Don't Send a Lit Prof to Do a Scholar's Job

I just read by one an article arguing that the rise of English as a singular world language would be, on the whole not such a bad thing, and really more convenient for everyone because English is so easy to learn. The article was written by John McWhorter, an English literature professor ostensibly trained as a linguist, but his arguments are not those made by any linguist I've ever heard. He argues that the idea of cultures and/or ways of thinking being embedded is weakly if at all supported by simplifying the notion to homophones and phonology. He argues that black English is more quantifiably more different from standard English than any other variety. He argues that English doesn't have hard sounds for learners to get a handle on.

None of these are tenable arguments in the slightest but the last is the easiest to refute: