N Word（ISBN=） 英文原版

　　Midway through Washington Post columnist Asim’s history
of the “N” word in America, readers may conclude it should not be
uttered by anyone, anymore, for any reason. Essentially, this
400-year chronology is an exhaustive history of white supremacist
ideology, showing that the word nigger is as American as
“liberty, freedom, justice and equality.” He sweeps over this
sensitive and contradictory terrain—including black Americans’ use
of the word—with practicality, while dispensing gentle
provocations. Asim notes, for example, that popular civil rights
presidents like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B.
Johnson used the N word all the time. Bicycling in Africa in
2004, a young black American encounters a black-owned hip-hop
clothing store called “Niggers.” Children growing up during the
latter half of the 19th century sang “The Ten Little Niggers”
nursery rhyme. Asim is at his best when offering his opinion—”in
the 21st century, to subsist on our former masters’ cast-off
language… strikes me as… an immense, inscrutable, and bizarre
failure of the imagination.” Still, he concludes, the word
nigger is indispensable in certain endeavors. His analysis
of 19th- and 20th-century pop culture phenomena may too
fine-toothed for general readers, but clear, engaging writing
increases the pleasure. (Publishers Weekly )Asim addresses
the root of this controversial word in American rhetoric and
contemporary experience. Just as our founding fathers tried to
dodge the issue of race and slavery by only hinting around it, the
current debate often suggests that by not using the “N word,” the
race issues will remain dormant. Asim looks back at Thomas
Jefferson’s essays on slavery, his justification of the misuse of
slaves on pseudoscientific bases, and continued denigration of
blacks in word and deed. He traces the use of the word through
popular entertainment from minstrel shows to films (notably
Birth of a Nation) to current comedy routines and rap music.
Despite attempts by hip-hop culture to reverse the impact of the
word, and remove the sting of racial hurt, the result has been to
maintain socioeconomic distance among the races, Asim maintains.
Still, he argues that the word has had a long history of powerful
impact in more responsible hands as a reminder of the troubled
legacy of race relations in the U.S. Vernon
Ford–(Booklist )

　　The debate over the N word touches almost every aspect of
American popular culture. Does it ever have an appropriate place in
the media? Are rappers justified in using it? Should Huckleberry
Finn, which repeats it 215 times, be taught in high school? As the
cultural critic Jabari Asim explains, none of these questions can
be addressed effectively without a clear knowledge of the words
bitter legacy. Here he draws on a wide range of examples from
science, politics, the arts, and more to reveal how the slur has
both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America over
the last four hundred years. He examines the contributions of such
well-known figures as Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain, W.E.B. Du
Bois and Margaret Mitchell, Dave Chappelle and NWA. Through this
history, Asim shows how completely our national psyche is affected
by the use of the word, and why its such a flashpoint today.

　　JABARI ASIM is the editor in chief of The Crisis, the NAACPs
flagship publication. For the previous eleven years he was an
editor at the Washington Post Book World. His writing has appeared
in Essence, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, the
Hungry Mind Review, Emerge, and elsewhere. He lives in
Maryland.

Introduction
PART I Birth of a Notion: 16191799
　1. Founding Fictions 9
　2. Niggerology,Part 1
PART II The Progress of Prejudice: 18001857
　3. No Place to Be Somebody
　4. Niggerology, Part 2
　5. Life Among the Lowly
　6. Jim Crow and Company
PART III Dreams Deferred: 18581896
　7. The World the War Made 85 N
　8. Nigger Happy 99 PART IV Separate and Unequal: 18971954.
　9. Different Times
　10. From House Nigger to Niggerati
　11. Bad Niggers
PART V Progress and Paradox: 1955Present
　12.Violence and Vehemence
　13. To Slur with Love
　14. Whats in a Name?
　15. Nigger vs. Nigga
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index