John McWhorter

John McWhorter is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University.

Recent Articles

The Difference Between Racial Bias and White Supremacy

‘The rhetorical brush is being applied much too broadly’

By John McWhorter

Colin Kaepernick Had No Choice but to Kneel

'We must understand what Kaepernick is protesting'

By John McWhorter

Don’t Rage Over Dreadlocks While African Americans Are Dying in the Streets

'Come on, folks—fight the real enemy'

By John McWhorter

'Racist' Technology Is a Bug—Not a Crime

Why do we consider it our jobs to say that mistakes indicate 'racism'?

By John McWhorter

Ellen DeGeneres Is Not Racist

And never has been

By John McWhorter

Police Kill Too Many People—White and Black

It’s unclear whether bigotry plays a role

By John McWhorter

Stop Policing the N-Word

There’s a difference between the slur and the sign of affection

By John McWhorter

Trump Is Extremely Articulate—That's Why He's So Dangerous

Simple language makes his racist biases go down easier

By John McWhorter

Obama Is Culturally Black Because He Wants to Be

At a certain point in Obama's life, he signed on to cultural blackness

By John McWhorter

Why We Don't Call the Oregon Militia Members 'Terrorists'

Linguistic xenophobia is in the eye of the beholder

By John McWhorter

Good Riddance, 'House Master'—That Demand Actually Made Sense

As Harvard and Princeton show, progress can actually be accomplished

By John McWhorter

Why 'Redskins' Is a Bad Word

A linguist explains what qualifies as a slur

By John McWhorter

What the Watts Riots Could Teach Us About Future Fergusons

Future protests should be peaceful and very strictly goal-oriented

By John McWhorter

If President Obama Can Say It, You Can Too

Policing language prevents us from badly-needed discourse, as President Obama made clear this week

By John McWhorter

At Least Rachel Dolezal 'Walked the Walk' of Being Black

Dolezal, living as black for real, put her money where her mouth is

By John McWhorter

If One Generation of Black Men Could Grow Up Not Experiencing Cops as the Enemy

Towns like Ferguson need to be fixed if we're ever to fix America

By John McWhorter

Obama Is Right Not to Talk About 'Islamic' Terrorism

No one should have trouble understanding why a war on Islamic terrorists isn’t a war on Islam? Nonsense.

By John McWhorter

Let's Get Back to Black Power in 2015

To cry racism immediately over Selma and other perceived slights is not Black Power, it’s Black Cower

By John McWhorter

Ferguson Was the Spark — Eric Garner Is the Fire

Are we trying to create a world devoid of any racist bias, or are we trying to stop cops from shooting black men?

By John McWhorter

Ferguson Is the Wrong Tragedy to Wake America Up

For many, the main lesson of the Ferguson verdict is that Michael Brown would still be alive if he were white — that Darren Wilson’s gunshots were the spawn of the racism always just beneath...

By John McWhorter
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