Danzy Senna’s Trick Mirror

No one has more fun with racial terminology than Danzy Senna. In her 2007 short story “Resemblance,” the N-word—as in the politically correct referent to the racial slur—drives a hilarious Who’s on First?–style gag. “Some white kids called their black substitute teacher an ‘N-word,’” a husband tells his wife. “They called the teacher a nigger? What’s the world coming to?” she responds. No, the husband clarifies. “They called him an N-word.” “I don’t understand,” she says. “Literally,” he explains. “They said, ‘Hey, N-word!’ Not ‘Hey, Nigger.’ ‘Hey, N-word!’”