John McWhorter thinks it is counterproductive for black people to try to impose feelings of guilt on whites with no visible racist leanings. I agree, because these campaigns don’t merely fail; they create backlash. But the conceptual problem goes deeper than that.
In order to make white people feel guilty, you must initially persuade them to identify with the historic forces of oppression. Is that really a good idea? Wouldn’t it be wiser to encourage whites to identify with the black victims of racism, and to be outraged by it? Wouldn’t you actually accomplish far more that way, because it would bring an element of self-interest into the picture?