https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/the-elect-the-threat-to-a-progressive-598
“To be Elect is to insist that unequal outcomes mean unequal opportunity, which is false.”
One response to a book like this might be to own that Electism is a religion. You might consider it a better one than, say, believing that God’s son died for our sins and was reborn, waiting to envelope you in his eternal grace if you believe in him. This new religion is about countering racism. Who could be against that?
But we must ask whether the Elect approach actually shows signs of making any difference in the lives of black people, other than making educated white people infantilize them. While purportedly “dismantling racist structures,” the Elect religion is actually harming the people living in those structures. It is a terrifyingly damaging business.
ELECT IDEOLOGY HURTS BLACK PEOPLE
The Bigotry Against Black Boys
Black boys get suspended and expelled from schools more than other kids. According to Elect ideology this must be because they are discriminated against.
Specifically, we are told to think that the reason these boys get disciplined more than other kids is because teachers hold biases against them. The white kid acting up is a scamp; the black kid acting up is a thug. There are scholar-activists who have founded whole careers on bringing this wisdom to America’s educators and beyond. In 2014, a “Dear Colleague” letter went out from the U.S. Department of Education concurring that black boys are disciplined disproportionately because of racism. In 2019, the United States Commission on Civil Rights released a briefing report making the same case titled “Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities.”
Noble notions from noble entities. But the simple fact is this. Black boys do commit more violent offenses in public schools than other kids. Period.