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

Written by James Henry Harris

Narrated by Terrence Kidd

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.

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 this book, Harris challenges his instructor and classmates and inspires listeners 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 listener into this important conversation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ChristianAudio.com
• Release date: Dec 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781545920718

James Henry Harris

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. He has a passion for teaching, preaching, and helping the poor and the oppressed. He earned the Master of Arts in philosophical theology from the University of Virginia, the Master of Arts in English and African-American Literature from Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Master of Arts in philosophy from Old Dominion University where he also received the Ph.D. in Urban-Studies. He earned the Doctor of Ministry degree in Preaching and African-American Church Studies from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH as a Samuel DeWitt Proctor/Charles Booth Fellow. Harris has taught preaching at the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education, the American Baptist Churches of the South, and for loc

Reviews for N

[Chris Maxwell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In depth and insightful narrative into racism. Regardless of your depth of knowledge, you will learn something new. Perspective is priceless.