Of John Mcwhorter's Essay 'Is A Bad Word'
The general argument made by John McWhorter in “Why ‘Redskins’ Is a Bad Word” is that not every thing you say about race is offensive but you should be careful. He states, “It may not be mean to tell someone their skin happens to be reddish. But it’s mean to call someone a Redskin (6)” This shows that he doesn’t believe that every thing referred to the color of your skin is “racist” but a slur is. McWhorter also believes that there are better alternatives from words like Redskin. He shows us “ ‘crippled’ had a less neutral connotation after a while, upon ‘handicap’ was a fine substitute (6)” This shows us that he thinks that there can be healthier substitutes than Redskins. I think Mr. McWhorter’s thought process isn’t logical at times and
could be conveying something else he is thinking.
I disagree with McWhorter’s thoughts on alternatives and on how you can call someone out on their physical appearance. I think it’s great on how he thinks we can change to another alternative. Why can’t we just change the name into something else altogether, instead of a name that comes from the same root that offended people in the first place? Why do you need to call someone out on their skin color anyways we are in 2015 we really shouldn’t have to call each other out on what we look like. These problems come up because America is such a diverse country, but if we get rid of problems like these this country will be even better (274 Words).