Randall Kennedy

He'll talk about the fears and controversies surrounding interracial relationships in the United States which is he subject of his new book, "Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption." He is also author of the book "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word." Kennedy is a Rhode Scholar and he served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Randall Kennedy is a Harvard Law professor. His new book, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (Pantheon Books) is based on a series of classroom lectures he prepared exploring the history and use of the word "nigger." He found the word in literature, political debates, cartoons and songs. And he explores the use of the word from a hateful slur to a term of endearment. Kennedy is a Rhodes Scholar and he served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Kennedy also the author of Race, Crime and the Law.

The Harvard Law School professor's new book examines race and the criminal justice system, "Race, Crime, and the Law." In his research, Kennedy, finds that African-Americans have suffered more from being "left unprotected by law enforcement authorities than from being mistreated as suspects or defendants."