Prof. John McWhorter

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John Hamilton McWhorter (1965- ), was associate professor of linguistics at University of California, Berkeley until 2003, and is now a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a columnist for the New York Sun. He is the author of several books on language and race relations. McWhorter attended Friends Select School (a Quaker high school in Philadelphia) and was accepted to Simon's Rock College after tenth grade. Later, he attended Rutgers University and achieved a B.A. degree in French. He received a master's degree in American studies from New York University and a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University. He specializes in language change and language contact, including creole languages and has studied the Saramaccan language for a forthcoming grammar. Outside his chosen field of linguistics, he has carved a niche for himself as a media commentator who has criticized what he calls a "self-sabotaging" black culture. He has published a number of successful books and made public and television appearances on the subject. He has appeared twice in Penn and Teller's Bullshit!, in the profanity episode in his capacity as a linguistics professor, and in the reparations episode for his political views and knowledge of race relations. He is also an accomplished (amateur) pianist and composer. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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