Art, Anti-Racism, and Excellence
John McWhorter
I began my last post by referring to how in the Broadway adaptation of The Notebook the two main characters were played by actors of different skin tones at various stages of life. Relationship not race was the focus, and the choice of actors of ostensibly contrasting “races” ironically and cleverly underscored that point.
In John McWhorter’s last Times column, he discusses a different Broadway show, “Six,” with a similar variation in casting.
My 12-year-old daughter practically had to drag me into the musical “Six,” currently raging on Broadway, in which Henry VIII’s six wives all have their say about what happened to them . . . . Each wife comes out, in her way, as a proud, self-directed figure. For one, I love that my daughters will get this slice of history from the point of view (even if stylized) of the women, and even more that the women are cast as people of color(s), fostering a view of them as humans rather than racial types. In this, the whole show is a kind of lesson in antiracism, regardless of whether a viewer is consciously aware of it.
—John McWhorter, “On Broadway, ‘centering’ antiracism is delightful. Why is it so dreary in universities?”
I haven’t seen “Six,” but according to John, artistic excellence is front and center, all six actresses triple threats—singing, acting, and dancing superbly—and featuring a poppin’ music score. “So, ‘Six’ can change your lens in an antiracist (and antisexist) way,” he argues, “while also turning you on to art, wonder, curiosity and excitement.”
An important distinction in McWhorter’s piece is implicit anti-racism versus explicit. In the theater productions mentioned above, the characters transcend the limitations imposed by race, organically, by performing roles in dramatic depictions that achieve universality—anyone and everyone can partake in the narrative and relate to the story. In universities, rather, having an explicit propositional centering of antiracism as the primary mission, even if well-intentioned, is too confining and limiting for the larger educational enterprise.
Of course, this isn’t a zero-sum game. Yet the same would hold, McWhorter argues, if climate change, STEM subjects, historical or civic awareness, artistic vision, or public speaking were the primary focus. All are important, but McWhorter’s critique implies the imperative of the basic function of a liberal arts undergraduate education, with healthy exposure of young people to the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
By analogy, McWhorter found Bradley Cooper’s primary focus on Leonard Bernstein’s bi-sexuality in his Oscar-nominated film “an almost boorish reduction of a life, soul and talent.” (I felt the same about Clint Eastwood’s depiction of Charlie Parker as mainly a slovenly drug addict in Bird.) Bernstein’s music, though present in the film, took second billing to his sexual orientation.
This is what it looks like to me for universities to make antiracism their core mission. Antiracism is important, but for a whole world to revolve around it yields a distortion of what America is, and what actual humanity, be it Black or white, is or can be.
Most distressing, he says, is the joyless mood of glum accusation, which McWhorter identifies as the modus operandi of university antiracism. In my conceptual wheelhouse, I think that such antiracism is too often what Kenneth Burke called a “frame of rejection,” a dour or caustic emphasis on what we’re against rather than a heroic and resilient “frame of acceptance,” which accepts the tragic reality of life yet embraces the necessity to fight for the good, true, and beautiful world you desire to be made manifest—for yourself, your loved ones and friends, fellow citizens, and the generations to come.
Season 2 launch of Straight Ahead: The Omni-American Podcast
In a similar fashion that McWhorter is down with implicit antiracism in the context of an excellent Broadway production, Henry Louis Gates Jr., in an upcoming episode of Season 2 of Straight Ahead: The Omni-American Podcast, explains why he is for diversity and antiracism in today’s university if it has a concomitant emphasis on excellence.
Greg, Bret Stephens, Aryeh Tepper
Released last week, the first show of the new season of Straight Ahead features Times columnist Bret Stephens in the episode, “A Robust Center: From America to Israel.” I invite you to subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform, and to follow us weekly; new episodes are released on Thursdays at 4 pm EST. For a short preview, here’s the season trailer, featuring Jewel Kinch-Thomas’ mellifluous voice-over.