Columbia professor John McWhorter is not having any of Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-TX) schtick. The Texas Democrat has been put on blast for her joke about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is paralyzed from the waist down, where she called him “hot wheels” at a Human Rights Campaign dinner recently in Los Angeles.
McWhorter was a guest on Real Time With Bill Maher last Friday. This question came up during the Overtime portion of the show. Of course, Maher had no problems with it, being a comedian, pushing limits, and seeing this as a Family Guy-like skit. McWhorter is also a fan of that show, but added that jokes about someone’s disability in real life cross a line, and he seemed genuinely displeased with it. He also said that Crockett is trying to inject the “ghetto cat fight” element into the party, the discourse, and on Capitol Hill.
Columbia Professor describes Jasmine Crockett as ‘ghetto’ and scolds Crockett for her ‘Hot Wheels’ joke:
Maher: “What did the panel think of Democrat congresswoman Jasmine Crockett calling him ‘Governor Hot Wheels'”
John McWhorter: “Congressperson Crockett is part of the new… pic.twitter.com/Eb4m12iDIu— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 29, 2025
He added that she said that joke with “dismissive hostility” instead of comical inflection, as one would hear during a roast.
“If she thinks that being black and fabulous gives her a pass on that, then she’s got a really unfortunate sense of what black is,” he added.
The professor later added that wokeness is a serious problem on college campuses. He prefaces it by saying that he does not deal with most students, though he quipped that he’s been on a blissful sabbatical from the chaos at Columbia. He also tried to say that his place of employment has attempted to dampen the antisemitic nonsense, like having card access to be on campus to prevent pro-terrorist mobs from hurling slurs at Jewish students, and the firing of three administrators whose writings were antisemitic. He seemed skeptical that the Trump administration was interested in combating this form of harassment, but conceded that far-left, illiberal shenanigans are a problem.
Bill Maher asks a Columbia professor what it’s like to work for a ‘clown car’ of an institution, and the professor admits that wokeness is a real problem: Maher: “John, you work at Columbia University. Speaking of clown cars. Starting last week Trump is going to war on elite… pic.twitter.com/pOGh126bix
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 29, 2025
