The N Word

The Book in 1 Sentence

A scathing in-depth review of the history "N" word from our founding fathers to the NWA.

Brief Review

Jabari Asim does a masterful job of walking the reader through the history of the word as well as just the differences and evolution of the racism that the word became. This is a history book and a lot of the information is presented in conversation, articles, and other evidence of the ever changing and venom that the word has become.

Why I Read this book

I think everyone should be challenged in the way they think. With all that is going on and the rise of a new Call of Duty, this word is constantly used and I didn't know where it started.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

oh man. I am honestly not sure how to review this book. Let me first state early that I find the word in any form of the word including the socially accepted in certain groups of people version with the "A" to be abhorrent, this obviously includes the hard "R". The end of the book makes a great argument for their suggested change.

In the beginning I was kind of upset that Jabari's personal anecdotes or additional information was presented. However, while thinking this through to write this review, I realize that his use of purely historical documents leaves no room for argument about the violence, venom, and degradation of the use of the word has had.

Jabari also discusses the argument of other groups saying that words like queer, honky, etc. are not the same because of the centuries of use and where others have changed in meaning and level of use. The N word has never been anything but degrading to anyone it is directed towards.

As a side note, listening to this book was honestly a little much. The constant use is intentional and as someone that found this word grating beforehand, it was constant and my biggest fear in hearing that often would be the desensitizing of the word, which honestly might be the main issue with its use in pop culture and the first word immigrants when landing in the US learned to be "Americans."

How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

I am not sure that I will change anything in myself, but I will most likely be more adamant about its lack of use in normal conversation in public and at home. I know full well also that people are going to say what they want in private, but the education hopefully will stop.

Rating

Immensely educational and clears a lot of the supposed origin of the word up. It is honestly a must-read for anyone of any skin color. It's an 8. I wish it was a little more fluid as far as the way the information presented, but it is a great book.

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