The n-word is pernicious and it hangs about like gnats in a humid room. Whether it's the Duane "Dog" Chapman saying the word, or Nas releasing a new album bearing the title, the n-word is part of the strange fruit ripening in our culture.
We should shudder at the use of the word. Men and women have died because they were dehumanized -- and killed -- by society's use of it.
When I viewed the Without Santuary photography exhibit a number of years ago in Atlanta, I felt horror. The presentation hit home because a young man in my mother's family was lynched in the 1930s. When she and I found his name in U.S. Census records, it was an eerie, breathless moment. We knew the outcome of this man's life: He would never grow old.
