From John Lewis to Black Lives Matter
with John McWhorter
On this week’s show, John and I spend a long while discussing the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. We had two decades of hard-won, substantive social and political victories for African Americans. But after that, the movement for black equality seemed not to know where to go. When we should have been looking inward to our communities, building our social capital, and making up for time lost to Jim Crow, the leaders of the movement too often turned outward, insisting that “whitey” was still to blame for all our problems. And yesterday’s “whitey” is today’s “systemic racism.” In this clip, John and I discuss what happened when the progress of the Civil Rights Movement gave way to the slogans of Stokely Carmichael and his godchildren, Black Lives Matter.
This is a clip from the episode that went out to paying subscribers on Monday. To get access to the full episode, as well as an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.
This was a great episode. I loved the thoughtful back and forth.
If black men are rapists does that mean we should shut up about the history of lynching? Maybe if we brought that back, the rates of higher incarceration, and the shootings would go down. Black Lives Matter, but some black livers matter more than others, from now on, we will ceremoniously have a black guy do the hanging out of respect for the civil rights movement.