John Hamilton McWhorter is an American linguist and conservative political commentator. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations.

He is associate professor at university of California at Berkeley. He is author of Word on the Street: Debunking the myth of a "Pire" Standatd English and the betselling Losing the race: Self Sabotage in Black America.

McWhorter was born and raised in Philadelphia. He lives in Oakland, California. He has written on race issues for City Journal, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and appeared on Dateline NBC, Politically Incorrect, Talk of the Nation, and Good Morning America.