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John H. McWhorter

John H. McWhorter Biography

Linguist

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“The black conservative is responsible for making people question an idea that racism must be extinct before black people can overcome. Understanding that our goal is to thrive despite racism rather than fetishizing it is, in fact, the central ideological plank of people deemed "black conservatives." This is a coherent position, but that can be hard to perceive, given the way that race has been discussed in our land over the past 40 years or so.”

PeopleWayYearsHas BeensIdeasHardFactsPastGivenUnderstandingGoalBlackRaceLandPositionRacismOvercomingResponsibleConservativeDespitePerceiveThriveBlack PeopleIdeologicalOver The Past
Author:John H. McWhorter
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“Barack Obama's said some very nice things and he says them well. But if you ask me, the reason that we're looking at somebody who is such an inexperienced senator, who has said some very pleasant but not especially sterling or innovative things, the reason that he's considered such a big deal is simply because he's black.”

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Author:John H. McWhorter
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“Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.”

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Book:The Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of
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“Politics is work. Hiphop is music. The idea that hiphop, because it makes the body feel good to move to it and it makes the soul feel good to hear out angry young black men, can be transmuted into changing the world is narcotic but nonsensical. Wherever hiphop is ever "going," we can be sure it will not be in a constructive direction, anymore than fashions in the color of cars. And it shouldn't "concern" us in the least.”

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Author:John H. McWhorter
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