John McWhorter: the most unpopular black man in America?

Timesonline.co.uk ^ | July 13, 2008 | Clive Davis

[forkinsocket]

If Barack Obama is the most admired black man in America right now, it may be no exaggeration to say that John McWhorter is a candidate for the unpopularity prize. Which is an odd thing to say about a courteous academic from the arcane realm of linguistics. Yet by venturing onto the mean streets of hiphop with a dispassionate critique of a multimillion-dollar industry, he risks becoming a target of drive-by shootings by enraged academics, book reviewers and bloggers.

McWhorter is not all that surprised that critics have given him a pummelling. He lets out a sigh of resignation: “By its very nature, this book cannot be received fairly. It’s difficult for people to separate feelings from thought. Tempers are going to have to cool.”

So, what is the incendiary message of his book? Interestingly enough, McWhorter doesn’t align himself with that beleaguered minority of sceptics who see rap as a cultural dead end, a bloated, bragging perversion of the American Dream. He may be in his forties, he may be a devotee of musical theatre (Cole Porter is one of his deities, and he met his wife at a sing-along cabaret bar), yet McWhorter admires the best that rap has to offer. He likes the Roots; he occasionally listens to Snoop Dogg while cooking dinner.

All of which makes him sound like your average right-on professor. McWhorter’s animus is reserved for those pundits and intellectuals who see in hiphop the makings of a social revolution, guided by rappers whose outspoken commentaries on race, poverty and violence have made them, in the famous words of Public Enemy’s Chuck D, “Black America’s CNN”.

Nothing could be further from the truth, McWhorter argues.

[forkinsocket]

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[Positive]

Watched a 3 hour interview of John McW on cSpan.

Like a lot of what he said...but then he said he is a huge supporter of BHO...after that I couldn't hear him anymore.

[Seruzawa]

I got halfway through the article, got bored, decided I couldn’t care less about rap, hiphop or whatever you call it. So I put on some Santana. John Bonamassa is next.

[GRRRRR]

BUMP. I corresponded with McWhorter a few times while he was still at UC Berzerkly...he speaks the truth more than black America wants to hear.

[IronJack]

The only reason "hip-hop" (or cRap, as I prefer to call it) has survived is because WHITE America has embraced it. How's that for a paradox? If a bunch of howlers were jabbering in the streets and making arcane gang signs at each other, nobody would care. But a bunch of bored, disaffected white suburban posers latched onto the "music" they were spoon-fed as their (sub-)cultural anthem and now they get to share in all that yummy inchoate rage and urban angst.

It's the same kind of moral bankruptcy that led Kurt Cobain to make millions singing about how depressed he was. Only (c)rap doesn't even have a decent melody. And the lyrics are just puerile.

[memphibian]

Yeah, Joe Bonamassa is pretty good too! Sorry man, I couldn’t resist.

[Mobile Vulgus]

Typical stupid media hyperbole. Few people outside newshounds and pundits even know who the heck McWhorter is!!! He couldn’t POSSIBLY be “the most hated black man in the country”!