An Epithet That Won’t Be Ignored

Regarding “Book Sparks, in a Word, Controversy” (Jan. 11): [The n-word] is more than just a word. It is a powerful and useful linguistic indictment of the evil dehumanization and contempt that infested the society that coined it.

HAROLD WASHINGTON

Camarillo

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It seems to me that all the research and soul-searching that goes into finding some greater meaning of the word is an effort to find something other than the simple truth, which is: It is absolutely no different from all the thousands of other nicknames given to each and every variation of human being on Earth.

The only thing that separates it is the sensitivity to it, and that, frankly, has nothing to do with the word itself, but rather some underlying self-esteem problem. I don’t take it personally when a name is pinned upon my race; why does the black community seem to do so?

TOM HOPSON

Austin, Texas