The N word

My most recent novel, Euphoria-Z, features a cast of characters among which are a few hardcore racists. This posting is based on the research and thought I put into my decision to not use the N word. It took me a long time to write this post and I went through many versions. I’ve written thousands and thousands of words and deleted almost all of them. I stripped it all down to this.

I don’t like:

… restricted speech.
… not being true to a character’s nature.
… hurting people.
… limiting my readership.
… looking like a douchebag.

I understand words have consequences, that’s not my issue. I don’t mind the reality that I could get beaten for saying the wrong word in the wrong place I just don’t like there to be any legal/governmental crap restricting me. It starts with one word and quickly we are all muzzled.

I want to entertain and being offended by a character that’s a real asshole makes the results of the story more powerful and/or satisfying. But being hurt personally takes you out of the experience. Maybe I am wrong on a grand scale, but I did interview a few people about this. If you read the book you might think, based on the content, that I might as well had gone ahead and used the N word. You might be offended and shocked at what I wrote, but I drew the line at the big ole’ N. I just believe that the use of racial slurs makes the character look bad but using the N word defeats the purpose of entertaining fiction due to the controversy surrounding it.

And personally I don’t want to be one of those childish douchebags who say it because they can.

Finally, I asked actual black people to read the book, or portions of it, and got their opinion. Of the five they unanimously agreed that:

• It is ok to call them black people. That was the first thing I asked.
• They appreciated my efforts and said that to them it was clear that the character was a racist, not the author. Although it was humorous that I neglected to point out that the racists were the bad guys in one case (I thought that would be assumed) and that made a difference as to whether I was perceived as racist or not.
• They all said I should use the word if I felt compelled to as a writer but agreed that using the word would take them from being offended by a character to wondering about the author.
• Using the word would potentially reduce my audience.
• The word could detract from the story because of its controversial nature presently.
• Could open me up to personal and/or legal troubles.

So that’s it.