John McWhorter & Ian Buruma – The Spirit of Wokeness

0:00 The protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness

10:47 Is comparing wokeness to religion a slander on religion?

21:08 Ian: Wokeness is a distraction from real political problems

28:02 How Ian experienced his own cancelation

41:31 America’s exportation of wokeness

45:45 Has wokeness aided and abetted Trump and Brexit?

52:54 John: Enslaved people did find ways to improve their own lives

Recorded August 7, 2023

Links and Readings

Ian’s Harper’s piece, “Doing the Work”

John’s book, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America

Jian Ghomeshi’s 2018 NYRB piece, “Reflections from a Hashtag”

Tomiwa Owolade’s book, This is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter

David Brooks’s NYT oped, “What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?”

John’s NYT oped, “One Sentence Does Not Define a Curriculum”

The Florida Board of Education’s 2023 standards for social studies

Robert Cherry’s essay on slavery at this newsletter