N: My Encounter with Racism and the Forbidden Word in an American Classic

by James Henry Harris

This book is about a Black man's experience of reading Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the first time while in graduate school. The story captures the author's emotional struggle with Twain's use of the racial epithet more than two hundred times in the text. Author James Henry Harris reports being relieved to come to the end of the semester of "encountering Twain's use of [the forbidden word] every week. . . . I was teetering on the brink of falling apart. . . . For the first time the class seemed to understand my painful struggle, and my plight as a Black man in class was a metaphor, a symbol of the past, present, and postmodern condition of American society." This is a courageous memoir that wrestles with the historic stain of racism and the ongoing impact of racist language in postmodern society. The book is about Harris's flashbacks, conversations, and dilemmas spawned by use of the epithet in a classroom setting where the author was the only Black person. His diary-like reflections reveal his skill as a keen reader of culture and literature. In these pages, Harris challenges his instructor and classmates and inspires readers to redress the long history of American racism and white supremacy bound up with the N-word. He reflects on how current Black artists and others use the word in a different way with the intention of empowering or claiming the term. But Harris is not convinced that even this usage does not further feed the word's racist roots. Healing racial division begins with understanding the deep impact our words can have to tear down or to heal. This book invites the reader into this important conversation.

181 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2021

About the author

Rev. Dr. James Henry Harris is the Distinguished Professor and Chair of Homiletics and Practical Theology and Research Scholar in Religion at the School of Theology, Virginia Union University and pastor of Second Baptist Church (West End) both in Richmond, VA.
Source: https://www.vuu.edu/theology/faculty-...

Reviews

[Donna Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could you handle it? I’m not sure I could. James Henry Harris, a Black man, writes about how he had to endure the repetition of the N-word over a whole semester in college more than 200 times. He rose above the obstacles of being poor and Black. Reading about his upbringing, his trials and triumphs made this a compelling memoir of an incredible life. This book is great for Black History Month.
Also, good for Black History Month is his book Black Suffering: Silent Pain, Hidden Hope James Henry Harris

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was not what I was expecting, which at first caused some disappointment. Once I got over that, I did find the book to be a worthwhile read.

This is a memoir that uses a course that the author took in 2009 in Richmond on Mark Twain's novel, The Adventures of Huck Finn. The ease at which students and professors read N, which occurs more than 200 times in the book, was disturbing to the author. I can understand. I would not have said it. In the last two chapters, he provides his analysis of the book, and I found this to be particularly insightful.

But he uses this as a springboard to write his memoir of growing up in a poor, black, rural community in Chesterfield County, VA. The book is written well and provides a glimpse into the life of a rural, black community in the mid to late 20th century.