Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution
Eric Kaufmann (Crown, $45 hc, $27 pb, 394 pages)
Version 1.0.0
Eric Kaufmann is perhaps the foremost theorist of the great awokening – even more so than Christopher Rufo – and his definition of woke is unsurpassed: “the sacralization of historically disadvantaged race, gender and sexual identity groups.” The prioritizing of oppressed groups over all other values has led to an intolerance among progressives that finds its natural end in cancel culture. Valorizing victimhood means that in the pursuit of equality, the Left is just a willing – or more willing – to tear down supposed oppressors as it is in lifting up the oppressed. But this approach is an affront to both human dignity and human flourishing. Kaufman locates the wrong turn at the U.S. Rights Act of the 1960s when white guilt led the political elite to sign up for expansive social programs and affirmative action to provide an equality of result rather than equal rights. The experiment has been in Kaufmann’s telling has been a pernicious failure – at least when it comes to creating equality. For the political left, it is golden, creating an antagonistic identity-based politics to be exploited in both electoral politics and personal relationships. For Kaufmann, the “cultural socialism” that grew in this milieu undermined traditional social norms as racial and sexual liberation became animating features of post-1960s liberalism. Kaufmann draws a direct line from the ‘60s radicalism to critical race theory and gender ideology of the last decade. Kaufmann states, “Along the way, it has eroded freedom, truth and excellence while vandalising cherished national identities and undermining social cohesion.”
Kaufmann argues that woke has not been defeated. The roots of wokeness run deep, so it would be a mistake to consider temporary dormancy in leading cultural institutions as retreat and Kaufmann cautions conservatives against premature celebration. The cudgels at the Left’s disposal are still in place and two generations of students have been indoctrinated in “cultural socialism.” Indeed, he warns that the rising generation – a large bloc of employees and voters – have been inculcated with racial and gender values that are easily weaponized against dissenters. The last six months may suggest the taboo against questioning victim-based identity politics has been weakened, but it still exists.
