The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why

A sharp-eyed musing on the history of the word and how it bears, or should bear, on a media-driven culture that is dangerously ahistorical, especially in matters of race.

Important, timely, and much-needed...a brilliant and bracing history lesson.

Provocative and compelling...Asim's book is not just the etymology of the word but also a capsule history of racism in America.

"[Asim] sweeps over this sensitive and contradictory terrain--including black Americans' use of the word--with practicality, while dispensing gentle provocations...Clear, engaging writing increases the pleasure."

[Asim] is most eloquent when relating how African Americans have been characterized in our culture; how the word nigger has been employed to oppress, belittle, dismiss, humiliate, and ridicule black people; and how they themselves have increasingly used it to satirize and oppose that oppression.

"Informed, sensible and impassioned."