Is That All There Is to a Black Guy?
with John McWhorter
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John and I are black guys. But we’re also “The Black Guys,” our self-bestowed, half-joking moniker from back in the early days on Robert Wright’s Bloggingheads.tv (subsequently relaunched as Nonzero). We called ourselves the Black Guys because we were the only black people who appeared regularly on Bloggingheads, and we covered the race beat.
I liked being one of the Black Guys. I liked that I had a platform for conversations about race that, John and I both felt, weren’t happening elsewhere. Maybe they were happening behind closed doors—in fact, I know they were—but no other black intellectuals were saying what we were saying in public. When the Black Lives Matter movement seized the discourse on race, and when riots broke out following George Floyd’s death in 2020, people needed to hear black critical voices telling them that looking askance at it all didn’t amount to racism. The same went for affirmative action, DEI, and any number of other programs that, while wrapped in the garb of antiracism, did nothing or worse to address the real problems of African Americans.
But it’s been years now. How many times can a guy get on his soapbox and decry the deleterious effects of racial quotas? At some point, it seemed that whenever the latest instance of progressive overreach broke in the news, I was expected to call it out, even if I had just called out a nearly identical incident the week before. That kind of expectation can have a subtly dehumanizing effect, as though my sole purpose in life is to amble out on stage, scold the woke mob, and then sit quietly and wait for the next infraction. There are worse gigs, to be sure, but as the song goes, “Is that all there is?”
In this clip, I confess my weariness to John. With the Supreme Court’s SFFA ruling and Trump’s rapid dismantlement of federal DEI programs, I was starting to feel like our role in the discourse was winding down. Are we still necessary? John believes we are, even if we sometimes find ourselves treading familiar ground. And I believe he convinced me, or at least cheered me up. The fight for real equality is a long one, and I’ve been at it for a long time. Maybe the country’s mood is shifting in my direction. If so, this is no time to let up.
Not to be hyperbolic, but I feel so lucky to have stumbled on Glenn’s show several years ago. Both he and John are willing to share the experience of what it means to be a human being and a public intellectual. The ability to share contradictory thoughts, change positions based on time or evidence, be unpopular and ostracized in public and still show up and share it all. Maybe because I am overly sensitive and raising teenagers, but I find this level of honesty moves me to tears and give me hope.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such an organized and interesting way. You are true intellectual leaders.
I hope you will take on the need for K-12 education that works for all kids. We know that black kids who fail in public schools can succeed in schools that inspire them.