“I bring up this story because it is reflective of the kind of white liberalism that likes to tout itself as a champion of all people, yet retain the ultimate power over what that looks like. Anyone with any sense of what it is like to have the n-word hurled at them, as I do, or perhaps worse, to be treated like an n-word, would never dare to even purse their lips to say the word. They couldn’t, because they would know that to do so is about more than intellectual rights or abstract arguments. It is about history, experience and, decidedly, violence.” Read more.