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AALBC.com's Thumper's Corner Discussion Board » Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2006 » John McWhorter--would you buy a used car from this man? « Previous Next »

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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden

Post Number: 2341
Registered: 03-2004

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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 10:53 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Would you allow a veteranarian to give you advice on how to fix your car?

Apparently racists will as long as he has something to say bad about Black people.

This is the deal with this John McWhorter--that even I didn't see at first, so taken as even I must be with The Man's certificates of competence--

This guy was an associate professor (associate. Never full. I wonder why he didn't get tenure?) of linguistics.

He is or was not a sociologist. He was not an anthropologist. He was not a statistician.

Yet his every pronouncement on the depravity of the black race has the imprimatur of Holy write because he is some kind of academic.

He is the purveyor of opinions and thus they have no more weight than anyone else's.

But of course that is not how the game is being played.

Somebody ought to get up in his face and check him--but he appears to be one of those that hides out from that because he knows they will pull his card.
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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 4738
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 01:46 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I essentially agree. But, hey, Oprah's made over a BILLION bucks telling housewives and mother what to think and do yet she has NO credentials suggesting she's skilled at such AND she's never married or had/raised children.

*shrugs*
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Ntfs_encryption
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Username: Ntfs_encryption

Post Number: 262
Registered: 10-2005

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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 04:25 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

"Apparently racists will as long as he has something to say bad about Black people."

Is the reaosn why you don't like him? Because he says "bad things" about black people? Are the "bad things" he say false and only exist in his mind?
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Yvettep
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Username: Yvettep

Post Number: 1064
Registered: 01-2005

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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 08:45 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

This guy was an associate professor (associate. Never full. I wonder why he didn't get tenure?) of linguistics.

In most US tenure track system associate profs are tenured. (Assistant profs are not.) Perhaps what you meant to say was that you wonder why he never achieved full professor (the rank follwoing associate). And the answer to that probably has to do with the leaving traditional academia for the money tree of institutes and think tanks (which mostly do not continue to give professorial ranks like universities).

Also, much of linguistics as a field of study grew out oof anthropology.
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Yvettep
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Username: Yvettep

Post Number: 1065
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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 08:50 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

BTW, w/the above I am not saying I agree w/the guy. But he is definitely no dummy. I can disagree w/his views on Black popular culture but I still have respect and admiration for his scholarly work in his field, as well as his accomplishments in academia.

As for his "extra-curricular" work, I can only hope that he says what he does because he sincerely believes it out of a profound sense of love for his people. And as such I can only hope that he sometimes does not sleep well at night when he thinks about how this work has been appropriated by those who likely do not have much love for Black folk...
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Yvettep
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Username: Yvettep

Post Number: 1066
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Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006 - 08:55 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Um...sorry for my typos above. I'm taking a writing break but am still in a kind of dissertation-induced fugue state!
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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 4748
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Posted on Sunday, June 25, 2006 - 02:52 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Yvettep: "And as such I can only hope that he sometimes does not sleep well at night when he thinks about how this work has been appropriated by those who likely do not have much love for Black folk..."

You really think he cares? I don't.

I think McWhorters has fixed in his mind what he thinks is the truth and can hardly give dayam what malice is made of it.
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Cynique
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Post Number: 4644
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Posted on Sunday, June 25, 2006 - 11:07 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

The truth has been known to hurt. But if it can't be denied then it can also be the first step toward the freedom from the crippling effects of excuses. Progress is the best revenge.
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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 4764
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Posted on Monday, June 26, 2006 - 03:20 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I saw McWhorter's on CSPAN II lastnight. He was making the argument that it's is cultural issues within the Black community, not institutional racism, that's causing the myriad problems that currently rampage the Black families and communities.

I admit he mades some fairly persuasive points. Still. There's a fairly aloof and dismissive air about him that will trouble many. You get the impression that KNOWS he's the smartest mofo in any room he enters. And he's gonna attempt to make YOU know it TOO.
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Dahomeyahosi
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Username: Dahomeyahosi

Post Number: 28
Registered: 01-2006

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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 01:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I agree with a lot of the things John McWhorter says. I think it's essential that black people around the world stop seeing themselves as primarily victims and start seeing themselves as responsible individuals, families, groups etc. who drive their own agenda. However I am West African and I apply this belief first and foremost when West Africans stagnate due to the pervasive belief that all of our troubles stem from colonization and we are helpless to change things. I see a lot of the same in black Americans but I know better than to judge them because I am not one of them and don't fully understand their issues.
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Troy
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Username: Troy

Post Number: 394
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 01:24 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

ABM I too saw that McWhorter broadcast on CSPAN II. McWhorter is probably way to the right of the intelligence distribution, and I also felt he made a bunch excellent points.

No he did not come across as the the most engraciating personality. But I think what he says will give people the more difficulty than how he says it.

I'm going to a panel discussion this week that will include McWhorter and serveral other Black thinkers. It will be interesting to see how that goes. Here is a link to many of McWhoters articles http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mcwhorter.htm

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Abm
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Username: Abm

Post Number: 5025
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 01:56 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Troy,

To McWhorter's credit, his arguments and criticism to be free of a certain degree of resentment and revulsion of the Black people other conservatives (e.g., Armstrong Williams) often appear to exhibit.

McWhorters does appear to empathize with those whom he criticize.


Is the panel discussion you're attending being aired? If so, be sure to send a shout-out to your AALBC homies.

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