Linguist John McWhorter talks Wokism, ‘LatinX,’ and how words are adopted — or not: NPR
Wars of Words: The Awakening and the Battle for Language – John McWhorter
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Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode The story behind three words
New terms – like LatinX – are often advocated by activists to promote a more equitable world. But linguist John McWhorter says trying to impose new words to speed social change tends to backfire.
About John McWhorter
John McWhorter is an associate professor in the Slavic Department at Columbia University. He is the host of the Lexicon Valley podcast and a columnist for The New York Times.
McWhorter has written more than twenty books, including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language., Words in Motion: Why English Won’t – and Can’t – Stand Still (Like, Literally) and Nine nasty words. He received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers, his master’s degree from New York University, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford.
This TED Radio Hour segment was produced by James Delahoussaye and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioTime and send us an email to TEDRadioHour@npr.org.
Web Resources
Related TED bio: John McWhorter
Related TED Talk: 4 Reasons to Learn a New Language
Related TED talk: Txtng kills language. JK!!!
Related NPR links
Latinx is a term many still can’t embrace
Why the “outside agitator” trope persists
The next US census will have new boxes for “Middle East or North Africa”, “Latino”
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