Rating: 
Summary: What is in a name
Review: The author... if you can call him that, wrote this book to make some money off the poor saps of Americans that still believe in equal rights, rather than believing that racism is a past sub cultured belief. The only true racisms that exist are with the old and sub cultured separatist blacks that believe that living in a world of drugs and violence. The purpose of this novel would have been effective say... 50 years ago, but those times are long gone. The only reason that they still exist today is because of people like this author trying to keep the hatred alive by continually reminding us of past times and how they are in need of repair. In all actually this black "author" is writing this to further the government's involvement in his financial life. Keep the hope alive they say... well they always need a little more, they have to prove to them selves that they are less than the rest of the world in order feel like they need more help from the government... more liberal welfare plans for the poor, e.g. poor black community because the white folks don't need it. Well I can not agree with this attitude, we should all be treated the same by everyone, no single group of people deserves more money than another just because they were treated poorly in the past. Blacks do not deserve any more than any other person in this country, and just for complaining so damn much they should have their "blacks only club" privileges taken away. The book was horrid, the message was weak, the "author's" style was horrid, and the over all literary worth of this novel is kindling. Hope you enjoyed my review; please take it in to consideration.
Rating: 
Summary: Black Language
Review: Randall Kennedy's Nigger: the Strange Career of a Troublesome Word is about the history of the N-word. A good part of the book is about white people verse black people saying the word. Many black people loosely refer to themselves as niggers. When white people do the same it is an insult to all people involved. White, Detroit rapper Eminem has earned his "blackness" to be able to use this word. He has worked hard in a black dominated field and he has been accepted into this "world." He is free to use their language. Black people feel it's a privilege to use the word. You must earn your right to use the word. This book is very interesting and as a white person I learned a lot due my reading it. The reader learns the history, meanings, usage, and court cases all surrounding the word nigger.
Rating: 
Summary: "nigger" needs reflection
Review: Randall Kennedy is an educated articulate, black professor at Harvard law school. He chooses to discuss a word-topic which perhaps evokes the most broad and sweeping set of ideas and emotions in our language. Although he nicely discusses many of the controversies of the word nigger, he appropriately states that there are few absolutes when regarding speech regulation.
I believe that this is a worthwhile and thought provoking read.
Rating:
Summary: This is a intersting book with a open prespective.
Review: I have always been amazed that a few parts per million of Mellinen is the criterian for some to measure human worth. This book shows that nigger is powerful word for both evil racism and those who face racism. It shows the nature of how this word has changed and how it usage effects America over time. Kennedy's book is well research and excells in its scholoship. It has little bias. It covers the wide debate over the words usage. And it discusses the question of further usage of the word. Kennedy states his opinions articulatly and has not backed down from the stance the book orginally has taken.This book is worth reading alone for its history of the word nigger in US history and the history of Jim Crow. It's discussion of language and usage makes it a great read. It is a good debate and Kennedy covers it well. KODOS Mr. Kennedy
Ernest j. Boehm, MChE
Rating: 
Summary: just another author trying to save his book career
Review: To the reader david, in the movie rush hour chris tucker did not say nigger! he said nigguh! which is a big difference in how the word is used to expressed friendship or kinship and not that degrading garbage that came from weak insecure little boys! Now that demeaning word (nigger) like negro was a word to describe the skin tone of african ppl in the areas that they were found which was by the nile river and the niger river which meant that they were black or dark skinned ppl by those rivers. Look at the word nigger and remove one of the g's and what u have is niger, a coincidence? i think not, especially when those ppl are still living by the nile and niger river which is rumored to be one and the same river but has been altered over the yrs do to drought and whatever else. Now getting to the author of this book, it is a shame that some ppl will write useless books of controversy so that they can make some attempt to ressurect their dying careers in the book market not to mention knowing that it would create an uproar which would bring in the money. hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont see the importance of this book, the word nigger is a hate word plain and simple, the word nigguh is a black american cultural word that was borned out of the ignorance of others. nuff said!
Rating:
Summary: Good Research
Review: I first saw the author on CSPAN's BookTV. A white man who refused to say the N-word was interviewing him. I remember thinking how inarticulate - uncomfortable maybe - Kennedy was when trying to intellectualize and give some legitimacy to the word "Nigger". Simply having to discuss it with the white host seemed to create noticeable angst. I thought that the discussion would have been freer, more open had the interviewer been black. That's really a separate matter from the book, but deserving inquiry and ponder still the same, and serves as a nice lead into my review of the text. The very situation that the interview created is one of the many aspects of Kennedy's research that is aimed at elevating the understanding of the power of the word "Nigger". In his research, Kennedy reveals the history of the word from its etymological roots to the foul and oppressive meaning given to it by white supremacist America to the affectionate meaning that black Americans have assigned it. In reading the book, I was drawn back to an experience that, as I think about it now, resulted in my discontinuance of the use of the word. Kennedy makes reference to an incident at Purdue University where the door of a black counselor's office was defaced with a threatening racial slur. I was an undergraduate at the university when this occurred. As a black student (at the time less than one percent of the student population) in the cornfields of Indiana, I certainly felt less safe on campus after that incident than I'd felt before it. My feelings of safety were further reduced when I was doused with beer while walking home from a late night study session. The offenders were a group of white male students who drove past me in a pickup truck, doused me with beer, and yelled "Nigger go home". This incident occurred only days after the offensive racial slur was written on the door of the counselor's office. In my thinking, the first incident opened the door for the second. Soon after my personal assault, white supremacist leaflets begin to circulate around campus. I certainly felt under attack. Having witnessed the spiraling effect the use of the word generated, I consciously made a decision to eliminate the word from my vocabulary. I've been largely successful with this endeavor; however there have been moments, when not willing to take the time to find a better way to say what I mean, that I've failed. I recall those experiences by way of trying to better appreciate Kennedy's work around the use of the word. While I believe that his material is well researched (nearly one third of the book consist of endnotes citing a wealth of references from which he draws conclusions) I find that the text does very little to heighten my understanding of the meaning, use, or history of the word. As an African American man I have never been confused by what was meant when the word was used to describe me regardless of the race of the person who used it. If it were not a book club assignment I'm certain I would not have read the book (I'm glad I did given my experience with the BOOKTV interview). For the broader reading public, I feel the book does an excellent job of articulating the complexities of the word. I hope that it also causes readers of all races to give deeper consideration to its use prior to using it. I am still bothered by the use of the word by any non-black person even when its use is not aimed to harm or violate. I believe that if African Americans are to continue the fight full equality in the classroom, workplace and courtrooms then we should stop giving "Nigger" currency. Given the African American influence on popular culture I'm convinced that if we stop using the word to describe us (in good or bad ways), then "Nigger" will fall from popular use just as other demeaning words used to describe us has (e.g. "Pickaninny" (now don't everyone start using it! ). We are certainly capable of coming up with other words that describe us in the multitude of ways that we see ourselves as opposed to reinventing and giving currency to a word created by the oppressor for the sole purpose of minimizing and dehumanizing us.
Rating:
Summary: Nigger: The word that makes us all uncomfortable
Review: I caught myself subconsciously hiding my copy of "Nigger." It definitely is not one that is casually opened in a public setting. On a gut level, I sensed that the title of Randall Kennedy's provocative essay could prove awkward for a middle aged caucasian male such as myself. Someone might get the wrong impression. Alas, The use of the word nigger probably can get a non-African American in far more trouble than employing vulgar four letter words pertaining to sexual activity. Randall cites the hilarious scene in the film "Rush Hour" where Chris Taylor gets away with calling another black man "my nigger," but the well meaning and naive Jackie Chan almost starts World War III when doing likewise. Even the unrelated word niggardly has occasionally been misinterpreted as something of a racial slur. Is nigger a word protected under the First Amendment? No, replied at least one court in North Carolina that deemed it an unprotected fighting word. The author provides us with the historical background of nigger and notes its fluctuating meaning. Sometimes the word is meant to be complimentary and not at all demeaning. Regretfully, to be called a nigger is also a term of derision that denies the very humanity of the person being addressed. Words are intrinsically nebulous and will forevermore be interpreted differently throughout the ages. Context is virtually everything in human communication. Professor Kennedy also points out that a number of white racists shun the word nigger---while Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry Truman who did much for the cause of civil rights constantly referred to Afro-Americans as niggers. I am utterly convinced that this nation would be far better off once this "troublesome word" loses its ability to cause harm. I'm fairly confident, though, that Kennedy reluctantly agrees with my own pessimistic view that this will not occur anytime in the near future. The odds are that we will unlikely have a true color blind society until nigger is perceived by the vast majority of Americans as innocuous and relatively boring. Randall Kennedy has done us a favor in daring to address this issue. This work is short and to the point. "Nigger" should be on your must read list.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting review of a truly "troublesome word"
Review: The author, Randall Kennedy, is a Yale-educated lawyer, who puts his fact-assembling abilities to use in explaining the various ways that the word n* is used in our society.
Much of the book is spent on discussion of whether the word n* is ever appropriate. On the one hand, the word n* is often used by African Americans in addressing or describing other African Americans; when so used, the word n* is usually a term of affection and/or respect. Africans Americans have three bases of their exclusive right to use the word n*: whites are disqualified due to a history of white racism, African Americans have "earned" the right to use the word through oppression -- being called n* "all these years" gives African Americans a literal ownership of the word, and lastly, whites don't understand African American culture sufficiently "to use the word n* properly." African American comedians who use the word n* in their routines "exhibit a bracing independence" and "eschew boring conventions." Yet elsewhere Kennedy asserts that in some cases, African American use of the word n* "is indicative of an antiblack, self-hating prejudice."
While admitting that the common use of the word n* by African Americans diminishes the ability to censure use of the word by whites, Kennedy argues that "what should matter is the context in which the word is spoken -- the speaker's aims, effects, alternatives." Thus a few selected whites are allowed to use the word n* -- for instance, writers such as Twain who used the word in the process of condemning racism, and politicians such as LBJ who had a track record of opposing racial prejudice. Likewise, Kennedy argues, some individual whites who have proven that they abhor prejudice and have a sufficient number of African American friends, are allowed to use the word n*. Yet, almost without exception, if a white person uses the word n*, it's suddenly a racist word.
Kennedy gives a little space to those who condemn African American use of the word. He quotes Bill Cosby, who believes that all African Americans are hurt when the word is used by African Americans: use of the word reinforces the stereotyped negative impressions many whites have of African Americans.
A major failing of the book is that it fails to give a chronological evolution of the word. How relevant and brave, for instance, are the African American comedians and rappers who use the word n* to "defang" a word which dropped out of accepted pejorative use by the vast majority of whites decades ago? Is it really in society's interest to continually proclaim that races have historical rights -- even if it's the right to "defang" a word with a shameful past? While the "melting pot" theory has been rightfully discredited, how far should we go in emphasizing our racial differences and proclaiming our racial linguistic territory?
Rating:
Summary: i
Review: I read this book and I think it delt with alot of things that people up to this point have been scared to talk about. It really goes into why we as a society are afraid to use this word. It talks about why people believe that its alright for blacks to use this word and why its "wrong" for whites to use it. What people need to realize is that the word nigger in no way harms you physicaly. You basically have to have a "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", mentality.
Rating:
Summary: can i buy a fart?
Review: A more redundant book you could never find. Absoloutely worthless. As long as it pays the morgage, I guess.
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