As far as I'm concerned, and this is a big theme of mine, I'm not interested in white people loving me. It's an unrealistic expectation. Black people don't love anybody but themselves. John McWhorter bigblackconcern Change image and share on social
People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew. John McWhorter ancientbearblack Change image and share on social
Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk. John McWhorter fingerspeechtalk Change image and share on social
Every third person in the world is a drama queen. And crying 'victim,' especially when you're not really a victim in any real way, feels good. It feels good to cry victim if you're not one. John McWhorter crydramafelt Change image and share on social
Black English is something which - it's a natural system in itself. And even though it is a dialect of English, it can be very difficult for people who don't speak it, or who haven't been raised in it, to understand when it's running by quickly, spoken in particular by young men colloquially to each other. So that really is an issue. John McWhorter blackcolloquiallydialect share on social
As a linguist, I see the arbitrariness of strictures editors force on me as a writer. John McWhorter arbitrarinesseditorforce Change image and share on social
People banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate from the one they use in actual writing, but a code it is, to which linguists are currently devoting articles. John McWhorter actualarticlebang Change image and share on social
Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases. John McWhorter biasedeadracism Change image and share on social
As languages go, English is pretty user friendly. If you look at a tiny language spoken somewhere that most of us have never heard of, chances are it's going to be so complicated that you have a hard time imagining how people can walk around speaking it without having a stroke. John McWhorter chancecomplicateenglish share on social
'LOL' is one of several texting expressions that convey nuance in a system where you don't have the voice and face to do it the way you normally would. John McWhorter conveyexpressionface Change image and share on social