John McWhorter

John McWhorter: Ibram X. Kendi is not a “grifter”

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I continue to be fascinated by this Ibram X. Kendi story. One of Kendi’s harshest critics over the last several years has been Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter. In a piece at The New York Times, McWhorter defends Kendi […]

John McWhorter on affirmative action

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Reading McWhorter’s piece today at The New York Times reminds me of the first time I read Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory twenty years ago. The only difference is that McWhorter took the Ivy League job and Rodriguez turned it […]

The Protestant roots of “wokeness”

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Harper’s Magazine is running a piece by Ian Buruma, the former editor of The New York Review of Books (read the article to learn why he is no longer the editor), titled, “Doing the Work: The Protestant ethic and the […]

John McWhorter on the AP African American Studies course

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Earlier this month the College Board removed a few writers, ideas, and subjects from its AP African American Studies course. The Board removed lessons on Black queer studies, intersectionality, the Black Lives Matter Movement, Black feminist literary thought, the reparations […]

John McWhorter just took me down memory lane

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Thanks to McWhorter‘s recent piece at The New York Times, I spent way too much time this morning watching old Looney Tunes clips. Here is a taste: During these times so utterly glum, I’m in a mood to share a […]

“Does teaching America it’s racist make it less racist?”

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Here is a fascinating discussion between Jane Coaston, John McWhorter, and Michelle Goldberg. A taste: Jane Coaston: Critical race theory. It’s a concept that originated in academic circles in the mid-1970s, but one that only hit the mainstream in the […]