This week on The Glenn Show, John McWhorter and I are joined by Dan Subotnik, professor of law at Touro Law Center, author of the prescient book Toxic Diversity: Gender, Race, and Law Talk in America, and longtime friend of John’s. He’s hard at work on a piece that will set out exactly why critical race theory’s influence has been so pernicious, and what we can do to stop it. And after he departs the conversation, John and I tackle the topic most of you have probably predicted we would: The
Jeez John!! Kendi was not swept along by anything other than what he created; you're acting as if he was plucked from obscurity and crowned. He is nothing but a snake oil salesmen with no regard for the wider consequences of his poison.
I'm with Glenn more than John on Kendi: He's a responsible human being, whether he admits it to himself or not, and his views are toxic and divisive, same as Marjorie Taylor Greene shooting her mouth off about race issues. I haven't read his book, but if someone ever lends it to me I'll read it. Don't want to give that fucker any money. As I tell the Nation of Islam street hucksters when they try to get me to give a donation, "Would you donate to the Ku Klux Klan? Well then, you understand why I can't give *you* any money."
Kendi may be a bit of a post turtle, but he monetized it for all it's worth. He consciously promotes ugly divisive racist rhetoric, and I don't excuse him any more than I would race-baiting Trumpanzees.
Glenn, really? Fraud, corruption of our essential institutions, etc. in your description of Kendi and the ecosystem that encouraged amd made it happen and yet you still haven't shared your thoughts on Clarence Thomas who, from my vantage point, is cut from the same cloth as Kendi when it comes to corruption and jeopardizing the integrity of essential institutions.
Just say you don't like Kendi and move on. You haven't read his work, so jusy say you find him an intellectual lightweight from what you've seen and keep it moving. If you're going to start critiquing black folks who fall in the camp of frauds, my number one request for you is your in depth, critical analysis of Clarence Thomas, especially with all of the things that continue to come to light.
It was funny to hear John defend Kendi on the basis that it ‘wasn’t his fault’ and that others ‘put him in that position’. They may well have done but he could have turned that and the money down if he knew he was out of his depth. This argument seems to remove all personal responsibility, which is ironic given John’s position on a lot of the race hustling and the black ‘victimhood’ narrative.
Kendi is a fraud and it is right that we should celebrate the downfall of his fraudulent enterprise. If we celebrate loud and far, maybe people will think twice in future. That’s how we win this silly culture war.
The school district I work for bought a couple hundred copies of Kendi's Stamped and added it to the curriculum, and I suspect we are not the only district to do so. If you wanted to add another entity to the debate of who is most to blame for Kendi's rise, secondary schools are a major consumer of his products.
To further my disagreement with John’s “acquittal” of Kendi: at what point is someone responsible for their own thoughts and actions? Why does Kendi not “know better” while those who follow him do? Are white supremacist also like Kendi-- they don’t know better? John’s thinking just seems to devolve into peeling onions, so to speak, where the more you peel the more onion you find and call it an onion-- we all don’t know better.
Racism is a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources for wealth and power-- a team sport that will be here until the end of days.
Portugal started the race to the New World with free African labor followed by other Europeans. Blacks have never been part of the race, just the boot and loot.
Blacks need to get into the race. Convincing whites and other groups to affirm black folks is a waste of time and effort. Asians aren't sitting around manipulating the guilt of white folks.
Meritorious manumission negro behavior is counterproductive to black powernomics.
In politics, when you disagree, because he is the platform, you defeat the president. In baseball, when the team is losing, you fire the coach. So goes it with Kendi.
Glen and John - once again a great impassioned discussion. I think you guys demonstrate how to be friends, intellectually honest and disagreeable all at the same time. Honesty as a verb is how you two function. Thanks
My take away on the Kendi discussion was ultimately that John was actually being much harder on Kendi than Glenn. John's basic argument was essentially, Kendi is too dumb to be responsible. Put another way, Kendi is not a fraudster because orchestrating fraud requires formulating intent and the intelligence to devise a scheme, and then the wherewithal to carry it all out none of which, according to John, Kendi is smart enough to do. That's really, really brutal if you think about it. So I definitely didn't take John's argument as in any way sympathetic to Kendi. I don't necessarily agree with him. Just pointing out that it wasn't actually very forgiving.
One of the reasons I don't agree with John is that the most recent news on Kendi is not about the BU debacle but about a new show he just launched on ESPN+ about sports and race. Can't be a total box of hair to pivot into something new and lucrative that quickly.
Regarding the feeling of inferiority that Glenn suggests looms over the minds of those at the bottom...i believe that can be quelled if they were afforded a more dignified way of life. but the reality is that crime, early and serial pregnancy, drugs, etc. especially in the present-day where one income can only afford so much, mires people in a more miserable existence.
The pacific island country of Vanuatu, a Melanesian nation not known for its imprint on humanity at large, is consistently ranked as one of the happiest nations on earth, because they have their sense of place where they live, their connection to their country and culture that provides a sense of dignity that hardly exists in the West without money or accomplishment.
And even if the situation for Blacks in America improves, will that extend to blacks in Brazil? in the entire continent of Africa? Do Africans even feel the same emotions by extracting self-worth only by comparing themselves to other peoples?
I have yet to hear of a plausible solution that doesn't involve political separation of one sort or another, outside of the unlikely scenario of doing a complete 180 on the current trend and having others foster culture of gratitude to and deference to the accomplishments of Western civilization, despite the atrocities of the past.
Great conversation. I find John’s defense of Kendi lacking. Are we to lay blameless the person who promotes silly but pernicious ideas but blame the people who believe them? Why does he feel that Kendi is not responsible for what he believes in and promotes, but then feel that those who believe him are? Is Kendi a child?
Norman Finkelstein spent a considerable amount on Kendi’s failings on Useful Idiots. He doesn’t shrink from the details either. Unfortunately, the exposure of the Kendi fraud is prompting no second thoughts at all the educational institutions that keep pounding away on CRT and anti-racism.
Jeez John!! Kendi was not swept along by anything other than what he created; you're acting as if he was plucked from obscurity and crowned. He is nothing but a snake oil salesmen with no regard for the wider consequences of his poison.
I'm with Glenn more than John on Kendi: He's a responsible human being, whether he admits it to himself or not, and his views are toxic and divisive, same as Marjorie Taylor Greene shooting her mouth off about race issues. I haven't read his book, but if someone ever lends it to me I'll read it. Don't want to give that fucker any money. As I tell the Nation of Islam street hucksters when they try to get me to give a donation, "Would you donate to the Ku Klux Klan? Well then, you understand why I can't give *you* any money."
Kendi may be a bit of a post turtle, but he monetized it for all it's worth. He consciously promotes ugly divisive racist rhetoric, and I don't excuse him any more than I would race-baiting Trumpanzees.
Glenn, really? Fraud, corruption of our essential institutions, etc. in your description of Kendi and the ecosystem that encouraged amd made it happen and yet you still haven't shared your thoughts on Clarence Thomas who, from my vantage point, is cut from the same cloth as Kendi when it comes to corruption and jeopardizing the integrity of essential institutions.
Just say you don't like Kendi and move on. You haven't read his work, so jusy say you find him an intellectual lightweight from what you've seen and keep it moving. If you're going to start critiquing black folks who fall in the camp of frauds, my number one request for you is your in depth, critical analysis of Clarence Thomas, especially with all of the things that continue to come to light.
It was funny to hear John defend Kendi on the basis that it ‘wasn’t his fault’ and that others ‘put him in that position’. They may well have done but he could have turned that and the money down if he knew he was out of his depth. This argument seems to remove all personal responsibility, which is ironic given John’s position on a lot of the race hustling and the black ‘victimhood’ narrative.
Kendi is a fraud and it is right that we should celebrate the downfall of his fraudulent enterprise. If we celebrate loud and far, maybe people will think twice in future. That’s how we win this silly culture war.
Can’t really stand the guest on this one.
This weeks show was worth a year of subscribing. Your Kendi discussion should be heard by everyone.
The school district I work for bought a couple hundred copies of Kendi's Stamped and added it to the curriculum, and I suspect we are not the only district to do so. If you wanted to add another entity to the debate of who is most to blame for Kendi's rise, secondary schools are a major consumer of his products.
To further my disagreement with John’s “acquittal” of Kendi: at what point is someone responsible for their own thoughts and actions? Why does Kendi not “know better” while those who follow him do? Are white supremacist also like Kendi-- they don’t know better? John’s thinking just seems to devolve into peeling onions, so to speak, where the more you peel the more onion you find and call it an onion-- we all don’t know better.
Racism is a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources for wealth and power-- a team sport that will be here until the end of days.
Portugal started the race to the New World with free African labor followed by other Europeans. Blacks have never been part of the race, just the boot and loot.
Blacks need to get into the race. Convincing whites and other groups to affirm black folks is a waste of time and effort. Asians aren't sitting around manipulating the guilt of white folks.
Meritorious manumission negro behavior is counterproductive to black powernomics.
In politics, when you disagree, because he is the platform, you defeat the president. In baseball, when the team is losing, you fire the coach. So goes it with Kendi.
Glen and John - once again a great impassioned discussion. I think you guys demonstrate how to be friends, intellectually honest and disagreeable all at the same time. Honesty as a verb is how you two function. Thanks
Kendi is a narcissist and for that reason alone I’m super happy he failed.
My take away on the Kendi discussion was ultimately that John was actually being much harder on Kendi than Glenn. John's basic argument was essentially, Kendi is too dumb to be responsible. Put another way, Kendi is not a fraudster because orchestrating fraud requires formulating intent and the intelligence to devise a scheme, and then the wherewithal to carry it all out none of which, according to John, Kendi is smart enough to do. That's really, really brutal if you think about it. So I definitely didn't take John's argument as in any way sympathetic to Kendi. I don't necessarily agree with him. Just pointing out that it wasn't actually very forgiving.
One of the reasons I don't agree with John is that the most recent news on Kendi is not about the BU debacle but about a new show he just launched on ESPN+ about sports and race. Can't be a total box of hair to pivot into something new and lucrative that quickly.
Regarding the feeling of inferiority that Glenn suggests looms over the minds of those at the bottom...i believe that can be quelled if they were afforded a more dignified way of life. but the reality is that crime, early and serial pregnancy, drugs, etc. especially in the present-day where one income can only afford so much, mires people in a more miserable existence.
The pacific island country of Vanuatu, a Melanesian nation not known for its imprint on humanity at large, is consistently ranked as one of the happiest nations on earth, because they have their sense of place where they live, their connection to their country and culture that provides a sense of dignity that hardly exists in the West without money or accomplishment.
And even if the situation for Blacks in America improves, will that extend to blacks in Brazil? in the entire continent of Africa? Do Africans even feel the same emotions by extracting self-worth only by comparing themselves to other peoples?
I have yet to hear of a plausible solution that doesn't involve political separation of one sort or another, outside of the unlikely scenario of doing a complete 180 on the current trend and having others foster culture of gratitude to and deference to the accomplishments of Western civilization, despite the atrocities of the past.
Great conversation. I find John’s defense of Kendi lacking. Are we to lay blameless the person who promotes silly but pernicious ideas but blame the people who believe them? Why does he feel that Kendi is not responsible for what he believes in and promotes, but then feel that those who believe him are? Is Kendi a child?
Norman Finkelstein spent a considerable amount on Kendi’s failings on Useful Idiots. He doesn’t shrink from the details either. Unfortunately, the exposure of the Kendi fraud is prompting no second thoughts at all the educational institutions that keep pounding away on CRT and anti-racism.