"We Are Taught That Difficulties Make You Weaker" - John McWhorter 

He's a professor of linguistics and I'm pretty sure one of the most highly regarded in the world.

The key is having thought deeply on the topic prior to needing to speak on it

It's easier to blame others than to assume self-accountability, something Black leftists abhor.

@@IhneelkLam I always say that most answers are hiding in the mirror. It just takes courage to look there.

Dr John Mcwhorter is a bootlick pandering for white approval!

@@willharriman1881stay on that plantation, what a winning mentality.

@@Lurch685 YOU are liviing in some kind of fantasy dream land of crackpot conservative ideologies. Unlike YOU, I deal in the hard reality of documented fact patterns and clear evidence. 250 years of historic American slavery (ending in 1865) happened and had massive damaging effects on Black Americans. 100 years of Jim Crow segregation also happened with massive damaging effects. From the famous Civil Rights Act of 1964, highly COVERT race discrimination abuses have been perpetrated with massive damaging effects. And a few visible race tokens doesn't change the actual facts of hard reality! Get it through your head! CRACKPOT FANTASIES ARE NOT A SOLUTION!

​@@willharriman1881damn, you're pretty racist dude....

@@ChrisMorganComedy I deal in hard REALITY! YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T!

he is married with a white woman

I think another large part of this victimhood mindset in the black community is generational trauma. Family members who actually suffered from racsim spoke in a way to their children that made them future victims

That's a load of nonsense! Forget about silly crackpot Black college students' imaginary oppression. Instead, we must look at the actual REAL multi-generational race discrimination in the employment world! Black Americans are typically LAST HIRED, FIRST FIRED and PASSED OVER IN PROMOTIONS! That's the actual REAL race discrimination problem! Black single mothers and Black crime have nothing to do with it!

​@@willharriman1881i guess youve never heard of affirmative action or diversity hires 🤔

@@matthewscott4629 Your "affirmative action or diversity hires" are just a relative few visible Black American race tokens for show! The vast majority of "affirmative action or diversity hires" are actually white women. No large scale "affirmative action or diversity hires " for Black Americans exists! That's why Black unemployment has steadily remained roughly DOUBLE that of whites for generations!

That’s why victim consciousnesses is tempting amongst all groups. It allows you to believe you can offload any responsibility/accountability. It then creates an entitlement in how others should be treating you.

The problem of "victimization mindset" doesn't change the fact of genuine race victimization in reality!

@@willharriman1881 A Victim mindset wallows in all the injustices past and present.A non victim mindset looks at overcoming and solving problems.

@@ronmullick253 That's just worthless word game nonsense! Just deal in reality for what it is. No silly word games needed!

​@willharriman1881 if we're dealing strictly in reality what oppression is currently being done to black people on a large scale?

@@willharriman1881 Japanese Americans as a group make significantly more money than white American today.They were racially discriminated against to the point that everything they owned was stolen from them during WW2.They were systematically kept out of schools and marginalized in so many ways.

You are confused! People who actually face specific genuine racial oppression are not in the same circumstances as others who are NOT oppressed!

@@willharriman1881 touch grass

He hath the beth words

THANK YOU! But both groups only see the flaws in the other side's thinking.

Hmmm, you do know there are articulate black intellectuals on the political left as well don't you? I bet you think Thomas Sowell is equally brilliant too lol.

@@Leo82870 why you don't name one

@@Mostexcellant69Dude William Julius Johnson, Kenneth Clark, bell hooks, Stuart hall ECT... Cornell West, Michael Eric Dyson, need I go on?

@@Leo82870 i looked up the first name you gave me and he's a baseball player. Cornell west is a joke. Name one that actually counts.

@@Mostexcellant69Dude my apologies his name is Wilson not Johnson. Take some time to escape to read about all black intellectuals not just those which swing right.

Why waste time on imaginary race victims when there are so many genuine race victims?

​@@willharriman1881Again, such as....?

Dr Mcwhorter is a bootlick pandering for white approval!

The actual problem of race in America is NOT some silly imaginary 'victimhood'! The actual problem is genuine disfavored treatment based on race!

You need to learn the meanibg of the word, "victim". Here's the definition. VICTIM: A person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. By definition, someone else truly IS to blame!

Woke ideology is marxism. The marxist goal is the destruction of western civilization.

The real problem is actual genuine race discrimination injustices that truly harm Black Americans! Forget about the rest!

​@@willharriman1881For the fifth time, such as....?

@@Brotherken1234 Examine the fact of continuing white racism abuses in employment, housing, criminal justice and every walk of American life! EDUCATE YOURSELF!

That's the whole idea behind white supremacy racism! That's what American slavery was for! That's what Jim Crow segregation was for! That's what modern COVERT white racism today is for!

I do not think Thomas Sowell would agree with that, maybe give him a listen , or not.

@@irishseven100 Thomas Sowell is ANOTHER bootlick panderng for white approval! He also tap dances away from legitimate race grievances! These paid shill bootlick characters all try to pretend that the problems of Black Americans are ALL SELF CREATED! Get a clue! These crackpots are paid to LIE as a DISTRACTION from the ugly fact of continuing white racist wrongdoings!

It’s important to be the winner of the oppression Olympics!

@@katking6820 It's extremely ignorant to go around pretending that genuine white racism injustices are nonexistent! We all know that imaginary race claims are a part of the picture. But, pretending that legitimate race complaints don't exist is just STUPID! Learn to deal in hard reality and leave imagination out of it.

​@@willharriman1881For the fourth time, such as....?

@@Brotherken1234 Do your own due dilllgence! Stop being lazy!

You obviously don't know the difference between actual race victimization and imaginary race oppression. They are not the same thing at all! And until you learn the difference, you can't even begin to discuss the subject inteliigently.

@@willharriman1881 Thank you

That's not what he is saying. What do you think is the strongest position in our society? Most people would say the alpha male king with the army. Wrong. That is the most stressful position. Everyone distrust him, nobody likes him, but everything is asked and expected of him. The king is the man who is about to die when the Mongols invade. The most powerful position is that of the righteous victim. The righteous victim silences stadiums full of people as she tells her story of sexual assault. The righteous victim Ghandi brings down the British Empire in a sack. The righteous victim Selma marchers overthrow the US apartheid. And the Church had only one story - that of the gentle Jesus Meek and Mild unjustly murderer while innocent, and LOOK at the power it has wielded with this story. Here's how it works. Humans form 3 primary hierarchies - dominance, merit and virtue. Dominance hierarchy is based on size, strength, all the things important in nature, the pecking order of male status. Women can only participate in a female dominance hierarchy, not the male. This one is probably the hardest to compete in, and the worst one to win at. Studies have shown that alpha chimps die youngest, they're incredibly stressed out, and human alpha males and chimp alpha males are not tyrannical. Their primary job is protecting the community and using the threat of their big stick to implement justice and prevent conflict. The second category is merit, which is the only one everyone agrees is the most legitimate, and also the one we are conscious of exists - the competition to be the best student, best inventor, best scientist, by earning through legimiate efforts the recognition and status - Nobel prize, for example. The last one is the most insidious, and the one everyone can participate in because we haven't learned to separate the legitimate virtue from expressions of virtue - signalling. And it is mired all the more by the fact that women have always participated in this hierarchy, and furthermore, have always used this hierarchy in a duplicitous way - by manipulation. You see, women depend on other women for support. Children were always raised with support of other females tribally. They can't afford to piss off their friends. But they also compete for resources with their friends and for males. Women are also hypoagent, risk averse. They don't confront anything risky directly, they manipulate men into taking the risks so they survive. So when a woman wants something, coming out and demanding it appears self serving and selfish. It also looks like she is competing against other women. And they hate that. So the better strategy is to fake a concern about some group issue that benefits all the women, and scapegoat the problem on the males, so that when she wants apples for herself, she comes out and criticizes the males for corrupting the apple supply and hogging all the apples, when all the children need the apples. She won't make the issue about herself - that will seem self serving. Instead, she will be the champion of all the children - which makes her seem like a good person because she is picking up someone else's fight. It doesn't take long for someone to point out the problem - she is demanding someone else get the children something, why doesn't she go and do it, plus she would benefit from it! Aha! She is a fraud. But if now, she can gain the status in the virtue hierarchy and the respective reward this brings, without there being a possibility someone might notice the con - what better way of doing that than to pick up the mantle of black women, or disabled women, or LGBTQ? "I am not a lesbian or black, therefore, Im not spewing venom and blaming imaginary patriarchies and all men for MY benefit, I'm doing it on behalf of all the many women who are unlike me. I am very privileged." That right there was Elizabeth Warren. By claiming privilege, you are engaging in what's called German guilt-pride - you somehow acquire an even higher moral position than the victim by claiming to be their repentant victimizer. Virtue hierarchy is the stupidest one because all you need to do is parrot publicly the commonly agreed upon moral precepts - it's wrong to kick babies, and everyone cheers. It allows you notice and exposure without any risks. But to truly stand out you need to make your moral positions more and more radical to be noticed, and your subsequent attacks against people pointing out your corruption have to be more and more virulent, because you are not motivated by the issues, but by the power those issues give you as their champion. In the virtue hierarchy, compliance with the matriarchal moral values is the most important - children and women. Anyone dares say a peep about anything to do with children, and the irrational parental instincts are activated and the mob comes for the imaginary pedophile instantly. Reason is totally destroyed by emotionality. Anyone who dares counter the prevailing matriarchal values, is doomed - Prince Andrew didn't break any laws. The girl in question was 17. The age of consent was 16. Few years prior to that, it had been 14. It made no difference. Just a sniff of a violation of values imposed by the matriarchs and you're toast. So all that's happening here is due to the inclusion of female voices and participation in our cultural dialogues. It's the importing of methods and values of the virtue hierarchy into the merit and dominance hierarchies. The participant uses subversive manipulation to demand justice for himself by appealing to the moral sentiment of the crowd to subvert and illegitimately ascend the merit hierarchy by a claim that it isn't truly legitimately based in merit.😮

@@dt6822 Yoiu wrote a big block of copy, but you left out the basic problem of actual race discrimination in America. So, your mass of writing here is largely irrelevant! It's a waste!

@@willharriman1881 There is racism everywhere. Learn to debate by argument and reason not value judgments and emotion. Intersectional feminism has weaponized virtue to enable categories of people to get ahead for financial and status reasons by a claim of discrimination, which is in the greatest part false. Actual racism is not about colour or creed. It's about sexual competition for mates. It's about attractiveness. If you want to find the truly disadvantaged and discriminated against, how about the ugly? They are by far the most disadvantaged in any social order. And the outcome of all affirmative action programs, of all so called anti-racist initiatives is invariably to further the attractive in the minority population

True ACTUAL race injustices imposed against Black Americans can only come from white racist wrongdoings! Black Americans cannot be responsible for white racist wrongdoings done against them!

Thank you for the Super Thanks Leonard!

An actual "victim" has no choice about wrongdoings perpetrated against him by others! That's the basic definition of "victim". Didn't you already know that?

I think we all know who those certain folk are.

Who is he sat next to?

@@MsDamosmum Trevor Phillips

@@mikegray8776 How is Trevor Philips a professional victim?

Do you actually know the difference between actual TRUE victimization and IMAGINARY victimization?

Exactly the society that neo-Marxists want. It's very convenient to be able to discredit a person's entire body of work based on a single character flaw.

I don't think that's the message here...

Weak people make hard times which is exactly where we're headed and the collapse of U.S. IS GOING TO BE BIBLICAL LIKE NOTHING THE NOTHING THE WORLDS EVER SEEN..THE BIGGER THEY ARE THE HARDER THEY FALL

What the hell has stupid “Woke” culture got to do with actual genuine race injustices?

Oh I thought he was diagnosing Trump here the whole time

You are living in a crackpot dream land! You've got your head full of notions about IMAGINARY VICTIMS! You need to forget all that junk and concentrate on the ACTUAL VICTIMS! Black Americans have actually suffered from continuing racially motivated disfavored treatment in America for the last FOUR HUNDRED YEARS! Today, most racial injustices are cleverly cloaked and hidden behind a few visible race tokens to help avoid legal liability. But the racial wrongdoings continue to harm Black Americans just as before!

Your sociopathy is showing. “He who never was hungered may argue finely on the subjection of his appetite, and he who was never distressed may harangue as beautifully on the power of principle. But poverty, like grief, has an incurable deafness which never hears. The oration loses all its edge, and ‘To be or not to be’ becomes the only question.” - Thomas Paine * "I consider our relations with others as constituting the boundaries of morality... Nature [has] implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses... The Creator would indeed have been a bungling artist had he intended man for a social animal without planting in him social dispositions. It is true they are not planted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions; but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general rule." --Thomas Jefferson to T. Law, 1814.

@@willharriman1881 How many are slaves today? How many are lynched today? How many schools deny entrance today? How many neighborhoods deny homes today? To say that you suffer as your ancestors have suffered is to disrespect them.

@@paulstuart4776 Correction: A few visible race tokens on display doesn't change it!

@@willharriman1881. Yada yada yada ………. Who are by far the richest population of African-descended people on the planet? And amongst those, who are undoubtedly the most aggressive, entitled and embittered group? - the mega-comfortable middle class black ‘victims’ who populate ruinously expensive Ivy League universities. How bloody ironic is that !!

Hope this was written in the same way I read it...tongue in cheek!

Black historians/Proffesors were the dominant authors of that curriculum. Question for Democrats....black leaders love to say..."we built this country", well, if true, they learned those building skills from white folks, otherwise Africa would have similar advancemnts as the USA would it not?

Wrong! If someone chopped off your arms and legs, would you be stronger? NO! Being injured or killed does NOT make you stronger!

@@willharriman1881it’s a relative question. It’s never going to be a relative answer (like yours) is sufficient to address all situations of experiencing difficulty. Even the scenario you described could lead to the person who has lost their arms and legs becoming a stronger person in their character and that experience could fortify their general outlook and disposition towards adversity in life. So yeah, one could say that they are indeed stronger. As I said, it’s relative.

@@Eldot5 What a load of crap!

“He’s a lightweight John!” 😂

The real laugh to be had is whenever Glenn takes off on a Al Sharpton rant

Dr Mcwhorter is a bootlick pandering for white approval!

What about actual genuine race discrimination victims?

​@@willharriman1881For the third time, such as....?

@@Brotherken1234 I had no idea of the depth of your ignorance on the heavily documented subject of race in America. White supremacy race discrimination is one of the core features of the USA system. 400 years of race oppression against Black Americans falls within 3 distinct time frames as follows: (1) Historical American slavery (i.e. about 1620-1865). (2) Jim Crow segregation. (i,e, 1865-1965). (3) Post Civil Rights Act of 1964 (i.e. 1965 through the present day). Every year, many thousands of race cases are filed wherein Black Americans received unique disfavored treatment due to race and color. Because of potential legal liabilities, most race discrimination abuses today are cleverly cloaked and hidden! This is not some new, unknown concept waitng to be discovered.Please EDUCATE YOURSELF!

​@@Brotherken1234black Americans are the most racist people I've come across..no wonder most African and Caribbean people don't associate with them unless they got sucked into the toxic black redneck/ghetto culture

Irish are located near a superorganism white western europe

False IMAGINARY "victimhood" may be something a person can "grow out of". But that does not apply to true ACTUAL "victimhood".

Oh, nevermind he is referencing jon haidt. J haidt made it up.

Does h ever address actual LEGITIMATE race discrimination grievances? He does not! That makes him a worthless disgrace!

That show is intentional poison

@@matthewscott4629 Good, get him on to clean it up

​That's a damned lie. Dr. McWhorter has discussed discrimination regarding them. Come on man! 👎

@@Brotherken1234 All he does is DISTRACTION and blaming the victims!

I've got to assume John knows what he's talking about. You raise an interesting point, but that may be coincidental, and I'd give the artists more credit than that.

Why do they have three fingers? Did all the artists have that too? I studied this question in an art class I took, except it was the illustration on a box of stuffing.

Democrat and Republican party politics really has nothing at all to do with the existence and effects of race discrimination in America! Only the actual fact patterns and events of LEGITIMATE RACE CASES show the truth. Learn to deal with actual REALITY!

​@@willharriman1881For the sixth time, such as....?

Why tf would blame citizens instead of the people whose literal jobs are to control society?

@@Brotherken1234 Such as unique disfavored treatment based on race and color in employment, housing, criminal justice and every walk of life in the USA! LAST HIRED, FIRST FIRED and PASSED OVER IN PROMOTIONS! it's nothing new! Stop playing dumb!

Interesting. This is the Max Mueller point, I assume? Or the Ayn Rand point? Or the Game Theory point? They're not all made equal. Altruism is actually not an option. Because you can't build a wall around yourself or survive without other people. Even if you didn't want to be altruistic, everything we are is a form of social relations. Your money has no value unless it has buy-in from everyone. And thus the best you can do is a form of limited altruism that keeps the illusion of the symbolic world going

@@dt6822 I’m thinking of Auguste Comte, the philosopher that coined the term altruism, living for the sake of others. It seems to me the victim mentality has power because people think living for others (and sacrificing your own interests) is a moral ideal. Personally, I don’t sacrifice my interests, but I have perfectly fine social relations. (Most people think I’m a pretty nice guy, in fact.)

@@TheOrdener I'm guessing Comte sensed something intuitively that mathematics and economics has since proven. It's called game theory. The idea that we all have an expectation that everyone will act in their own self interest. When a person begins acting in the interests of others, to their own detriment, they discover not that everyone is grateful and appreciative and that they are hailed a hero, but the very opposite. People will then either take advantage of them when they hadn't initially intended to do so, or they will build dependence and codependency where their altruism becomes taken for granted, thereby in fact hurting them. And this is precisely what Freud's Oedipal theory was with respect to mothers. Mothers do this all the time. They disable the children teaching them to behave in a world they wish existed rather than the reality. Best example of this is to imagine you get an email one day that a coworker in your company successfully convinced the boss to give everyone a $5 an hour raise. Billy invented a new product. And he asked the bosses to give everyone a raise on account of the profits this new product will generate. And the email encourages you to thank the coworker, lets call him Billy. Do you think Billy would be better off in terms of his standing with his coworkers after he got everybody a $5 an hour raise or worse? We both know that Billy would be worse off. Many people would say "Oh, only $5?" Some would think "What the hell is going on? What is Billy getting for this?" Some would be grateful and thank Billy, but as time went on, more and more people would procrastinate in their minds and come up with reasons why not to seek out Billy and thank him. By the time a few weeks has passed, people will avoid Billy so they don't have to say anything and most people will silently think Billy is an asshole - who does he think he is - that he is better than us? We should all get a raise without him playing some Mr. Special. It isn't expected that Billy would act in a way that causes others to benefit What should have been an act of awesome gratitude and improved Billy's status in actual truth made Billy's status in the company worse. Now change the parameters just a bit. And instead of Billy, it's the boss. And the email says to get the raise, all you have to do is come into the Boss's office and ask for it and thank him. Everyone would gladly do it and walk away thinking the boss is such a nice guy. What's the difference? In the first example, something was given for nothing. The workers already got it - they didn't have to do anything for it. In the second example they had to ask in order to get it. The act of asking for it simulates work and effort and then people don't feel like they got it for nothing but that they deserved and earned it. Humans dont like or appreciate not having their pride and sovereignty and feeling like they owe someone something. They want to feel like they deserve it and that they earned it. That's why acting in someone's interest instead of making them learn their own lessons and doing nice things for people will make you MORE disliked, not less.

I did not hear that. What I heard was rather than academia focusing on victimhood and oppression, there should be more of a focus on how individuals, succeed, and how to bring that to scale on the larger population and economy. Basically what Adam Smith was after.

Those who rise up against their difficulties and learn from them are the ones who become truly unstoppable .

Are black people enduring “constant relentless inescapable difficulties “?

@@justinmathis8078 black Americans are typically LAST HIRED, FIRST FIRED and PASSED OVER IN PROMOTIONS! That's the continuing basic problem that amounts to, “constant relentless inescapable difficulties".

Which God? Sikh? Zoroastrian? Hindu? Islam? Judaism? Christianity? Let’s say it’s Christianity to narrow it down?.. Catholic? Eastern Orthodox? Greek Orthodox? Russian orthodox? Syriac Orthodox? Coptic Orthodox? Ethiopian Orthodox? Anglican? Calvinist? Southern Baptist? Northern Baptist? Anabaptist? Methodist? Seventh Day Adventist? Church of Christ? Presbyterian? Lutheran? Jehovah Witnesses? Or even those pesky Mormons? If Mormonism…the church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints? FLDS? Strangite? Rigbyite? United Brethren? Which god exists? I’m very curious as to why you said that God exists so confidently when there are so many to choose from?

@@thelostone6981 Are there really many gods? Or is there one god that a lot of different religions have recognized on some level but have different/mistaken views of? I would say the latter is far closer to the truth.

Looks like English, but...

i have a tractor.

@@jakeg6917 you can't take it to heaven - or hell

@@rayj1013 seems you missed my point, which is this: your comment is as random as the day is long. of what relevance is this person's atheism to what he is saying?

@jakeg6917 meaning not believing in God is not having the core understanding of what things black people in America face. The God of the Bible said many things would happen to his chosen people if they didn't obey his laws, statues, and commandments. Since he's an atheist, all his perceived knowledge is rendered useless.

@@rayj1013 But even atheists can acquire truth and knowledge.......regardless of whether they have a tractor or not.

oops.....you might need a time off social media....how could you criticize the lovely bomb throwing people of Jesus

Don't be jealous of us just because we're better at business than you! Oh and that we can actually read and comprehend knowledge. ;)

😂 this has to be sarcasm.

@@Eldot5 The wise person would ask qualifying questions before dismissing a statement

@@cedricroney1475 oh so by that are you insinuating I’m not smart? 😂😂😂 Please keep it coming. I’m having a good laugh here!!!

@@Eldot5 I said wise smart guy. It's a waste of time talking to bias immature people

@@cedricroney1475 you began by making an assertion (“He needs some push back”). Then you made an accusatory claim (“He is far too bias, cherry picking, and has zero nuance”) but you provided absolutely no substantive proof to legitimize what you said of him….. ….and yet, you somehow expected to be taken seriously….but I’m apparently not smart because I took the facetiousness of your comment to its logical conclusion and responded in kind? 😂 😂

Difficulties make you stronger. Lifting weights makes your body stronger. It's difficult. Don't need to weight a book on RU-vid to understand that.

Yeah dude, the guy reeks of privilege: "McWhorter was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father, John Hamilton McWhorter IV (1927-1996), was a college administrator, and his mother, Schelysture Gordon McWhorter (1937-2011), taught social work at Temple University.

There's a lot you haven't learned in your 36 years of life.

@@DOUGLAS55ish And what? You THINK genuine white racism abuses are nonexistent? Stop being silly!