No He Can't
by Anne Wortham | November 6, 2008
Read by Neal Boortz [Audio]
Fellow Americans, Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama. . . I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival – all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician.
Bill Moyer's "A World of Ideas" with Anne Wortham
Video 1 | Video 2
"I don't believe in social equality, I believe in equality of the law."
Black Victimhood versus Individual Responsibility
by Anne Wortham | Liberty Alliance | 1994
This article will examine the nature of the self-as-victim image and its opposition to individual liberty and individual responsibility. Particular attention will be given to black victimhood.
Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association. She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education. In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas. Dr. Wortham is author of The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues. She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality. Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Email address: awortha@ilstu.edu
