Randall Kennedy

I cannot resist a book with a provocative title, and there can't be many that top this.

I was slightly disappointed to see that this was actually a 20th anniversary edition of a book originally released in 2002, fearing it would be out of date, but aside from multiple references to Bill Cosby as a respected authority and thanks to a new introduction, it holds up pretty well, racism having a horrible timelessness to it. It's still too bad though, because it would be interesting to see how recent developments with Joe Rogan and Morgan Wallen might effect the author's viewpoint.

I was surprised that the author was a first amendment absolutist who has a negative opinion about cancel culture, political correctness, hate speech laws, and eradication of the N-word. As an academic he wants to be sure to examine and assess the context, nuance, and relativism associated with specific uses of the word instead of coming up with arbitrary rules. I did not always agree with him, but could usually follow the logic of his stance. I'm a firm believer in free speech -- after all, it's the quickest and easiest way to find out who the assholes in any group are, and that's always useful information to have -- but too many people confuse free speech with consequence-free speech, and I worry that this book might be seen by certain idiots as a hall pass.

I do find it contradictory that the author criticized N-word eradicationists for not having hard and specific statistics to prove a rise in the use of the N-word while at the same time seeming to advocate that Black Americans harden their skin against its use toward them and not report it or make a big deal of it, ensuring we won't have meaningful and accurate statistics.

Author opinions aside, I do appreciate the history provided, tracing the word's appearance through law, court cases, culture, and entertainment. Lots of fascinating tidbits are unearthed and revisited.… (mere)