John H. McWhorter (1965- ), African American, was associate professor of linguistics at University of California, Berkeley until 2003, and is now a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank. He is the author of several books on language and race relations. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... A professor is a senior teacher and researcher, usually in a college or university. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist or linguistician. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as California, Cal, UCB, UC Berkeley, The University of California, or simply Berkeley) is a public, coeducational university situated east of the San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, California, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is an influential conservative think tank based in New York, and established in 1978. ...

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. The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as Quakers or Friends) is a loose knit religious or spiritual movement founded in England in the 17th century by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity. ... Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... Simons Rock College of Bard Simons Rock College of Bard, also abbreviated Simons Rock College and Simons Rock, is a small liberal arts college located in the small town of Great Barrington (population 8,000), in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. ... Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is the largest institution for higher education in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a privately-funded American university in Stanford, California. ...

He specializes in language change and language contact, including creole languages and spent a good deal of time studying the Saramaccan language for a planned grammar. Outside his chosen field of linguistics, he has carved a niche for himself as a critical African American social commentator. He has published a number of successful books and made public and television appearances on the subject. A creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ... Saramaccan (autonym: Saamáka) is a creole spoken by about 24,000 people near the Saramaccan and upper Suriname Rivers in Suriname, and 2,000 in French Guiana. ... Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ...

McWhorter does not support reparations for slavery because he feels that black America was granted ample reparations in the late sixties. He is an outspoken critic of contemporary civil rights leaders. He has called Al Sharpton "quite simply an inveterate liar," and stated that "Jesse Jackson has no effect on the lives of most Black people." He stresses that race activism should be focused on improving the lives of poor blacks rather than on whether or not there is "racism," which he assumes will always be the case as it has always been in human history. He does not acknowledge that racism is beyond the color of ones skin, but ones nationality or origin. The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Reverend Al Sharpton The Reverend Alfred Charles Al Sharpton Jr. ... The Rev. ...

Select bibliography

• Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America (2000)
• The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (2001)
• 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 (2003)
• Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (2005)

External links

• Booknotes: Authentically Black (interview in 2003)
• Manhattan Institute Biography
• Affirmative Action at Berkeley Article, debate on Affirmative action