We’ve heard much over the past week about how Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson’s description of Michael Brown as a “demon” suggests that Wilson didn’t see Brown—and by extension doesn’t see black people in general—as fully human. And while these are different cases, in the wake of the failure to indict Eric Garner’s killer, I…

When it comes to the n-word, it’s fair to say that the NFL’s zero-tolerance policy represents a certain good-thinking brand of sensitivity. So for that reason alone, there’s some value in the Washington Post’s analysis, this Sunday, of our multifaceted understanding of the word in today’s context. But as a matter of practicality, the NFL’s…

In the aftermath of the Michael Dunn verdict, we’re talking again about how Americans process black boys as inherently violent. And they do. Yet in an honest, and perhaps more productive, discussion of this topic, we have to allow something uncomfortable—the possibility that language plays a part in the stereotype. To whites, I highly suspect…

As the legalization of marijuana promises to join the legalization of gay marriage as part of the unanticipatedly rapid social revolution that will define our times, we will be hearing certain ruminations. And not only from fire-breathing moralists easy to dismiss as “behind the times.” I refer to wiser heads worried that legalization will raise…

In an insightful piece in Time magazine, John McWhorter admonishes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for calling Democratic mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio’s campaign racist for drawing attention to his interracial family. He says it underscores Bloomberg’s “tragically tin ear” on race relations. Of course, to Mayor Bloomberg, de Blasio’s calling attention to his black wife,…

Writing at Time, John McWhorter argues that speculation about Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker’s sexuality is all wrong. It would be greatly advantageous to the New Jersey Democratic Senate candidate to be an openly gay politician on the national stage, he writes. “I don’t intend to answer.” “So what does it matter if I am?”…

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, the state’s freshly minted Democratic Senate candidate, is not in line to become the new black leader, argues John McWhorter at Time. His interests are too disparate and too tied to the status quo. The main criticism of Booker seems to be his open embrace of the Powers That Be…

In his column at the Daily News, John McWhorter argues that when President Obama mentioned Stonewall during his inaugural address, he underscored the importance for African Americans to continue fighting for equality for all, including gays. When President Obama sounded off about Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall during Monday’s inaugural address, it got me thinking…

Since Mad Men is back with us and the year is 1966, it looks as if the handling of race on the show will finally be more up front than it has been before. In the Season 5 premiere, black people picketed the ad agency Young & Rubicam and had water bags dropped on them…