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Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why
Houghton Mifflin
April 2007
On Sale: March 26, 2007
288 pages
ISBN: 0618197176
EAN: 9780618197170
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and
future of racism through its most volatile word. The N Word reveals how the term "nigger" has both reflected
and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over the four
hundred years since it was first spoken on our shores. Asim
pinpoints Thomas Jefferson as the source of our enduring
image of th e In a seminal but now obscure essay, Jefferson
marshaled a welter of pseudoscience to define the stereotype
of a shiftless child-man with huge appetites and stunted
self control. Asim reveals how nineteenth-centur y then
colluded with popular culture to amplify this slander. What
began as false generalizations became institutionalized in
every corner of our society: the arts and sciences, sports,
the law, and on the streets. Asim's conclusion is as original as his premise. He argues
that even when uttered with the opposite intent by hipsters
and hip-hop icons, the slur helps keep blacks at the bottom
of America's socioeconomic ladder. But Asim also proves
there is a place for the word in the mouths and on the pens
of those who truly understand its twisted history - from
Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle to Mos Def. Only when we know
its legacy can we loosen this slur'sgrip on our national
psyche.
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