THE “THE” PROBLEM

In 2008, John McCain wast ridiculed for saying “the Google.” Eight years later, Donald Trump keeps tacking on an extra “the” before ethnic groups: “the African Americans”; “the Hispanics”; “the gays.” In an essay, University of Sussex linguist Lynne Murphy said this has the effect of portraying these groups as “an undifferentiated whole.” Saying “African Americans live in the inner city,” for instance, means some of them live in the inner city. But saying “the African Americans live in the inner city” implies there are no non-inner city black people.