Academic Historian

John H. McWhorter, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, writes and comments extensively on race, ethnicity, and cultural issues in the contemporary United States.  His commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The National Review.  McWhorter who received his Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993, has taught at the University of California Berkeley and Cornell University among other institutions.  He is the author of All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can’t Save Black America (2008); Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (2006): and Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority (2003).

John McWhorter, “Celebrate the Triumph of Ordinary Black Americans”

In the article below social commentator John H. McWhorter challenges the nation to think differently about Black History Month.  He argues that the emphasis on black “heroes” negates the tens of thousands of stories of ordinary African Americans who have overcome or outmaneuvered racism and … Read MoreJohn McWhorter, “Celebrate the Triumph of Ordinary Black Americans”