I learned any number of new and nucanced things from reading this article. Which is not what I would say about most things I read, regrettably, as most of them simply serve to confirm my existing views. Sincere thanks, not only for this article, but for the reminder to keep a more open mind.
TLDR: You are right, Pat, yet John's path is the one for the truly curious to take.
That's a good observation, Pat, but John's point remains. If one takes the conformist path, that is, goes with the flow, little to nothing will be challenged, and little to nothing will be gained. But going against the flow, the possibilities of newness are much greater. Furthermore, ostensible discoveries going against the flow will ALWAYS be challenged by the guardians of the status quo, and thus, if these new ideas are poorly founded, they will collapse from their own weakness. Only strong ideas will be able to withstand the assault from the Establishment, and thus we will grow.
Democrats teach hate and pretend it’s black history. This Real Clear Investigations article below from 2020 is about the “1619 Project” and what the author Nikole Hannah-Jones told the editors of the Chicago Tribune about its purpose which is, she said, to instill guilt in white liberals so they will support reparations for blacks. White liberals are not being targeted though. White children in our public schools are. And our Woke white leftists love this and are totally supportive of it. She was even given a Pulitzer Prize for this poison in 2020. This is not “black history” though. This is anti-white hate mongering pretending to be history. This is evil and this is what the democrats have become. And these are the same people who say they simply can’t understand why so many people voted for Trump.
“If you read the whole project, I don’t think you can come away from it without understanding the project is an argument for reparations,” she told the Chicago Tribune in October.
“I'm not writing to convert Trump supporters. I write to try to get liberal white people to do what they say they believe in,” she said. “I'm making a moral argument. My method is guilt.”
“Disputed NY Times ‘1619 Project’ Already Shaping Schoolkids Minds on Race.”
No less than NHJ has endorsed slavery when it suits her purposes. The “1619” Project has included positive references to Mansa Musa using the word ‘servants’ to describe his many slaves. Wikipedia is a bit more honest on the subject. Quote “Musa made his pilgrimage between 1324 and 1325, spanning 2700 miles. His procession reportedly included 60,000 men, all wearing brocade and Persian silk, including 12,000 slaves, who each carried 1.8 kg (4 lb) of gold bars, and heralds dressed in silks bearing gold staffs organized horses and handled bags.”
Most statements by Nikole Hannah-Jones are simply lies. Urban schools are lavishly (generally, exception exist) funded in the U.S. Many of them are oozing money from every pore. Academic performance is dismal. Washington D.C. is perhaps the worst case. Public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year based on Obama administration data. Academic results were dismal. 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not "proficient" in reading and 81 percent were not "proficient" in math.
Biden did a lot of damage to race relations with his constant talk about how white racism, aka “systemic racism” was always everywhere at all times in AmeriKKKa and his party was committed to fighting it so blacks, other “people of color” and whites with a sense of decency should always vote for democrats. Open borders, the demonization of “Whiteness!” and the war on meritocracy which was being replaced with equity aka race based equal outcomes are just a few of the many ways the democrats ruined America.
Bill Maher on Kamala Harris and Chicago public schools.
“Chicago Teachers Union: Tests are racist.” (2 min)
Thank you, Mr. McWhorter, I agree that it is important to be open to ways in which what is commonly accepted as truth might be more complicated than has been presented, as does the case of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. One thing you very briefly mention, though, is the "Selfish Gene" theory from Mr. Dawkins. I believe that it, in fact, is the socially accepted belief and not the counter-intuitive one. Selfish Gene theory, as many researchers have pointed out, is a simplistic understanding of animal biology. While there is truth in it, it fails to account for much of what we observe in life, such as the existence of people born with a difference of sex development we call intersex. Authors you might check out, if you haven't already, are Phillip Ball in his book How Life Works, or Denis Noble. One of Dr. Nobles books, Dance to The Tune of Life, celebrates the beautiful complexity of our biology being uncovered by modern research. A complexity that actually makes us more likely to survive as a species than what the selfish gene theory allows.
Contra this, I'd prefer deep science exploring what is actually true about what we 'already know' than a study which is likely to fail to replicate due to the pressure to find a novel result. It is not that I disagree with you aim to expand the frontier of human knowledge, but that I disagree with what we will actually get, I think.
Maybe I can suggest a different aim: research that is *useful*. This might mean a 30th study looking into how to help children who have an incarcerated parent, it might mean discovering something new about the way information spreads, but it should never look like "Who's more racist?" or, as you said, a study showing that racial bias exists.
I learned any number of new and nucanced things from reading this article. Which is not what I would say about most things I read, regrettably, as most of them simply serve to confirm my existing views. Sincere thanks, not only for this article, but for the reminder to keep a more open mind.
Isn't seeking novelty as much of a bias as seeking conformity? Seeking accuracy seems better.
TLDR: You are right, Pat, yet John's path is the one for the truly curious to take.
That's a good observation, Pat, but John's point remains. If one takes the conformist path, that is, goes with the flow, little to nothing will be challenged, and little to nothing will be gained. But going against the flow, the possibilities of newness are much greater. Furthermore, ostensible discoveries going against the flow will ALWAYS be challenged by the guardians of the status quo, and thus, if these new ideas are poorly founded, they will collapse from their own weakness. Only strong ideas will be able to withstand the assault from the Establishment, and thus we will grow.
Democrats teach hate and pretend it’s black history. This Real Clear Investigations article below from 2020 is about the “1619 Project” and what the author Nikole Hannah-Jones told the editors of the Chicago Tribune about its purpose which is, she said, to instill guilt in white liberals so they will support reparations for blacks. White liberals are not being targeted though. White children in our public schools are. And our Woke white leftists love this and are totally supportive of it. She was even given a Pulitzer Prize for this poison in 2020. This is not “black history” though. This is anti-white hate mongering pretending to be history. This is evil and this is what the democrats have become. And these are the same people who say they simply can’t understand why so many people voted for Trump.
“If you read the whole project, I don’t think you can come away from it without understanding the project is an argument for reparations,” she told the Chicago Tribune in October.
“I'm not writing to convert Trump supporters. I write to try to get liberal white people to do what they say they believe in,” she said. “I'm making a moral argument. My method is guilt.”
“Disputed NY Times ‘1619 Project’ Already Shaping Schoolkids Minds on Race.”
Real Clear Investigations. Jan 31, 2020
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/01/31/disputed_ny_times_1619_project_is_already_shaping_kids_minds_on_race_bias_122192.html
No less than NHJ has endorsed slavery when it suits her purposes. The “1619” Project has included positive references to Mansa Musa using the word ‘servants’ to describe his many slaves. Wikipedia is a bit more honest on the subject. Quote “Musa made his pilgrimage between 1324 and 1325, spanning 2700 miles. His procession reportedly included 60,000 men, all wearing brocade and Persian silk, including 12,000 slaves, who each carried 1.8 kg (4 lb) of gold bars, and heralds dressed in silks bearing gold staffs organized horses and handled bags.”
Most statements by Nikole Hannah-Jones are simply lies. Urban schools are lavishly (generally, exception exist) funded in the U.S. Many of them are oozing money from every pore. Academic performance is dismal. Washington D.C. is perhaps the worst case. Public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year based on Obama administration data. Academic results were dismal. 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not "proficient" in reading and 81 percent were not "proficient" in math.
Chicago spends $30K per year, per student and graduates functionally illiterate kids. This is just not working at all.
Bill Maher on Kamala Harris and Chicago public schools.
“Chicago Teachers Union: Tests are racist.” (2 min)
Illinois Policy. Oct 28, 2024
https://youtu.be/xp1DsUDCj1Q?si=cNST9rE_WvM_5qRw
“Maybe We Should Stop Calling Them Schools.”
Real Clear Education. Mar 26, 2025
https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2025/03/26/maybe_we_should_stop_calling_them_schools_1100065.html
Biden did a lot of damage to race relations with his constant talk about how white racism, aka “systemic racism” was always everywhere at all times in AmeriKKKa and his party was committed to fighting it so blacks, other “people of color” and whites with a sense of decency should always vote for democrats. Open borders, the demonization of “Whiteness!” and the war on meritocracy which was being replaced with equity aka race based equal outcomes are just a few of the many ways the democrats ruined America.
Bill Maher on Kamala Harris and Chicago public schools.
“Chicago Teachers Union: Tests are racist.” (2 min)
Illinois Policy. Oct 28, 2024
https://youtu.be/xp1DsUDCj1Q?si=cNST9rE_WvM_5qRw
“Maybe We Should Stop Calling Them Schools.”
Real Clear Education. Mar 26, 2025
https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2025/03/26/maybe_we_should_stop_calling_them_schools_1100065.html
Thank you, Mr. McWhorter, I agree that it is important to be open to ways in which what is commonly accepted as truth might be more complicated than has been presented, as does the case of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. One thing you very briefly mention, though, is the "Selfish Gene" theory from Mr. Dawkins. I believe that it, in fact, is the socially accepted belief and not the counter-intuitive one. Selfish Gene theory, as many researchers have pointed out, is a simplistic understanding of animal biology. While there is truth in it, it fails to account for much of what we observe in life, such as the existence of people born with a difference of sex development we call intersex. Authors you might check out, if you haven't already, are Phillip Ball in his book How Life Works, or Denis Noble. One of Dr. Nobles books, Dance to The Tune of Life, celebrates the beautiful complexity of our biology being uncovered by modern research. A complexity that actually makes us more likely to survive as a species than what the selfish gene theory allows.
Contra this, I'd prefer deep science exploring what is actually true about what we 'already know' than a study which is likely to fail to replicate due to the pressure to find a novel result. It is not that I disagree with you aim to expand the frontier of human knowledge, but that I disagree with what we will actually get, I think.
Maybe I can suggest a different aim: research that is *useful*. This might mean a 30th study looking into how to help children who have an incarcerated parent, it might mean discovering something new about the way information spreads, but it should never look like "Who's more racist?" or, as you said, a study showing that racial bias exists.