The Nigger in You: Challenging Dysfunctional Language, Engaging Leadership Moments, Paperback

Descriere

Embrace Leadership to Combat All Forms of Prejudice Is there a ``nigger`` in you? If you have attempted to avoid and/or escape oppression, been made to feel as if you are a problem, been treated as ``lesser than`` or even like a criminal, all just because you are different in a given context, then what Dr. J. W. Wiley asserts through the title of this book inescapably applies to you. Through any of our multiple identities--stereotyped, marginalized, or ostracized by our socio-economic class, level of education, gender, disability, age, race, sexual orientation, or religion--we are all potential victims as well as perpetrators of denigrating language and discrimination. Dr. Wiley borrows the agency of nigger, arguably the quintessential, most universally known term of disparagement of those negatively considered the Other, to re-frame the word as no longer just a racial term but one that symbolizes many of the ways we disrespect or bully one another, are inconsiderate of one another, prejudge one another, and internalize our demonization. He defines the word in a way that demonstrates its equivalence to other dysfunctional language (retard, bitch, fag, trailer trash, etc.) that suggests that those so targeted are unworthy of consideration in our society. By creating a conversation around such language, Dr. Wiley challenges us to recognize that, when we give in to our prejudices and stereotypes, the ``nigger in you`` is what we are apt to see when we encounter those different from ourselves. The author, who is Director of the Center for Diversity, Pluralism, and Inclusion for the State University of New York-Plattsburg, a Lecturer in Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, and president of his own consulting business, engages diversity in a uniquely inclusive way and as inseparable from social justice. By dissecting the offensive language we often use, consciously or unconsciously, Dr. Wiley provokes us to recognize that, since every one of us has multiple identities