I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. It made me uncomfortable. I felt his anger and frustration. I realized that I never would, could, experience such alienation. I live in a world that’s powered by people like me, for people like me. I’ve never considered that fair, though I’ve always tried to be grateful for the benefits arbitrarily bestowed upon me. Tried to use them to raise up others. My conscience allows me to sleep at night, though I imagine that Te-Nehisi Coates would find me lacking.

I read John McWhorter’s Woke Racism. It made me even more uncomfortable. His rebuttal of systematic oppression by labelling it as a religion of the Elect—with all the intolerance that religion encompasses—is an appropriate metaphor for our divisive culture. He defines our current moment as an ‘ideological reign of terror’ that ignores the reality of racial progress we’ve made since slavery, Jim Crow, and the era of Civil Rights. He believes that the religion of structural oppression and anti-racism, like all religions, can never be satisfied. It will just spin into ever more minute pressure points. But McWhorter’s tone is haughty, snide. And from my perspective, defining—and damning—yet another subset of self-appointed-all-knowing ‘others’ doesn’t do anything to help bring us together.

Between the World and Me (2015) was the first of a trio of books (White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (2108) and How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)) that have become the defining texts of the perspective that the United States is a nation steeped in white supremacy that’s structurally baked into every aspect of our lives. Woke Racism (2020) is a quick and strident denunciation of those ideas.

In the world of structural racism, every aspect of our society is girded by oppression by whites against others. In particular, Blacks. I find this perspective useful. We had a Civil War and emancipated our slaves. Then we backpedaled into allowing the rebellious states to reassert their power, thus enabling Jim Crow throughout the South and less obvious forms of racism beyond. The Federal government was complicit. How else to explain that the New Deal’s signature program—Social Security—exempted farmworkers and domestics. Is it coincidence that these jobs are predominantly done by Black people? Or did FDR cave to Southern democrats? Is it a Catch-22 that WWII’s GI Bill provided low-interest mortgages for returning soldiers, but not within red-lined neighborhoods, most often the only places Blacks were ‘allowed’ to live? One can argue that those restrictions no longer apply, but they are the roots of the racial wealth gap that thrives to this day. (According to the Federal Reserve, the wealth gap between Black American families and white American families in 2023 is a whopping $986,000.)

But wait a second, chimes in McWhorter. Haven’t we made great progress? The vast majority of Americans are less prejudiced than in decades past, opportunities for Blacks have never been greater. To damn a society as structurally racist when we have achieved so much (albeit not enough) is to conflate current conditions with the reality of slavery and the misery of Jim Crow. It dismisses the achievements of the Civil Rights movement. McWhorter equates our nation’s current preoccupation with race as a sort of religion that lays a burden of guilt on white people and actually diminishes the potential—and accomplishments—of Blacks.

Which view our society is correct? Neither, and both.

What they share in common is our current penchant for driving a singular point of view without regard for, dare I say, nuance. Each remains strict to its doctrine, and therefore fuels division.

We don’t need any more division. We need antiracist folks to acknowledge that while structural racism is a valid and accurate construct from which we should improve our society, that when they extend it to proclaim that being punctual is a ‘white’ thing, doing well at school is a ‘white; thing; and striving for perfection is a form of oppression, the application has gone too far. We are more than simply cogs in larger systems. We are individuals, hindered by biology and environment, boosted by unique talents. We have agency. We have the ability, and responsibility, to make our mark on this world.

Meanwhile, McWhorter’s supporters need to acknowledge that people are born to very real differences of opportunity. People will always be born with disabilities; others will be athletes, others geniuses. We will never be able to create a truly level playing field. But we must strive toward that goal, especially regarding race, since those are arbitrary definitions we humans created ourselves, and which we have the ability to erase. That doesn’t mean I’m burdened by white guilt. It means I embrace the opportunity to rise above how my forefathers acted.

Antiracists and antiwokes each stake extreme, strident positions. It’s time for them to loosen up, acknowledge the limits of their world view, and embrace some of the other guy’s perspective. Time to stop shouting at each. Time to talk, and listen.