Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome WordRandall Kennedy takes on not just a word, but our laws, attitudes, and culture with bracing courage and intelligence—with a range of reference that extends from the Jim Crow south to Chris Rock routines and the O. J. Simpson trial. It’s “the nuclear bomb of racial epithets,” a word that whites have employed to wound and degrade African Americans for three centuries. Paradoxically, among many Black people it has become a term of affection and even empowerment. The word, of course, is nigger, and in this candid, lucidly argued book the distinguished legal scholar Randall Kennedy traces its origins, maps its multifarious connotations, and explores the controversies that rage around it. Should Blacks be able to use nigger in ways forbidden to others? Should the law treat it as a provocation that reduces the culpability of those who respond to it violently? Should it cost a person his job, or a book like Huckleberry Finn its place on library shelves? |
Contents
One The Protean NWord | 3 |
Two Nigger in Court | 45 |
Four How Are We Doing with Nigger? | 136 |
Endnotes | 149 |
Acknowledgments | 175 |
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Common terms and phrases
abuse African American alleged Amos Amos n Andy asked asserted Big Mama Boston Magazine Brown called Chris Rock Civil Rights Coach Dambrot colored conduct context conviction court of appeals Crime critics declared Def Comedy Jam defendant dictionary district attorney doctrine editor EMEPA emotional distress episode eradicationist evidence example Gangsta's Paradise hate speech HNIC Holocaust honky Howard Huckleberry Finn incident Jim Crow jurors jury killed language Law Review mean ment Mississippi murder N-word NAACP Negro Nigga niggardly Nigger Heaven nigger lover nigger-as-insult Nigger's Crazy North Carolina O. J. Simpson offensive outrageous plaintiff political Professor prosecutor provocation Quoted ibid race racial epithets racial insult racial slurs racist Racist Speech references to niggers regulationists response Richard Pryor ruling saying nigger speech codes Spivey Spivey's Spriggs sued supervisor Supreme Court target term nigger tion tort trial judge United usage Vechten white person word nigger