Power of the N-word

Power of the N-word | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com

Waterbury Arts Magnet School student Shakye Gaskins, left, plays Herald Lommis and Timothy Floyd, right, plays the role of Bynum Walker during a rehearsal of August Wilson's play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" in Waterbury, Conn. In this scene, Loomis has a vision of the bones of his ancestors rising out of the ocean. The N-word, used repeatedly in Wilson's play, is no ordinary one. It is the essence of black pain, yet many African-Americans use it with pride, like a hard-won privilege. The epithet is undeniably racist and there have been widespread efforts to eliminate it from the black vernacular, yet it refuses to die. / The Associated Press