Here is a list of some black intellectuals who are skeptical of claims of systemic racism:

Wilfred Reilly
Thomas Chatterton Williams
Jason Reilly
Coleman Hughes
John McWhorter
Glenn Loury

For lack of a better term, I will call this the "integrated" group. This group...

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...is so-called because of what appears to be their racially integrated experiences.

The integrated group may have interracial family and friendship networks, or currently in interracial relationships. They are navigating white spaces successfuly.

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The "modal" black person, on the other hand, lives in segregated neighborhoods and has a more monoracial friendship and family network. They navigate black spaces.

This isn't about who is "authentic", but about differences in lived experiences...

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So integrated black folk may not have had life-altering experiences with racism, or they may not have close family and friends who are relaying their experiences about racism. Indeed, in their lives, race simply doesn't matter.

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...however, the modal black person will be constantly communicating with people intimately who are dealing with past and present racism, maybe they have had a friend who has been harassed or shot - they will not have had as many positive interracial experiences.

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So you have two separate groups of people whose experiences bend them in divergent directions. They will have different thoughts about race and will ask different questions (e.g. the modal black person is not going to ask "if" there is police brutality...they see it).

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Asking different questions is wonderful, and we need a diversity of thought. But 2 problems arise.

(1) Many whites will find commonality with assimilated black folk because their experiences jibe. They will see the integrated black intellectual as "reasonable" and...

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...use their views to support their own. In other words "how can I be racist when Coleman Hughes thinks just like me"?

Another example of this dynamic is the infamous roundtable by Brett Weinstein...

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...no one representing a standard social science view (or far left) view was on that podcast.

I have communicated with many white folks on Twitter who believe racism is not "real". They find comfort in Reilly et al. who support their views.

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(2) Although all questions are valid, the viewpoints of the assimilated black intellectuals do not represent the views of modal black people. They are a minority in a minority, and some whites never get the modal viewpoint.

The standard response is going to be...

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...blacks are conservative - "look data showing that black folk do not want to defund the police".

Yes, this is true. But surveys show that black folk view racism and police brutality as a problem. Moreover, they speak with their vote - disproportionately Democratic.

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This dichotomy creates a lot of confusion about race in the United States for white folks who tend to consume the views of integrated black intellectuals.

Before ending this thread, I'm sure that as someone reads this...

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...they will look for disconfirming evidence of my claim (e.g. a conservative or anti-woke black person who does not fit the "integrated" profile).

Great! Diversity of views is important!

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There is no authentic black person (alternatively, we could say each group is authentic in their own way). My concern, though, is that the world described by...

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...integrated black folk is not the world most black people live in.

Thus, while it is easy for some white folks to support the "reasonable" and "rational" Loury, McWhorter, Reilly, and Hughes, they ignore the concerns of most black people.

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