REVIEWS

“[Asim] sweeps over this sensitive and contradictory terrain—including black Americans’ use of the word—with practicality, while dispensing gentle provocations…clear, engaging writing increases the pleasure.”—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

JABARI ASIM is deputy editor of the Washington Post Book World. He also writes a weekly syndicated column on popular culture. His writing has appeared in Essence, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, and the Village Voice.