A fascinating look at West African languages. So often, Africa is treated as some homogenous whole even though it has enormous diversity of language, culture etc. Thanks to John McWhorter for exposing us to a small part of that.
Even though I know consciously that Africa is many countries and nations, I admit I picture a homogenous peoples and landscapes. For better or worse, K-12 history focuses on North America and Europe with only passing comments on of the African continent.
I imagine that most of what John says goes in one ear and out the other. What I hope I am taking-away from each episode -- from the podcast broadly -- is that I don't know much about the world, and what I do know is likely overly simplistic and less interesting than real life.
Used to be all about "integration." Then it became all about distinctiveness in grooming, dress, music, name choices, etc. Tom Sowell said, when he visited colleges his kids might attend, he made it a point to look at cafeterias and libraries. If the students had chosen to separate by race, he was disinclined to proceed further.
A fascinating look at West African languages. So often, Africa is treated as some homogenous whole even though it has enormous diversity of language, culture etc. Thanks to John McWhorter for exposing us to a small part of that.
Even though I know consciously that Africa is many countries and nations, I admit I picture a homogenous peoples and landscapes. For better or worse, K-12 history focuses on North America and Europe with only passing comments on of the African continent.
I imagine that most of what John says goes in one ear and out the other. What I hope I am taking-away from each episode -- from the podcast broadly -- is that I don't know much about the world, and what I do know is likely overly simplistic and less interesting than real life.
Used to be all about "integration." Then it became all about distinctiveness in grooming, dress, music, name choices, etc. Tom Sowell said, when he visited colleges his kids might attend, he made it a point to look at cafeterias and libraries. If the students had chosen to separate by race, he was disinclined to proceed further.