# data[].attributes.body
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a truly revolutionary book for its time. The book portrayed black people not only as slaves, but as people who are equal to whites and challenged the masses' opinions. Jim is more than just a slave who is thought to be nothing more than a machine that is meant to do work. He is a human being with emotions as strong as any other white person on the planet. He is not like any of the stereotypes that his race is perceived to fulfill. He is the loving, caring father figure that Huck has always needed. He looks out for him and is willing to risk his life for Huck's own well-being.

# data[].attributes.headline
The N-Word: An Interactive Project To Explore A Singular Word

# data[].attributes.subject
The N-Word: An Interactive Project To Explore A Singular Word

# data[].attributes.body
The N-word is a grossly overused and immensely appropriate word to be coming out of the mouths of people in the 21st century.  The term was used excessively in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn not for racist purposes, but for realism. The term has its roots deep in the 1800s. Slaves were called it by their slave owners. For black people to call each other that would seemingly disrespect their ancestors who had to serve white people and be called that every day. For white people to be throwing around the word at all is an atrocity. It is a huge act of disrespect to every black person and their ancestry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Explore perspectives.
Select three to see a custom video.

Start your own conversation

Add a question or use one of the submitted questions to start a conversation with your social network. (Note: The n-word has not been filtered from submissions.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
n-word; donte stallworth; neal brennan; dave chappelle show; nfl; national football leagues bans nword; nfl bans the nword; nigger; nigga; nigger vs nigga; kkk; ku klux klan; jay z; oprah;

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The n-word: An interactive project exploring a singular word

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After the National Football League made the controversial decision to ban the n-word on the field this year, a team of Washington Post journalists explored the history of the word, its evolution and its place in American vernacular today.

# data[].attributes.headline
Bryan Stevenson: We Need To Talk About An Injustice

# data[].attributes.subject
Bryan Stevenson: We Need To Talk About An Injustice

# data[].attributes.body
Racial discrimination is still very present in the 21st century. However, rather than it being right out in the open like in the 1800s, it lurks through America. It is a very strong undertow that drives the injustices made against black people. Unlike other countries and parts of the world, the U.S. has not fully and rightfully acknowledged the injustices that the country and its citizens have committed. The U.S. does not like confronting the topic of slavery, lynching, and everything in between because it is uncomfortable. The reason why one third of the black male population has experienced incarceration, why black people are more likely to receive the death penalty, why black people are more likely to be convicted of a crime is because this nation has not appropriately addressed the elephant in the room that is systemic racism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
8,083,741 views | Bryan Stevenson • TED2012

In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.

Become a TED Member

Want to hear more great ideas like this one? Sign up for TED Membership to get exclusive access to captivating conversations, engaging events, and more!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives.

# data[].attributes.body
Race is a completely stupid and useless social construct. All it has ever done is create conflict and divide. What proves that racism is completely psychological and based around societal constructs, is how the Irish assimilated into American society. All they had to do was adopt the American ideals and views of the time; and those included racism. The Irish did not become "white." They just chose to think as whites would and they were welcomed with open arms. This shows that racism in America is not merely a dislike for one's color of skin, but it could be their thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and ethnic background. American "natives," term used loosely, are just scared of people bringing new ideals into their society that they are unfamiliar of or are uncomfortable. Instead of whites just accepting kinds of people that are different to their own, they hate on them and make them feel guilty and ashamed via stereotypes and hate speech.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
“[T]hey steal, they are cruel and bloody, full of revenge, and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murderers of children.” —Edmund Spencer

# data[].attributes.body
Racism creates nothing but conflict among a community. It is a virus that can spread rapidly and infect anyone who lets it get the best of them. However, with any common sense, someone can brush this off and ignore all the stereotypes, appropriation, and hate speech. The prosocial way to deal with meeting new types of people who are from different towns to even different continents is getting to know them, their background, and their values. It creates harmony and love in a society and will naturally boost the mood of the people residing in that community. Yet even when there are opportunities for "natives" to make connections with people that did not grow up in their society, many still do not view them as humans who are worth that treatment. When the world finally comes to the realization of how horrible racism is, the recognition of it will be gut-wrenching and guilt-ridden.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
User account The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets.

# data[].attributes.body
Race is a still, in some cases, a situation or view of "Us versus Them." This is because some black and white children are still being taught that they are different from the other. This, frankly, is not pushing or driving any reform. When parents tell their white kids that black children are different from them, they are in the midst of planting the seed that makes their white sons and daughters think of black children as an opposing force; the other team; protagonist versus antagonist; us versus them. Parents do not even have to imply that black kids are worth less and or are less capable of success than their own. Natural competition is bred when kids are told there is a group of people different than them out there. It becomes as natural as girls versus boys.

# data[].attributes.headline
Author Of Book Challenging White Privilege Comes To St. Louis

# data[].attributes.subject
Author Of Book Challenging White Privilege Comes To St. Louis

# data[].attributes.body
Debby Irving has written a book about her awakening of how privileged she is as a white person and how there is a continuous undertow of white supremacy in society nowadays. This can connect to the TED talk by Bryan Stevenson, where he talks about how black people are at a disadvantage because of the views of them being less than white people. Both Debby Iriving and Bryan Stevenson believe that solving the problem to racism and everything that it entails, is talking through the problem and confronting the most difficult parts that society wants to eschew. Brushing the problem under the rug breeds nothing but more conflict and turmoil. Irving also claims that the reason that black people are not as successful is because they are broken down by white people so much. They are made to believe that they are much less than what white people, therefore, making them less motivated or determined to succeed in the world. This is because, whether it is direct or implied, they face so much "White, good, Black, bad."

# data[].attributes.headline
‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ How A President’s Name Became A Racial Jeer

# data[].attributes.subject
‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ How A President’s Name Became A Racial Jeer

# data[].attributes.body
Trump has been a main focal point for racism and bigotry in this country for the past year and a half. His chantings of "Make America great again!" and "Build the wall!" has created deplorably racist opinions in this country. It seems that Trump has brought out the racism in many people and it's because those people now feel safe enough to express those feelings and opinions. They feel like Trump would not be disappointed by their bigoted actions, rather he would be impressed and honored. Ever since the election of 2016, bias-based violence and attacks has been going up ever since. Trump was the straw that broke the camel's back; the trigger finger that shot the gun. He has sparked so much hate and extreme nationalism. Because of all of this, his name has become something of a threatening, racially-charged word. For reasons like this, I believe race has hardly moved forward. The only real progress, it would seem, is that America grew up and said " no more enslaving people, that's bad."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For more coverage of race, sign up here to have our Race/Related newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox.
The high school basketball squad from Eagle Grove, population 3,700, had traveled 60 miles up Highway 69 in Iowa to play the team from Forest City, population 4,100. It would be the Eagles against the Indians, a hardwood competition in the center of the country. For some people, this is as American as it gets.

At one point during the online streaming of the game last month, two white announcers for a Forest City radio station, KIOW, began riffing on the Hispanic names of some players from the mildly more diverse community of Eagle Grove. "They're all foreigners," said Orin Harris, a longtime announcer; his partner, Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, a board operator at the station who was also a third-grade teacher, answered: "Exactly."

For some people, this is as American as it gets.

Mr. Harris then uttered a term occasionally used these days as a racially charged taunt, or as a braying assertion that the country is being taken back from forces that threaten it. That term is, simply, the surname of the sitting American president.

"As Trump would say, go back where they came from," Mr. Harris said.

"Well, some would say that, yeah," Ms. Kusserow-Smidt said. "Some days I feel like that, too."

Last year's contentious presidential election gave oxygen to hate. An analysis of F.B.I. crime data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found a 26 percent increase in bias incidents in the last quarter of 2016 - the heart of the election season - compared with the same period the previous year. The trend has continued into 2017, with the latest partial data for the nation's five most populous cities showing a 12 percent increase.

In addition, anti-Muslim episodes have nearly doubled since 2014, according to Brian Levin, the director of the center, which he said has also counted more "mega rallies" by white nationalists in the last two years than in the previous 20. "I haven't seen anything like this during my three decades in the field," he said.

Peppered among these incidents is a phenomenon distinct from the routine racism so familiar in this country: the provocative use of "Trump," after the man whose comments about Mexicans, Muslims and undocumented immigrants - coupled with his muted responses to white nationalist activity - have proved so inflammatory. His words have also become an accelerant on the playing field of sports, in his public criticism of black athletes he deems to be unpatriotic or ungrateful.

Officials at Salem State University in Massachusetts discovered hateful graffiti spray-painted on benches and a fence surrounding the baseball field, including "Trump #1 Whites Only USA." An undocumented immigrant in Michigan reported to the police that two assailants had stapled a note bearing a slur to his stomach after telling him, " Trump doesn't like you." A white Massachusetts businessman at Kennedy International Airport in New York was charged with assaulting and menacing an airline worker in a hijab, saying, among other threats: "Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you."

In an email, the White House on Friday denounced the use of the president's name in cases like these. "The president condemns violence, bigotry and hatred in all its forms, and finds anyone who might invoke his or any other political figure's name for such aims to be contemptible," Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said.

Still, it persists. Across the country, students have used the president's name to mock or goad minority opponents at sporting events. In March, white fans at suburban Canton High School in Connecticut shouted "Trump! Trump! Trump! " as players from Hartford's Classical Magnet School, which is predominantly black and Latino, took foul shots during a basketball playoff game. They also chanted "He's our president!"

The visiting players and their chaperones interpreted the chants not as a sudden burst of presidential fealty, but rather as a slyly racist mantra intended to rattle. As if Donald J. Trump was the president of here, in white suburbia, and not there, in the diverse inner city.

"I'm not sure what politics has to do with basketball," Azaria Porter, then the Classical team's 16-year-old manager, told The Hartford Courant. "It was just annoying. It was like, O.K., we get it."

For the record, Classical beat Canton.

According to several scholars of American history, the invocation of a president's name as a jaw-jutting declaration of exclusion, rather than inclusion, appears to be unprecedented. "If you're hunting for historical analogies, I think you're in virgin territory," said Jon Meacham, the author of several books about presidents, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Andrew Jackson.

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, agrees. "If you're looking at modern presidents, fill in the blank and see if it can be used in the same way," he said. "You will see it has not. Hoover? Or Eisenhower? Can you imagine a situation like that?"

The jarring use of Mr. Trump's name began to surface shortly after he declared his candidacy in June 2015. Within a year, educators were reporting incidents in which, as the Inside Higher Ed website put it, "Trump" had become "a kind of taunt, tossed by largely white students at minority opponents during, say, basketball games."

But it was not confined to high schools like Dallas Center-Grimes in Iowa, where students mocked a basketball team from the more diverse community of Perry with chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" in February 2016. Colleges and universities were experiencing similar moments.

Nor was it confined to places of learning. In March 2016, for example, video surveillance at a Kwik Shop in Wichita, Kan., showed a white motorcyclist arguing with two college students - one Hispanic, one Muslim - then assaulting one of them before driving off. The victims later said that the man interspersed his racist epithets with: "Trump, Trump, Trump." (And yes, the name does tend to come in threes, as if the incantation of his name might summon the man himself.)

Shortly after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes, published a report called " The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Election on Our Nation's Schools." Based on a survey of more than 10,000 educators, it detailed an increase in incidents involving swastikas, Nazi salutes and Confederate flags.

"Kids saying, 'Trump won, you're going back to Mexico,'" wrote a teacher from Kansas. "A black student was blocked from entering his classroom by two white students chanting, 'Trump, Trump,'" wrote a teacher from Tennessee. "Seventh-grade white boys yelling, 'Heil Trump!'" wrote a teacher from Colorado.

It is a far cry from wearing a button that says "I Like Ike."

Mr. Beschloss recalled moments in recent American history when, say, the X in President Richard M. Nixon's name appeared as a swastika, or a caricature of President Lyndon B. Johnson featured a Hitlerian mustache. But these were generally the acts of opponents to those presidents' policies during the Vietnam War.

"The message here," Mr. Beschloss said, "is that Trump is going to come and get you - and we support that."

There have also been cases in which anti-Trump protesters have harassed and assaulted supporters of the president for, say, wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap. In some instances, the name Trump is invoked in punctuation.

When asked how a president's very name could become so coded, Mr. Beschloss cited Mr. Trump's speeches and tweets, including two in particular: the announcement of his candidacy in 2015, during which he referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug dealers and rapists; and his equivocating comments after a white supremacist rally and counterprotest in Charlottesville, Va., in June ended with one person killed and 19 wounded. ("We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides," the president had said. "On many sides.")

"This broadened into a feeling by some people - right or wrong - that Trump is going to be a weapon to reduce the opportunities of those who are different," Mr. Beschloss said. "This is a signal moment."

Leah Wright Rigueur, an assistant professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, agreed, saying that Mr. Trump's status as a racial wedge was of his own doing.

"When Trump says, 'I hear you, I will represent you,' he is speaking to a particular cross-section of the nation that does not include Muslims, that does not include people of color," Ms. Wright Rigueur said.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor of race, history and public policy also at the Kennedy School of Government, said that Mr. Trump had created his own breakaway brand, making him the personification of specific ideals.

"To use the name as a rallying cry for a kind of embodied white supremacy, white nationalism or sense of triumphalism, for taking back the country, as best as I can tell has never been crystallized in the name of a U.S. president," Mr. Muhammad said.

"It's authoritarian, the cult of personality," Mr. Meacham said. "It's saying that we're American - and you're not."

The sporadic episodes - as chronicled by ProPublica's "Documenting Hate" project, among others - continue. A "Heil Trump" here, the Trump name scrawled beside a swastika there. In late September, two high school football teams in the Salt Lake City suburbs were squaring off when cheers erupted. Someone was brandishing a cardboard cutout of Mr. Trump, and there began the chanting of three words that have electrified some and unnerved others: "Build the wall! Build the wall!"

Back in Iowa, there have been consequences and remorse in the wake of those two Forest City radio announcers musing on the Hispanic names of some of the players from Eagle Grove.

Ms. Kusserow-Smidt, 63, was fired as a board operator for the radio station; she has since resigned from the Forest City School District. Mr. Harris, 76, who had been with the station for more than 40 years, was also fired. The two have expressed deep regret for their comments, which they said did not reflect who they truly were.

"It didn't sound right; it wasn't right," Mr. Harris told a local television station. "And I apologize."

The xenophobic words of the two announcers stung some of the Eagle Grove players, including Nikolas Padilla, whose mother is from Iowa and whose father is from Mexico. Mr. Padilla, a 17-year-old senior, said that he briefly considered quitting because he did not want to be singled out for his Mexican heritage.

One particular comment by the broadcasters - "As Trump would say, go back where they came from" - puzzled Nikolas. His mother, Misty, recalled what her teenage son had said:

"Um, I came from Mason City, Iowa."
There is more coverage of hate crimes and race in our Race/Related newsletter. Please sign up here to get it delivered weekly to your inbox.

In Bronx, Obstetricians May Find Work Inspiring, and Careers Hindered

Murder Charge Increases in Charlottesville Protest Death

Democrats Draw Vivid Lesson From Alabama: Mobilize Black Voters

Alabama Women 'Make a Stand' in First Election of the #MeToo Era

Black Voters to Democrats: You're Welcome

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Trump, Trump, Trump!' How a President's Name Became a Racial Jeer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For more coverage of race, sign up here to have our Race/Related newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox. The high school basketball squad from Eagle Grove, population 3,700, had traveled 60 miles up Highway 69 in Iowa to play the team from Forest City, population 4,100.

# data[].attributes.headline
An Artist's Unflinching Look At Racial Violence

# data[].attributes.subject
An Artist's Unflinching Look At Racial Violence

# data[].attributes.body
Racial violence is an ongoing conflict in modern American society. The real problem though is that it is an ongoing conflict. The conflict, of course, does not excuse the atrocities committed against black people for the past 500 or so years. Those are the very root of this entire problem. Thing is, just like Debby Irving and Bryan Stevenson have said, Americans are very reluctant group of people who don't want to look these occurrences in the eye and accept the fact that it has happened. Because of the neglect of our questionable past, many are left in the dark not knowing the full extent of it. Some think that racial violence is something that just recently started happening. Frankly, this proves that there is work that needs to be done to improve the education system in America. Every citizen should be enlightened about our troubled past so that they do not perpetuate what is trying to be stopped.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sanford Biggers: An artist's unflinching look at racial violence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Conceptual artist and TED Fellow Sanford Biggers uses painting, sculpture, video and performance to spark challenging conversations about the history and trauma of black America. Join him as he details two compelling works and shares the motivation behind his art. "Only through more thoughtful dialogue about history and race can we evolve as individuals and society," Biggers says.

# data[].attributes.headline
My Road Trip Through The Whitest Towns In America

# data[].attributes.subject
My Road Trip Through The Whitest Towns In America

# data[].attributes.body
The U.S. is still unconsciously dealing with racial segregation. Segregation is the reason that these "Whitopias" exist. These areas isolate whites away from blacks and further gouge the great divide between them today. Consequently, divide breeds bias and ignorance. These concepts can directly relate to those of Bryan Stevenson, Debby Irving, and Sanford Biggers. Communities like the one Rich visited in Georgia, where everyone was very familiar with one another, he claimed to be less split and have more a community-esque feeling. He felt more comfortable in the South than the other two more northern areas that he visited. Why would that be though? With all the south's history with racial problems, the south would predictably be more uncomfortable. Actually, whites and blacks are more accustomed to one another and harbor a sense of community because of this very reason. The two groups have come together because they are both very familiar with their past and have set aside their differences to coexist.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rich Benjamin: My road trip through the whitest towns in America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As America becomes more and more multicultural, Rich Benjamin noticed a phenomenon: Some communities were actually getting less diverse. So he got out a map, found the whitest towns in the USA -- and moved in. In this funny, honest, human talk, he shares what he learned as a black man in Whitopia.