John
McWhorter has an intriguing article in The
Wall Street Journal today. It is
coming to us on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a
Dream” speech.
Mr. McWhorter is a professor at Columbia University and
writes a column for Time
magazine. He is a linguist.
If you are not sure what that’s all about, please check out
his TED
lecture from earlier this year. Or even
better, see yesterday’s post on Miley Cyrus at the New
Republic. John McWhorter can change
the way you think.
His article in The Wall Street Journal discusses
how we should honor Dr. King’s dream. As
background, he shows how “The Dream” has been co-opted by our culture to place
Americans with dark skin tone in a position of eternal indignation; where they think
of themselves as “underdogs with a bone to pick.”
Mr. McWhorter is showing us what a “conversation
on race” looks like.
In contrast, we will not see that point of view reflected in
today’s speeches. Instead, we will see classic
objectification and further evidence of African Americans being held in the
Democratic Party’s Droit du Seigneur.
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