Randall Kennedy

And over the past 20 years, I've been an expert witness in a number of different cases.

I've been an expert witness in a murder case, in various cases of assault.

I've been an expert witness in cases involving tort cases, intentional infliction of emotional distress.

I've been an expert witness in a number of employment cases.

I had not anticipated that, nor had I anticipated the extent to which people would get in trouble

for using my book.

Every year, there are teachers who are suspended or who are fired because they will excerpt a chapter of my book.

Let's imagine a

and this is not, I'm not imagining things, this has happened.

A teacher is teaching, for instance, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

The word nigger appears in that book over 200 times.

The teacher, trying to be earnest, trying to be sensible, trying to be serious, will excerpt a part of my book

to acquaint students with the history of the word and maybe the history of controversy involving the use of the word in this particular novel.

The teacher will give it out, hand it out to the teachers, hand it out to students.

And there have been a number of teachers who've been suspended or worse because of that.

Students will get upset, go home, tell their parents.

Their parents will storm to the school and say that this is terrible.

The teacher is, quote, using the word nigger in an offensive way.

And oftentimes administrators will basically abandon the teacher.

And whenever this comes to my attention,