Nigger // The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

Nigger // The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

Randall Kennedy • Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

ISBN-10: 0593316525 · ISBN-13: 978‑0375713712 · 2003 · 20th Anniversary Edition

Live offer for this book: 17 live copies of this book from $10.50 (as of 2026-09-06).

Dimensions: 8 × 5.2 × 0.6 in

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Completeness 48

Cover quality: good

2manybooks editorial

The power of ' Nigger ,'" Charles Taylor wrote in Salon , "is that Kennedy writes fully of the word, neither condemning its every use nor fantasizing that it can ever become solely a means of empowerment." [1] In the book, Kennedy explores the word's history, and how its meaning varies according to the context of its use. "I'm not saying that any particular instance of using the N-word is any more horrifying and menacing than any other such word", he told Daniel Smith in The Atlantic . "I am saying that from a broad sociological view, the word is associated with more havoc in American society than other racial slurs ." [2] Darcus Howe noted of Nigger in New Statesman , "Had a white person used the word, rejection would have been immediate. Now white society can always point to Kennedy and say that a negro advanced the view that 'nigger' is acceptable." [3] When asked by Kate Tuttle of Africana how he felt about the controversy over Nigger, Kennedy replied: "What's the worst that happens? That someone writes a very long diatribe in The New Yorker excoriating me...I'm not facing firing squads, I'm not facing exile, I'm not facing jail." [4] The book was prominently featured in an episode of Boston Public in which a white teacher, played by Michael Rapaport , attempted to employ the book to teach his students about the history and controversy surrounding the word (season 2, episode 15: "Chapter Thirty-Seven").

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