"...clear, engaging writing...."--Publishers Weekly

"Informed, sensible and impassioned."--Kirkus Reviews

"He is most eloquent when relating how African Americans have been characterized in our
culture; how the word nigger has been employed to oppress, belittle, dismiss, humiliate,
and ridicule black people; and how they themselves have increasingly used it to satirize
and oppose that oppression."--Library Journal

In The N Word, a renowned cultural critic untangles the twisted history and future of
racism through its most volatile word.

In 2003, the book Nigger started an intense conversation about the use and implications
of that epithet. The N Word moves beyond that short, provocative book by revealing how
the word has both reflected and spread the scourge of bigotry in America.

Asim claims that, even when uttered by hipsters and hip-hop icons, the slur helps keep blacks
at the bottom of America's socioeconomic ladder. But he also proves there is a place for this
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. Only when we know its legacy can we loosen this
slur's grip on our national psyche.