Awards

• Short-listed for Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award (Nonfiction) 2008

Overview

The debate over the N word touches almost every aspect of American popular culture. Does it ever have an appropriate place in the media? Are rappers justified in using it? Should Huckleberry Finn, which repeats it 215 times, be taught in high school? As the cultural critic Jabari Asim explains, none of these questions can be addressed effectively without a clear knowledge of the word's bitter legacy. Here he draws on a wide range of examples from science, politics, the arts, and more to reveal how the slur has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over the last four hundred years. He examines the contributions of such well-known figures as Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain, W.E.B.Du Bois and Margaret Mitchell, Dave Chappelle and NWA. Through this history, Asim shows how completely our national psyche is affected by the use of the word, and why it's such a flashpoint today.

Full Product Details

9780618197170

Table of Contents

Reviews

This important new book sheds light on questions that have long gone unanswered. . .Every home should have it. --E. Lynn Harris, author of I Say A Little Prayer In The N Word, we just might have the definitive word on the essence of power and subordination in America. --Christopher Benson, coauthor of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

This important new book sheds light on questions that have long gone unanswered. . .Every home should have it. --E. Lynn Harris, author of I Say A Little Prayer In The N Word, we just might have the definitive word on the essence of power and subordination in America. --Christopher Benson, coauthor of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

In The N Word, we just might have the definitive word on the essence of power and subordination in America. --Christopher Benson, coauthor of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania This important new book sheds light on questions that have long gone unanswered. . .Every home should have it. --E. Lynn Harris, author of I Say A Little Prayer In The N Word, we just might have the definitive word on the essence of power and subordination in America. --Christopher Benson, coauthor of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

This important new book sheds light on questions that have long gone unanswered. . .Every home should have it. --E. Lynn Harris, author of I Say A Little Prayer<br><br> In The N Word, we just might have the definitive word on the essence of power and subordination in America. --Christopher Benson, coauthor of Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America<br><br> Jabari Asim persuasively explains why the N word remains a slur and a symbol of inequality. --Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Author Information

JABARI ASIM is the editor in chief of The Crisis, the NAACP's flagship publication. For the previous eleven years he was an editor at the Washington Post Book World. His writing has appeared in Essence, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, the Hungry Mind Review, Emerge, and elsewhere. He lives in Maryland.

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