Randall Kennedy: Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

[bibliogramma]

Randall Kennedy (an African-American professor at Harvard Law School who specialises in, among other things, race relations law) has written a very interesting book about the word that no white person can say without risking denunciation as a racist of the very worst kind - even though, as Kennedy notes in the book, racism can do as much, or more harm, when clothed in polite condescension or specious arguments pretending to quote scientific or historical "fact" as it can when broadcast through an aggressively abusive epithet.

In a wide-ranging discourse (which is unfortunately limited to the use of the w9rd in the USA), Kennedy examines the range of cultural meanings of the word, depending on who is using it, and when, and to whom, and for what purpose, the legal ramifications of using it in various circumstances, and shares his own opinions on the question of whether a white person in modern America can use the word in a non-racist way.

My only complaint is that I wanted more discussion of all of these things, and a more broadly based analysis.... The book seemed too brief to adequately examine the vast impact of the word.