd ideology gaining traction, similar to how math or classical languages are targeted. This ideology also involves diminishing the stature of canonical figures like Beethoven based on race, mirroring the influence seen in other academic areas.

Harris’s Political Tipping Point Hope

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(00:08:03)

• Key Takeaway: Sam Harris believes the political liability of far-left shibboleths, particularly regarding gender reassignment surgery for immigrants, may have marked the high watermark for extreme ideology.
• Summary: Harris places hope in the political failure of extreme left-wing stances, citing Kamala Harris’s inability to navigate certain policy positions without political damage. He suggests this pragmatic failure might force recalibration in millions of minds, though he admits he lacks direct insight into the Ivory Tower’s current state.

Woke Ideology Applied to New Issues

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(00:10:03)

• Key Takeaway: The punitive, tribal ideology prevalent in 2020 regarding race is now being applied with equal fervor to issues like Hamas/Israel and transgender rights.
• Summary: McWhorter observes that the same fury and resistance to facts seen during the George Floyd protests are now directed toward foreign policy and gender identity issues. He uses the analogy of a gopher popping up in different holes to describe how this core ideology shifts its focus to new targets.

Duty to Repeat Core Message

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(00:11:49)

• Key Takeaway: The central duty for intellectuals is to repeatedly articulate that the unifying pattern across disparate issues is the belief that battling power differentials must be the primary goal of all endeavors.
• Summary: McWhorter views his role as constantly reiterating the underlying principle driving current conflicts: the focus on power differentials, whether in policing, academia, or the Israel-Palestine conflict. He acknowledges the need for relentless repetition, similar to advertising, to counteract this pervasive idea.

McWhorter’s Regret on Messaging Volume

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(00:12:45)

• Key Takeaway: McWhorter sometimes regrets prioritizing varied intellectual projects over relentlessly focusing on the message established in Woke Racism.
• Summary: McWhorter admits that he craves variety and could not sustain the fury required to write Woke Racism repeatedly, leading to a feeling of not fully doing his job. He wonders if he should have dedicated years solely to podcasting and writing that specific message instead of pursuing other interests.

George Floyd Aftermath Errors

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(00:15:30)

• Key Takeaway: The massive cultural error following George Floyd’s death was the widespread, faith-based belief that Black men face a statistically significant, racially motivated danger of being killed by police.
• Summary: McWhorter identifies the core error as the orthodoxy that George Floyd would have lived if he were white, despite evidence like the similar death of white man Tony Timpa receiving no attention. This belief, which he calls a myth unsupported by current statistics, was amplified by social media, leading to widespread cultural kabuki theater.

Misestimation of Police Killings

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(00:17:58)

• Key Takeaway: Left-of-center individuals vastly overestimate the number of unarmed Black men killed by police annually, often by one or two orders of magnitude.
• Summary: Harris notes that statistics show the actual number of unarmed Black men killed by police is around 10 to 15 per year, yet many estimates range up to 1,000 or even 10,000. This massive statistical distortion is fueled by social media algorithms amplifying shocking but unrepresentative videos.

Differences with Glenn Lowry

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(00:18:41)

• Key Takeaway: McWhorter and Glenn Lowry now diverge on their views regarding Israel/Palestine and Coates’s Between the World and Me, with Lowry being more critical of Israel and supportive of Coates.
• Summary: While agreeing on the 2020/2021 events, McWhorter and Lowry disagree on the Israel-Palestine conflict, where Lowry condemns Israel more strongly than McWhorter finds justifiable. Furthermore, Lowry praised Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book, which McWhorter considered ’the devil’s spawn,’ causing a rift in their discussions.