Only when we know its legacy can we loosen this slur’s grip on our national psyche. But Asim also proves there is a place for the word in the mouths and on the pens of those who truly understand its twisted history - from Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle to Mos Def. He argues that even when uttered with the opposite intent by hipsters and hip-hop icons, the slur helps keep blacks at the bottom of America’s socioeconomic ladder. What began as false generalizations became institutionalized in every corner of our society: the arts and sciences, sports, the law, and on the streets.Īsim’s conclusion is as original as his premise. Asim reveals how nineteenth-century “science” then colluded with popular culture to amplify this slander. Asim pinpoints Thomas Jefferson as the source of our enduring image of the “nigger.” In a seminal but now obscure essay, Jefferson marshaled a welter of pseudoscience to define the stereotype of a shiftless child-man with huge appetites and stunted self control. The N Word reveals how the term "nigger" has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over the four hundred years since it was first spoken on our shores. A renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and future of racism through its most volatile word.
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