The New Republic

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It was almost inevitable that Obama's acceptance speech would be a bit of a letdown. The simple fact is that no one, not even him, could top the magisterial peroration on race that he made in March. Plus some of the novelty has worn off.The speech was hardly a dud. But if the idea was to put the kibosh on the charge that people--or at least a certain crucial subset thererof--don't know "who he is," then the ones who were having a hard time gleaning that are still in the dark. READ MORE >>

We reached out to several friends of the magazine to respond to Obama's big speech in Philadelphia today. Here's what John McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, had to say. In his speech in Philadelphia this morning, Barack Obama revealed that he is most definitely his own man. READ MORE >>

In the newest issue of the magazine, fourteen eggheads and eminences wrote short essays announcing whom they’d be voting for and why. We’ll be unveiling these responses on The Plank throughout the next two weeks. This is what John McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, had to say: READ MORE >>

Two summers ago, I wrote that the main reason for the excitement over Barack Obama was whites piggybacking on him to prove their non-racist bona fides. I still believe that this was true at the time, when he was a littleknown quantity. However, since then, we've gotten to know him better. I like what I have seen, and I would like him to be the next president. Ironically, his color has a lot to do with that decision. READ MORE >>

I know this is the week we are supposed to be thinking about 9/11. I am, and I'll get to it. But as a linguist, I cannot help also mourning that Alex the parrot died last week. He lived at Brandeis University in the lab of psychologist Irene Pepperberg. Many linguists think of language as the result of a genetic mutation unique to humans, but Alex challenged that idea. He knew over a hundred words, and was even given to saying things like "I love you" at the appropriate times! READ MORE >>

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter (Alfred A. Knopf, 672 pp., $26.95) READ MORE >>

A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou (Random House, 256 pp., $23.95) Click here to purchase the book. I.When I was in college in the early 1980s, the black folksinger Odetta was invited to campus to perform. Clad in African garb and accompanying herself on the guitar, she weaved together inspirational songs and savory anecdotes garnished with ancient wisdom. She rocked the house, the young and mostly white students delighted to be sitting at the feet of a black Earth goddess "telling it like it is." READ MORE >>

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy (Pantheon, 226 pp., $22) READ MORE >>

The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks by Randall Robinson (Plume, 262 pp., $13) I can buy a big house in an exclusive neighborhood. I can buy a fancy car or two. I can send my kids to private school. I can work hard and empower myself. Oprah Winfrey pulled herself up by the bootstraps. So if I work hard, someday I, too, can achieve the American Dream. The fundamental problem with this rugged individualist dogma is that I would still be black. READ MORE >>