Nigger: The Strange Career Of A Troublesome Word
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57. Chris Colin, “The N-Word,” Salon.com, November 8, 1999; Alison Schneider, “To Many Adjunct Professors, Academic Freedom Is a Myth,” December 10, 1999. See also Hardy v.Jefferson Community College, 2001 FED App.0267P (6th Cir. 2001).
58. See “Black Students Forgive Teacher's Mistaken Slur,” NewYork Times, October 17, 1988.
59. See Richard Delgado, “Words That Wound: A Tort Action for Racial Insults, Epithets and Name-Calling,” Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review 17 (1982): 133; idem, “Campus Antiracism Rules: Constitutional Narratives in Collision,” Northwestern University Law Review 85 (1991): 343; Charles Lawrence III, “If He Hollers Let Him Go: Regulating Racist Speech on Campus,” Duke Law Journal, 1990, 431; Mari J. Matsuda, “Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim's Story,” Michigan Law Review 187 (1989): 2320.
60. See, e.g., UWM Post, Inc., v. Bd. of Regents, 774 F.Supp. 1163 (E.D. Wis. 1991); Doe v. Univ. of Michigan, 721 F.Supp. 852 (E.D. Mich. 1989).
61. For examples of this rhetoric, see Lawrence, “If He Hollers Let Him Go,” 434, 449; Matsuda, “Public Response to Racist Speech,” 2370 (“Marked rise of racial harassment, hate speech, and racially motivated violence marks our entry into the 1990s”). Even fervent opponents of speech codes accede without sufficient questioning to their antagonists’ portrayal of rising waves of campus racism; see, e.g., Nadine Strossen, “Regulating Racist Speech on Campus: A Modest Proposal?,” Duke Law Journal, 1990, 484, 488. For useful commentary on this point, see James B. Jacobs and Kim-berly Potter, Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics (1998), 45–64; Richard Bernstein, The Dictatorship of Virtue (1994), 183–215.
62. Lawrence,“If He Hollers Let Him Go,”433.
63. Ibid., 432.
64. Ibid., 433.
65. Ibid., 434.
66. Henry Louis Gates Jr., “War of Words: Critical Race Theory and the First Amendment,” in Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (1994), 42.
67. Lawrence, “If He Hollers Let Him Go,”451.
68. See S. Douglas Murray, “The Demise of Campus Speech Codes,” Western State University Law Review 24 (1997): 247, 266 n. 158. See also Handoff,“Chilling Codes,” Washington Post, March 25, 1995.
69. Lawrence, “If He Hollers Let Him Go,”448.
70. Gates, “War of Words,”47.
71. See Strossen, “Regulating Racist Speech on Campus,”484.
72. West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943). See also Chicago Police Dept. v. Mosey, 406 U.S. 92, (1972) (Justice Marshall: “Above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content”).
73. See William Lee Miller, Arguing about Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress (1996); Harry Kalven Jr., The Negro and the First Amendment (1965); Michael Kent Curtis, “The Curious History of Attempts to Suppress Antislavery Speech, Press, and Petitions in 1835–37,” Northwestern University Law Review 89 (1995): 785.
74. Delgado, “Words That Wound,” 180. Note, though, that Del-gado adds yet another complication: if nigger “was intended and understood as demeaning, minority plaintiffs could sue other members of the same or another minority group” (ibid.). He does not broach the question of whether it would be permissible under any circumstances—e.g., if done with affection—for a white person to call a black person “nigger.”
75. Matsuda, “Public Response to Racist Speech,” 2364.
76. Ibid.
77. Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940), 268.
78. Lucius Harper, managing editor of the Chicago Defender, observed in 1939 that nigger “is a common expression among the ordinary Negroes and is used frequently in conversation between them. It carries no odium or sting when used by themselves, but they object keenly to whites using it because it conveys the spirit of hate, discrimination and prejudice” (quoted in Mencken, The American Language, supplement 1, 626).
79. Halford H. Fairchild, “N-Word Should Be Odious from Anyone,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1987.
80. Ron Nelson, “The Word ‘Nigga’ Is Only for Slaves and Sambo,”Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, autumn 1998.
81. E. R. Shipp, “N-Word Just as Vile When Uttered by Blacks,” New York Daily News, January 21, 1998. See also idem, “There's No Excuse for N-Word, Now or Ever,” New York Daily News, March 11, 2001; Mary A. Mitchell, “N-Word OK for Blacks but Not for Whites?,” Chicago Sun-Times, December 28, 1997.
82. Quoted in Laura A. Randolph, “Life after the Cosby Show,” Ebony, May 1994.
83. See Melvin Patrick Ely, “The Adventures of Amos 'n’ Andy”: A Social History of an American Phenomenon (1991).
84. Ibid., 9.
85. Ibid., 171–73.
86. Ibid., 173–74. See also the photograph following page 82.
87. Ibid., 215–16.
88. I have focused in the text that follows on black defenders of Amos 'n Andy, but the show also had countless white fans and a number of white champions, some of whom were undoubtedly profoundly racist. In August 1931, the editor of the Sterling City (Texas) New Record, for example, denounced Negro critics of Amos 'n’ Andy as “a lot of fool Niggers” and opined that the series brought out “nigger characteristics true to Nigger nature just as it is among the denizens of the colored race in large cities” (quoted in Ely, “The Adventures of Amos 'n'Andy” 185).
89. Quoted ibid., 171.
90. Ibid., 181.
91. Quoted ibid., 182.
92. Quoted ibid.
93. Ibid., 222.
4. How Are We Doing with Nigger?
1. Susan Schmidt, “Sen. Byrd Apologizes for Racial Remarks,” Washington Post, March 5, 2001.
2. See Annie Nakao, “N Word Use Increasing, Not Without Protest; Use of the Racial Slur Among all Ethnicities Elicits a Variety of Emotions,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 2001.
3. For a biting critique of Tucker's humor, including his use of nigger, see Justin Driver, “The Mirth of a Nation: Black Comedy's Reactionary Hipness,” New Republic, June 11, 2001.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Gerhard Casper, who, during his tenure as president of Stanford University, invited me to give the Tanner Lectures at his great institution in the spring of 1999. Those lectures, “Who Can Say ‘Nigger’?… and Other Related Questions,” provided the initial impetus for this book. I would similarly like to thank Professor Richard McAdams, who made it possible for me to deliver “Nigger! As a Problem in the Law,” the fall 2000 Davis C. Baum Lecture at the University of Illinois at Champaign School of Law.
Harvard Law School is a wonderful setting within which I have been privileged to work. Dean Robert C. Clark, an enthusiastic friend of scholarship, offers constant encouragement, while colleagues and students offer productive criticism. As always, the staff at the Harvard Law School Library provided invaluable assistance. Especially helpful were the reference librarians, Deanna Bar-makian, Amy Brower, Joan Duckett, Michael Jimenez, Janet C. Katz, Josh Kantor, Naomi Ronen, and Terry L. Swanlund. Particularly noteworthy among Harvard Law School students and professors who have offered helpful comments are Eve Madison, Mathew Tollin, David Solet, Justin Driver, Zachary Price, Sapna Sadarangani, Richard Fallon, Duncan Kennedy, Todd Rakoff, Lloyd Weinreb, and David Wilkins.
Other colleagues who have given me much-appreciated encouragement, information, and advice include Yvedt Matory, Sanford Levinson, Kathleen Sullivan, Stephen Schulhofer, Joshua Dressler, Glenn C. Loury, Jennifer Hochschild, Fred Schauer, R. Richard Banks, Kevin Mumford, Richard Ford, George Packer, Anita Allen, Eric Foner, and Vicki Schultz.
Mr. Benjamin Sears carefully typed the manuscript and buoyed many a workday with his good cheer. Altie Karper managed the copyediting with her usual grace.
My literary agents, Andrew Wylie and Sarah Chalfant, and my editor, Erroll McDonald, teamed up to make sure that procrast
ination did not stall publication. I am grateful for their efforts on my behalf.
Finally, I want to acknowledge again the people to whom this book is dedicated, folks who have surrounded me with love throughout my life: the men and women who constitute the Spann Clan's Board, led by its Chairman for Life, Gary E. Bell.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material.
HYPERION: Excerpt from Rock This! by Chris Rock. Copyright © 1997 by Chris Rock. Reprinted by permission of Hyperion.
RICHARD PRYOR: Excerpt from the album That Nigger's Crazy by Richard Pryor. Reprinted by permission.
UNIVERSAL-SONGS OF POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND HAL LEONARD CORPORATION: Excerpt from “Gangsta's Paradise,” words and music by Doug Rasheed, Artis Ivey Jr., Larry Sanders, and Stevie Wonder. Copyright © 1995 by Jobete Music Co., Inc., Black Bull Music, Universal-Songs of Polygram International, Inc. (BMI), Madcastle Muzic,T-Boy Music Publishing, Inc., Boo-Daddy Music, 2 Fargone Music, and Large Variety Music. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Contains elements of “Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder/Jobete Music Co., Inc. and Black Bull Music c/o EMI April Music Inc. Reprinted by permission of Universal-Songs of Polygram International, Inc. and Hal Leonard Corporation.
WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS INC.: Excerpt from “Ride 4 My” by Roosevelt Harrell and Dwight Grant. Copyright © 2000 by W.B.M. Music Corp. (SESAC), One Shot Deal Muzak (SESAC), Hitco South Publishing Co. (ASCAP), Shakur Al-Din Music (ASCAP). All rights o/b/o One Shot Deal Muzak administered by W.B.M. Music Corp. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Warner Bros. Publications Inc.
Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Randall Kennedy
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Kennedy, Randall, 1954–
Nigger / Randall Kennedy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. United States—Race relations—Psychological aspects.
2. African Americans—Social conditions. 3. African
Americans—Race identity. 4. Racism in language.
5. Racism—United States—Psychological aspects.
6. English language—United States—Slang—Social aspects.
7. English language—United States—Slang—Psychological aspects.
8. Invective—United States—Psychological aspects.
9. Invective—United States—History—Anecdotes. I. Title.
E185.625.K46 2002 305.896’073—dc21 2001036442
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