32 Facts About John McWhorter

John Hamilton McWhorter V is an American linguist.

John McWhorter is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he teaches American studies and music history.

John McWhorter has authored a number of books on race relations and African-American culture, acting as political commentator especially in his New York Times newsletter.

John McWhorter's father, John Hamilton McWhorter IV, was a college administrator, and his mother, Schelysture Gordon McWhorter, taught social work at Temple University.

John McWhorter attended Friends Select School in Philadelphia and, after tenth grade, was accepted to Simon's Rock College, where he earned an AA degree.

John McWhorter has attributed some of his views to the Quaker school he attended as a child.

John McWhorter taught linguistics at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995.

John McWhorter then became an associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked from 1995 until 2003.

John McWhorter left that position to become a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

Since 2008, John McWhorter has taught linguistics, American studies, and classes in the core curriculum program at Columbia University.

John McWhorter was contributing editor at The New Republic from 2001 to 2014.

John McWhorter is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and, after writing op-eds for The New York Times for several years, became an Opinion columnist there in 2021.

John McWhorter has published a number of books on linguistics and on race relations, including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why You Should, Like, Care, and Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America.

John McWhorter's work has expanded to a general investigation of the effect of second-language acquisition on a language.

John McWhorter has argued that languages naturally tend toward complexity and irregularity, a tendency that is reversed only by adults acquiring the language, and creole formation is simply an extreme example of the latter.

John McWhorter has outlined his ideas in academic format in Language Interrupted and Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity and, for the general public, in What Language Is and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.

John McWhorter extends to those the hypothesis of language simplification by acquisition during adulthood.

John McWhorter is proficient in English, French and Spanish, and has some competence in Russian and several other languages.

John McWhorter has stated that the conservative Manhattan Institute, for which he worked, "has always been hospitable to Democrats".

John McWhorter is biweekly guest on The Glenn Show, a commentary podcast hosted by Glenn Loury, a member of the Manhattan Institute and professor of economics at Brown University.

John McWhorter clarified his views in an article in The Washington Post.

John McWhorter has argued that software algorithms by themselves cannot be racist since, unlike humans, they lack intention.

John McWhorter has criticized left-wing and activist educators in particular, such as Paulo Freire and Jonathan Kozol.

John McWhorter has criticized both fearmongering and dismissal of concerns over the usage of critical race theory in education.

John McWhorter has argued that affirmative action should be based on class rather than race.

John McWhorter has posited that anti-racism has become as harmful in the United States as racism itself.

John McWhorter has criticized the term "microaggression", as well as what he regards as the overly casual conflation of racial bias with white supremacy.

John McWhorter likens the books White Fragility, How to Be an Antiracist and Between the World and Me to sacred religious texts.

John McWhorter argues that this hypothesized status as a religion explains the behavior of its adherents, whom he calls "the Elect".

John McWhorter advises that since the faith is not open to discussion, arguments with its adherents should be avoided in favor of pragmatic action against racism.

John McWhorter has expressed qualified support for reparations for African Americans, particularly those descended from victims of redlining.

John McWhorter plays the piano and has appeared in musical theater productions.