Talk:John McWhorter

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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.

Is this particularly relevant to the article? - FrancisTyers 22:29, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

It certainly is because it outlines some of his views, which in turn impact his political work. —Sesel 20:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Ok, lets assume that it is... it is certainly given undue weight compared to his work in linguistics, which is hardly covered here. Furthermore, the paragraph is not cited. - FrancisTyers 21:01, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Francis, It should be noted that his work in creolistics is highly controversial and politically biased and that he has contributed nothing to linguistics outside creolistics.
The same could be said of Derek Bickerton, but there's a lot more about linguistics on his page than on John's. 72.129.0.10 (talk) 10:04, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to put in my two cents on notability - McWhorter's linguistic work breaks new ground, while his political views are typical for a conservative and not very interesting, and the controversy surrounding them is similar to other well-known black conservatives and not that particular to McWhorter himself. The article should cover his linguistic work in detail, but his politics can be summarized and linked to the appropriate politics articles for more detail. --JWB (talk) 01:26, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that paragraph before bibliography needs at least a citation, otherwise a book review like that is clearly original research and not a neutral point of view. --shaggy Jan 17, 2008

[edit] Vandalism on this page

I have edited or reverted a number of vandalisms by the anonymous user 68.81.125.26 for resorting to unmotivated deleting and hostile counter-claims in creolistics and John McWhorter. His IP might have to be blocked. Eklir (talk) 22:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Deleted some vandalism to this page. 72.129.0.10 (talk) 07:50, 3 May 2008 (UTC)