John McWhorter & Jason Riley – The Affirmative Action Myth
Episode description
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Video Links
0:00 Intro
1:00 What is the “affirmative action myth”?
8:02 Black progress before and after affirmative action
11:41 Ground News ad
13:29 How far does Jason’s critique of affirmative action extend?
17:03 Contesting The Shape of the River
26:37 Respectability, responsibility, and upward mobility
32:40 Is Jason blaming the victims?
35:54 Jason: No one’s buying the reparations argument
43:26 How do figures like Ibram X. Kendi and Nikole Hannah-Jones end up at the center of progressive discourse?
Recorded May 7, 2025
Links and Readings
Jason’s new book, The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed
Jason’s book, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
Jason’s book, False Black Power
Jason’s book, Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell
Derek Bok and William G. Bowen’s book, The Shape of the River: Long Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions
Melissa Kearney’s book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind
An Amos & Andy YouTube playlist
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Atlantic essay, “The Case for Reparations”
Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist
The Woodson Center’s 1776 Unites Project
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