Don't overreact to the N-word. Banishing it won't end racism. We have real work to do.

On more than one occasion I’ve used the “N-word” in public, when speaking to a group of strangers. Each time, I was standing in a federal court addressing a jury and quoting a defendant’s own words at his trial. While I always warned the jury at the outset of the trial that I would be repeating direct quotations that included offensive words, I never worried doing so would jeopardize my job or brand me a racist.