- John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (1965- ) is an American linguist and political commentator. He held the position of American
associate professor oflinguistics at theUniversity of California, Berkeley from 1995 until 2003. He took a leave from the position in 2002 to become a Senior Fellow at theManhattan Institute , a conservativethink tank , and a columnist for the "New York Sun ". He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His linguistic specialty is creole and the process through which it forms.Biography
McWhorter was born and raised in
Philadelphia , PA. He attendedFriends Select School (a Quaker school inPhiladelphia ), and after tenth grade was accepted toSimon's Rock College , where he earned an A.A degree. Later, he attendedRutgers University and got there a B.A. degree in French in 1985. He received amaster's degree inAmerican Studies fromNew York University and aPh.D. in linguistics in 1993 fromStanford University . After graduation he was an associate professor of linguistics atCornell University before taking up in 1995 a position atUniversity of California, Berkeley .He has published a number of books on linguistics and on race relations and makes regular public radio and television appearances on related subjects. He has spoken many times on
National Public Radio and is an occasional contributor onBloggingheads.tv . He has appeared twice on "", once in the profanity episode in his capacity as a linguistics professor, and again in the slavery reparations episode for his political views and knowledge of race relations. He is also the author of a course on "The Story of Human Language" forThe Teaching Company . His 2003 "Authentically Black" has been interview-reviewed on "booknotes.org".cite web | url=http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1716 | title=Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority | publisher= [http://www.booknotes.org/home/index.asp Booknotes] | date=2003-03-02 | accessdate=2008-10-07 | last=Lamb | first=Bryan]References
Bibliography
* 1997: "Towards a New Model of Creole Genesis" ISBN 0820433128
* 1998: "Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of "Pure" Standard English" ISBN 0738204463
* 2000: "The Missing Spanish Creoles: Recovering the Birth of Plantation Contact Languages" ISBN 0520219996
* 2000: "Spreading the Word : Language and Dialect in America" ISBN 0325001987
* 2000: "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America"
* 2001: "The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language" ISBN 006052085X
* 2003: "Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority"
* 2003: "Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care" ISBN 1592400167
* 2005: "Defining Creole" ISBN 0195166698
* 2005: "Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America"
* 2007: "Language Interrupted: Signs of Non-Native Acquisition in Standard Language Grammars"
* 2008: "All about the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can't Save Black America" ISBN 1592403743External links
* [http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mcwhorter.htm Biography at Manhattan Institute]
* [http://www.nysun.com/authors/John+Mcwhorter "New York Sun" columns]
* [http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/mcwhorter/index.html Affirmative Action at Berkeley] article, debate on affirmative action
* [http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/189/39/ Excerpt: Losing The Race, Self-Sabotage In Black America] published inThe Abolitionist Examiner
* [http://www.theroot.com/id/44960/page/1 "TheRoot.com" article about Black culture identity]
* [http://www.bloggingheads.tv/search/?participant1=McWhorter,%20John Video interviews and discussions with McWhorter] onbloggingheads.tv
* [http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book19-2008jun19,0,3772358.story Latimes review of "All about the Beat"]
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