Language of the Gun shows why Bernard Harcourt has earned a reputation as one of our most provocative and informative analysts of the administration of criminal justice. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, he brings to bear on his subject a remarkably wide range of sources. Most striking are his probing interviews with at-risk youths which provide a fascinating and rare glimpse into how they think about guns and gun carrying. This book bristles with insight and information.

What people should do is explain to their friends, to their neighbors how they feel when they confront the word n - - and why they feel the way they feel.

The infamy of n - - is - it's a word that has been used to terrorize people, to put people down. But it has also been used in other ways. It's also been used as a way of putting a mirror up to racism.

Go back and take a look at what some black writers were saying in the 1820s, the 1830s. They make mention of how some white people would tell their children, if you don't behave, we're going to put you in the n - - seat. If you don't behave, we are going to make you sit with the n - - s. That's why we know that, by then, the word had become a slur.

Any successful black person will have to face suspicion within his or her own community about his or her loyalty to other blacks.

If you want to put somebody down, analogize them to the n - - .

In elite, primarily white institutions, there are many blacks who have white wives. So much so that sometimes there is almost the assumption that I would be married to a white woman.