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Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Many critics of the “HNIC” title proceeded as if their offended sensibilities alone should settle the matter—as if their sense of outrage necessarily made the act they objected to a bad act warranting an apology.
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
the suspicion that whatever the setting, whites derive racist pleasure out of hearing, saying, or even alluding to “nigger.”
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
For some questioners, my book is more authentic and acceptable insofar as I have been called a nigger and have otherwise been forced to encounter it in my own life. I make no such claim on my own behalf. I do not believe that my experiences entitle me to any more deference than that which is due on the strength of my writing alone. Experience is
... See moreRandall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Perhaps in the context of antidiscrimination law at the workplace, moreover, it is better to err on the side of overenforcement rather than underenforcement. Still, even if that is so, it is important to remember that the N-word is not self-defining. Its actual meaning in any given instance always depends on surrounding circumstances. Deriving an
... See moreRandall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Subsequent actions taken by university officials were excessive. First, the sensitivity-training session ordered by the affirmative-action officer was just the sort of Orwellian overreaching that has, unfortunately, tarnished the reputation of multiculturalist reformism.
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
In 1988, in Indianapolis, state authorities established a residential treatment center for convicted child molesters in an all-white neighborhood. From the center's opening until mid-1991—a period during which all of the residents of the center were white—neighbors voiced no objections. In June 1991, however, authorities converted the center into a
... See moreRandall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
By putting nigger in white characters’ mouths, the author is not branding blacks, but rather branding the whites.
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Among poor black youth who… carry a burning resentment of white society. To growl that one is a nigga is a seductive gesture… that can feel bitterly empowering.”
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Later, in his autobiography, Johnson would assert that “most of the Negroes who condemned Nigger Heaven did not read it; they were estopped by the title.”