Jabari Asim

1962—

Journalist, children's author

Jabari Asim is a nationally recognized journalist and author who fueled the debate over America's most notorious racial epithet in The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why (2007). In the book Asim traced the history of the term and presented the case for its permanent eradication from the vernacular. "In the African-American community, the elders have consistently said that young people would not use this word if they only knew the history," Asim explained to Jane Henderson in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I set out to condense that history and compile it in one convenient volume. I want it to be a primer and source book."

Born in 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri, Asim was an avid reader as a child and edited his school newspaper at Southwest High School. He entered Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1980, to major in journalism. The school's program was one of the best in the nation, but Asim was an indifferent student. "I read tons but studied little," he confessed in the Washington Post online when he was serving as book editor of the paper years later. "Some of my best memories involve skipping classes and haunting the used-book stores in Evanston, Chicago and the surrounding environs, unearthing treasured volumes that I still have. I wanted to read all the time, but didn't want to do the requisite course work—exams, quizzes and term papers based on all I digested."

Asim dropped out of college one semester before graduation, later describing himself at the time as "arrogant, defiant, and clueless," according to Emily Christensen on the Web site of the Poynter Institute. Returning to St. Louis, he worked in retail and began a writing career that eventually brought both acclaim as a local playwright and a full-time job with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His first national byline came in the March 1992 issue of Essence, which published his personal essay "Getting Out Alive" about the decline of the St. Louis neighborhood where he was raised and still lived. Married and the father of young children by then, Asim wrote of the pervasive fear he felt every summer when violence in his neighborhood escalated along with the temperatures. "Ironically, I've long advocated city living, have sung the praises of remaining in the community and being a role model," he reflected in the article. "Today my optimism seems misguided and naive. It would require a massive infusion of dedicated, skilled African Americans to return our numerous deteriorating neighborhoods to their former glory. Those of us in the trenches are in desperate need of reinforcements, and I don't see them arriving."

Asim's tenure at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch included a stint as the book editor and arts editor of the weekend entertainment section. By 1998 he had joined the Washington Post Book World and was a regular reviewer for the section while working on his own projects. His first published book was The Road to Freedom, a young-adult novel that was published in 2000. A year later he served as editor for Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice and Life. Other contributors included Straight OuttaCompton author Ricardo Cortez Cruz and novelist E. Lynn Harris. Critiquing the volume in Black Issues Book Review, Tracy Grant asserted that through the work "Asim provides an opening into the hearts of black men coping with serious issues. He shatters the myth of black men as monolithic in their thinking."

In 2005 Asim was promoted to deputy editor of the Washington Post Book World. A year later three books of his for young readers—Whose Knees Are These?, Daddy Goes to Work, and Whose Toes Are Those?—were published by Little, Brown. In early 2007 Houghton Mifflin issued Asim's wide-ranging examination of the most racially charged epithet in American colloquial speech, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why. He recounted the history of the word, finding its earliest reference in North America in an account of the first slaves that arrived by ship in 1619. A significant portion of the book addresses the debate over the appropriation of the word as a term of affection, which black users assert robs the word of its negative connotations. Asim disagreed with this line of thinking. "I challenge the conventional notion that white people cannot say them and black people can," he told Henderson. "I actually reserve my harshest criticism for African Americans who use the word, particularly gangsta rappers. Also, I call them the ‘henchmen’ for ‘white supremacists.’"

On the other hand, Asim objected to efforts to legally ban the term, as some communities have done, which he claimed is a misguided effort and violation of some forms of artistic expression. Elaborating further in an interview on the Tavis Smiley Show, he told Smiley "if we say, ‘Don't use the word at all,’ we missed the opportunity to do something constructive—which is what Lenny Bruce did when he used the word. He was a white man who used the word. He used it to expose white racism very effectively—perhaps more so than I could have."

Asim stepped down from his position at the Washington Post Book World later in 2007 to take a new job as editor-in-chief of The Crisis, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The bimonthly magazine, founded by W. E. B. DuBois in 1910, is mailed free of charge to all NAACP members. In its early decades it served as an important platform for emerging African-American writers shut out from mainstream print media sources. Its literary influence waned later in the century, but The Crisis remained a significant voice in political and cultural affairs as the official publication of the largest civil rights organization for African Americans. "I hope to make Crisis a must-read, the leading journal of African-American ideas and culture," he told Margena A. Christian in Jet, and also conceded that the idea of taking over at a publication once helmed by "DuBois proved too irresistible to pass up."

At a Glance …

Born on August 11, 1962, in St. Louis, MO; married Liana; children: five. Education: Attended Northwestern University, c. 1980-84.

Career: Journalist, playwright, and children's author, 1992—. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, copy editor of the daily editorial and commentary pages, book editor after 1993, and arts editor of the weekend section Get Out! after 1995; Washington Post Book World, began as senior editor, became deputy editor, 2005; The Crisis, editor in chief, 2007—.

Addresses: Home—Baltimore, MD. Office—c/o The Crisis, 4805 Mt. Hope Dr., Baltimore MD 21215.

Selected writings

Books

The Road to Freedom (young adult novel), Jamestown Publishers, 2000.

(Editor) Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice and Life, HarperCollins, 2001.

The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why, Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

Juvenile

Daddy Goes to Work, illustrated by Aaron Boyd, Little, Brown, 2006.

Whose Knees Are These?, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Little, Brown, 2006.

Whose Toes Are Those?, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Little, Brown, 2006.

Also author of the plays Caribbean Beat, produced by Muny Student Theatre Project; Peace, Dog, produced by The New Theatre, 1993; author of lyrics to the musical Testify, produced by Gettys Productions, 1995; New Blood Symphony, 1992, and Didn't It Rain, both staged by Pamoja Theatre Workshop.

Sources

Periodicals

Black Issues Book Review, January-February 2002, p. 65; March-April 2007, p. 28.

Ebony, July 2007, p. 94.

Essence, March 1992, p. 40.

Jet, August 20, 2007, p. 30.

New York Times, February 25, 2007, p. A23.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 2007, p. E1.

Online

Asim, Jabari, "Schools and Kids," WashingtonPost.com, May 10, 2000, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/00/schools/schools0510.htm (accessed November 12, 2008).

Christensen, Emily, "On Depth and Context," Poynter.org, http://legacy.poynter.org/nww/stlouis2002/asim_christensen.htm (accessed November 12, 2008).

Other

"Jabari Asim," Tavis Smiley Show, PBS.org, April 17, 2007, http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive200704/20070418_asim.html (accessed November 12, 2008).

—Carol Brennan