Book on 'N-word' raises ire at UIC - Keeping Current - Randall Kennedy's "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" criticized by University of Illinois at Chicago professors - Brief Article

Chicago Reporter, The, April, 2002 by Ellyn Ong, Sarah Karp, Audra Martin

Exploring the history and meanings of the word "nigger" helps strip it of its racist power, Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy said in a recent lecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But some scholars attending the lecture called the word a slur that doesn't merit discussion.

Kennedy was speaking about his new book, "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word," published by Pantheon Books in New York. The book follows the word from slave-trading days to the present, including its use by whites in the Jim Crow South and by rap artists recently. "[T]here is much to be gained by allowing people of all backgrounds to yank nigger away from white supremacists, to subvert its ugliest denotation, and to convert the N-word from a negative into a positive appellation," Kennedy writes.

"I don't think that a fair reading of my book would give solace to racists," he said in his lecture.

Cedric Herring, an African American sociology professor at UIC, charged that Kennedy was exploiting black experiences for personal gain. "I'm tired of Negroes who pimp aspects of black life," he said. While Herring had not read the book, he said that it "does little or nothing to uplift African Americans, but does plenty to soothe ... the guilt of whites."

Kennedy's book almost encourages continued use of the word, said Valerie C. Johnson, assistant professor in the department of political science. "As a black person who definitely finds insult in the word, to have this discussion just seems so ... painstakingly irrelevant as to be offensive," said Johnson, who also had not read the book.

Dwight McBride, head of UIC's African American studies department, said he and his colleagues were initially reluctant to sponsor the lecture, but decided Kennedy should have the chance to "present his work in the marketplace of ideas." The book, McBride added, is "an important scholarly endeavor worthy of our attention and consideration."

"The fact that the discussion generates such emotion suggests, at the very least, that our subject is not irrelevant," Kennedy contended.