48. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - Randall Kennedy

I know - what a loaded title! I refuse to use that word, so it's hard for me to talk about this book ... as much as I want to, because it was a fantastic one.

Written by Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, this book is about so much more than just the history of the word. Kennedy discusses the use of the word in its many contexts in this country. One example: after Paul Robeson got his degree from Columbia Law School, he quit his job at a firm because the stenographer said that she "refused to take dictation from a nigger." Kennedy also discusses the use of the word in literature (i.e. the passage I quoted in my review of The Autobiography of Malcolm X); rap music; the O.J. Simpson trial; and, most interesting to me, in the legal context. Kennedy gives an overview of how the "n-word" has played a role in sometimes mitigating homicides from murder to manslaughter; and also, though rarely, as a basis for an IIED claim (intentional infliction of emotional distress).

I was impressed at Kennedy's obvious intelligence and at his ability to write in a way that was very readable (even while dealing with the legal stuff). I also didn't feel that he was writing with a goal to either persuade black people to stop using the word or to encourage its reclamation - just a well-researched and interesting work.