John McWhorter to consider ‘Is America a Failed Experiment?’

Linguist John McWhorter will offer a talk Nov. 2 as part of the College of Arts & Science's America250 events. McWhorter, associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, is the author of "Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now and Forever" and "Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America."

"Is America a failed experiment?" will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall.

"Many voices teach us as a higher wisdom that America has been an ongoing mistake, founded in barbarity and ever maintaining pitiless injustice and inequality, of a kind and extent beyond the possibility of repair," McWhorter said. "I suggest that this perspective, while often considered a form of enlightenment, is based on an always tempting retreat from addressing complexity and degree, and that higher education should embrace a more positive and constructive view of the American experiment."

McWhorter also writes a weekly opinion column, The McWhorter Newsletter, for The New York Times, which "explores how race and language shape our politics and culture."

McWhorter has spent his career dissecting the ways in which language evolves, adapts and reflects the human condition. His focus has been on creole languages, dialects and sociolects.

"John McWhorter has studied and written about some of the most pressing issues of our time related to language, race and society," said Peter John Loewen, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences. "We look forward to hearing his views on the United States today and how debates over the country's history can distort as much as they reveal."

The event is free, but please register here.