The Manhattan Institute and other white supremacist Think Tanks

The motto for the Manhattan Institute on Wikipedia is “turning intellect into influence”. Not so sure about the intellect part, but if it were to be replaced by money, it would speak for itself. The donor list includes some of the wealthiest people on the planet. A group of people who create propaganda and fund politicians to influence policies that lead to laws. The recent media activity by one of their so-called Senior Fellows has received some attention. 

John Mcwhorter, a so-called linguistics professor at Columbia released a book called Woke Racism. The book appears to be nothing more than a propaganda piece for The Manhattan Institute. The title is telling because the word “woke” started in black circles and is now mainstream. Most would say it has become a code word for black people. Another interesting point is that Mcwhorter begins his book by discussing how people lose their jobs because of this “wokeness”. This is not a coincidence because the whole point of pushing back on this so-called wokeness, this renaissance, this threat, is to make sure it does not influence the status quo.  

This is where you can sense the support and influence peddling by the Manhattan Institute for someone like a Mcwhorter. He is black and a professor at an Ivy League university so it sells well. Like Christopher Rufo and Heather McDonald, he is sent out to deal with the “black problem”. Rather it is policing, law, or economics, the goal is to maintain the current racial hierarchy. The tools of so-called right or left-wing think tanks are sent out on the front lines to do the dirty work for the hedge fund managers, corporations, and wealthy donors who back them. 

One of the most famous Manhattan Institute alumni is Charles Murray, a cold-blooded white supremacist who authored “The Bell Curve”, essentially a book of pseudo-scientific racism geared to justify anti-black racism. This book made it easy for racists in corporate America to continue to not hire black people, not finance black companies and continue funding the propaganda that supports the global world order. You hear the IQ and standardized test question today being thrown around social media circles to justify continued mistreatment. Of course, arguments like this are nothing new, they have been here for centuries used to justify all forms of exploitation including free labor, high incarceration rates, and colonialism. 

The people who projected their insecurities and desire for power on the world invented racism. No other time in recorded history have people said you have these traits, so you belong in this category and then treated people according to this assignment. We would benefit in a capitalistic world order to understand this history and how everything is now based within it. When you read quotes from historical white supremacists like Senator John Calhoun or Thomas Jefferson you see parallels to the way corporate CEOs or other prominent people, like John Watson, talk today, albeit sometimes more codified. These think tanks, especially the right-wing types, are filled with academics, political advisors, and others who work hard to keep the world in its current form.