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Linguist and Columbia University professor John McWhorter is a podcast host, the author of 20 books, and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. His new book, Pronoun Trouble, explores the recent evolution in how we present ourselves and address one another.
‘James’ by Percival Everett (2024)
Everett masterfully makes real the quieter agonies of slavery, including the looming threat of pitiless violence for even looking at a white person before they look at you. By having Huckleberry Finn’s Jim and other slaves speak standard English and use Black English only to assuage whites, Everett gives a richer sense of their humanity than is possible when we only read them speaking in dialect. Buy it here.
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