When I finished Carrie, I was truly interested in picking up Cujo next, but decided to read something else instead. At a certain point during my Carrie read, I paused to consider whether King is racist. After all, this is my third book by King that makes some sort of, in my eyes, unnecessary “negroid, negro, niggers” reference. I admit that I’ve only read 3 books by King so far (not including the failed attempts I made as a teen to get into his works), but when I think about The Shining, Green Mile, and now Carrie, there were a few–as noted at Racialicious–unnecessary nigger-word bombs. Is it possible that maybe the use of the word goes along with the novel’s setting or builds characterization in some way? Well, I have a few King titles on my e-reader and decided to search for “nigger.” Here’s what I found in the books I actually read by King, beginning with Carrie:
…of fighting with desperate decorum to keep the niggers out of Kleen Korners, standing shoulder to shoulder…
There was a picture of the tarbaby sitting in the middle of the road, looking like one of those old-time Negro minstrels with the blackface and great big white eyes.
She looked at him from the floor, her lip puffed to negroid size, her eyes pleading.
A couple from The Shining (14 matches for “nigger”):
Later the workman told his wife that he knew it was just one of those niggery hairdos they were all wearing these days, but at the time it had looked just as if every hair on that coon’s head was standing on end.
(GET OUT OF HERE YOU DIRTY NIGGER THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU NIGGER TURN AROUND TURN AROUND OR WE’LL KILL YOU HANG YOU UP FROM A TREE LIMB YOU FUCKING JUNGLE-BUNNY COON AND THEN BURN THE BODY THAT’S WHAT WE DO WITH NIGGERS SO TURN AROUND NOW)
His brother had a big old nigger-chaser in the band of his hat, saved all the way from the Fourth of July.
And a few from Green Mile (10 matches found for “nigger”):
“Looks more like a nigger eating watermelon to me,” Percy remarked . . .
I’ve heard about nigger-cocks my whole life but never seen one!
Said something about how niggers should have their own electric chair, and that was all.
I searched through a few early titles from King and noted that he manages to use nigger at least twice in a few of his works. While I still have several books that I’d like to read by King, from now on I may be more tempted to search for the book’s nigger usage count–just for the hell of it beforehand. Happy reading, y’all.
BLACK GIRL LOST...in a book 
Oh, you haven’t even read IT. I swear the word is used at least a hundred times.
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I’m re-reading The Shining, a novel I haven’t read since….the late 70’s when it was first released I suppose, so a long long time ago and also when I was very young. (The movie was on television recently, and I wanted to remember where the differences were between the film and the book.) I searched the net for Stephen King and racism in The Shining…not much comes up which is surprising to me. My God, no critics are noticing terms like “coon” and “jungle bunny”…and these aren’t just being thrown around or thought by “evil” characters, I think the term coon is from a Miami city worker or driver. And there’s a weird statement ascribed to Mr.Hollorann, the black hero of The Shining… about how he had come to terms with his negroness or something like that. What??? Wth does that mean? Even so, though not fully acknowledged as such, Hollorann is the true hero of the novel, but it’s almost assumed by the narrator that of course the “negro/nigger” should come to the rescue (through dark of night, and storm and snow) to save a white child…kinda like a good labrador retriever (suddenly Old Yeller takes on a new connotation, doesn’t it?). Oh well at least I’m the novel Hollorann is allowed to fulfill his task… Director Stanley Kubrick just whacks him into impotent “negroness”. I know the book was written in the 70’s, but I was there too ya know. And in Canada, in an area where at that time there were only a few African immigrant and refugee families. But no one said nigger nor even negro…we said black or African. Anyone who used terms like King throws out using his characters mouths and brains were thought of as racist pigs even then. I didn’t notice this first read, sorry I was a kid…but holy cow, I’m super shocked King seems held unaccountable. Yours was the only “article” that came up…and I’m shocked by his language and I don’t care which character he uses to say it, and I’m shocked at how little attention has been paid to it. It’s offensive even for the time it was written and he’s still doing it in later novels…. It bothers me a lot and I’m a white lady from Canada…
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I’m a new fan of king but as I try to get into more of his works, the random affronts like niggerkid in Mr Mercedes don’t make me feel welcome. I mean, I’d definitely be typified as such to some and it feels… Personal? Whatever it is, especially in audio book form when a typical white man’s voice is saying nigger repeatedly, it is both jarring and othering. It’s very likely that this is is just an awesome example of literature not aging well through a specific lens but regardless of what it is, as a bw reader wanting to continue engaging w King’s works in 2021, it’s a bit uncomfortable and that’s a recognition worth sharing. Think of all the more oppressed and repressed voices that grow in relevance w each passing day?… Tuh, maybe I said too much but ‘niggerkid,’ man. 🤷🏿♀️
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I think King’s books are problematic in many ways. I’m not sure if the use of the term “nigger” in his novels mean that he’s racist. For me, I’d need more evidence than just the usage of that term in his novels to make that claim, but I agree such derogatory terms are overused.
I’m currently reading his books in publication order. The last one I completed was The Shining and though I enjoyed the story, I did have a problem with how the only prominent Black person in the story was portrayed – Hollorann. I agree with some of the points made by Heidi above. For me, Hallorann was too much the “magic Negro” who must run to save the White people.
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Thanks for your comment. You mentioned your issues with Hallorann in the book. I’d never seen The Shining until I finished reading the book. They totally destroyed and weakened his character in the movie. Unfortunately, The Shining is one of those cult classics that will probably never be remade.
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Oh that sucks. I haven’t yet seen the movie but I plan to.
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Interesting take on King’s use of the N word but of course you’re taking things written in the 70’s (or in the case of The Green Mile about racist southern culture in the 1930’s) and putting them into today’s context.
King uses the word only in the mouths or thoughts of racist, boorish a-holes. Never one of the heroes of the books. It was not out of the ordinary in the 79’s to use shocking language to shock a reader and that was exactly the point.
King is a horror writer, yes, but too many people never see below the surface in his books, and few seem to realize that the horror is really writing about is the underlying corruption of the human soul in isolated communities or situations. What is more horrifying than abject racism?
The entire point of Stephen King books is to make readers squirm. Whether he does it by grotesque and brutal violence against human beings ( which no one here seems bothered by), base humiliation of women (which no one here seems bothered by), or through racism perpetuated by those in authority.
It’s okay to be bothered by it. That’s the point. It’s okay to question King’s attitudes (a little), but it’s not okay to call King a racist (he’s not).
You can like or dislike it. You can read it or not read it. Most here seem to like his books but dislike his use of the N word but be okay with the violence, gore and sexual humiliation, which confuses me.
What really bothers me is people saying his books are ‘problematic’ and that he should be ‘held accountable’.
Neither of which is true. What is problematic is the attitude that free speech is no longer free. That people cannot see below the surface and know what subtext and context are.
People need to THINK instead of react. Consider instead of judge.
Truman Capote once famously said, “You cannot blame the writer for what comes out his characters’ mouths. ” Every writer understands this. Apparently readers in this day and age do not.
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As another SK fan stated: I believe King’s ideology of blacks is ignorant. Any race other than black won’t have a problem with it because his continuous use of particular words doesn’t punch them in the gut the same way. Therefore they will defend him forever. This is what I am saying about King’s audience.Telling minorities to close a book because a word offends them is also a sweeping statement to minorities. It tells them that we like the word…we defend his use of it, and we just don’t give a damn what you think. Because in King’s world, a bad guy isn’t truly a bad guy until (after killing, murdering, molesting, wife beating) he calls the novels only black character a nigger.
Yes, I still read his books. I love horror/mystery/suspense. But this does not mean I’m suppose to not be bothered by certain word(s) that seem to pop-up like clockwork from the lips of his evil characters.
And I came to this point after reading his novels for over 30 of my 48 years. Because no horror writer crafted horror better than King. But during those years, I also learned that no other writer has used a black character as an excuse to use the word “nigger” as much as King has.
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im sorry, but if an author of color wrote anything derogatory or equally racist about white people in their books . and used racial stereotypes to address them , then there would have been a whole lot of drama and issues. but if a white does the same, using racial stereotypes and other derogatory language to address characters who are black or any other minority. then its fine? Freedom of speech or not, you dont say or do things that are wrong or immoral.
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“Interesting take on King’s use of the N word but of course you’re taking things written in the 70’s (or in the case of The Green Mile about racist southern culture in the 1930’s) and putting them into today’s context.”
–His usage isn’t confined to the 70’s. It is consistently used throughout his work to describe (seemingly) any black character in his work. Are there times when King has a black character that isn’t described as a nigger? Maybe, I haven’t read all his work, and I also have not gone through to find every single black character to see if they are described in that way. But I do know that it is used often enough (and unnecessarily enough) that I found this post by googling King’s usage of the word, as other here have claimed.
–Revival- 2014- Three years later, I heard one of my teachers at Gates Falls High School tell another, in tones of outraged wonder: “Now why would anyone want to shoot that Reverend King? Heaven sakes, he was a good nigger!”
–Mr Mercedes- 2014- used 20 times- She’s nine or so, and also has a ridiculously white name: Barbara. Brady finds the idea of a black child named Barbara so surreal it’s not even offensive. The only one in the family with a nigger name is the dog, standing on his hind legs with his paws planted on the side of the truck and his tail wagging.
“Down, Odell!” Jerome says, and the dog sits, panting and looking cheerful.
–Under the Dome- 2009- used 2 times- “Shut up, both of you,” Stewart said. “Fernie, stand ready with that junk.” He pushed the door open and peered in. “Phil?” “Call im Chef,” Roger advised. “Like that nigger cook on South Park. That’s what he likes.” “Chef?” Stewart called. “You in there, Chef?”
–Duma Key- 2008- used 2 times- Her hands were clasped upon it as she looked unbelievingly at the man whose daughters she had tried so hard to protect, the man who had called her a bad nigger before taking her life.
–Dreamcatcher- 2001- used 4 times- One of the grayboys, he thinks. That’s what they call us, the grayboys. Some of them call us the space-niggers. – Now, Cook’s Third Melrose, what I have quoted to you in the presence of these, these praise God witnesses, is called ‘an order of conduct,’ and it means no spicktalk, no mockietalk, no krauttalk or redskin talk. It also means as is most applicable in the current situation no space-niggertalk, do you understand that?”
“King uses the word only in the mouths or thoughts of racist, boorish a-holes… What is more horrifying than abject racism?… which no one here seems bothered by”
–You answer this question yourself in your next statement. We are reading about violence, humiliation, and murder. We expect those things from the story, making the racism completely unnecessary in describing the characters flaws. I wouldn’t read ‘Kindred’ and search for some justification for a slave owner using derogatory slurs. Yet if I were reading ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’ (a book about 2 people with mental illness), I would find it didn’t play to the story if one of them whipped out a hacksaw and starting slaughtering everyone (even though that is a characteristic that can be derogatorily assigned to people with mental illness). Starting to see the difference?
‘which no one here seems bothered by’
–If I heard someone being called a nigger, I wouldn’t think to myself ‘well, he didn’t rape her so I guess that is okay’. Similarly, I wouldn’t hear about someone being raped and ask ‘but did he call her a nigger first?’ You can be bothered by either, both, or neither. It all depends on the usage.
‘but it’s not okay to call King a racist (he’s not).’
–Do you know that? Do you know him personally? My guess is going to be that you know as much about him as we, the other readers of his work, do. I actually think ‘bigot’ would be more appropriate. I don’t think King is a racist, but I do think that he has an idea of what ‘black’ and ‘racism’ looks like and uses them erroneously in his work.
‘Neither of which is true. What is problematic is the attitude that free speech is no longer free.’
–Again, this is just not accurate. No one here is claiming King should be set aflame for these mistakes. Like you said, people can choose to either buy his product or not. Freedom of speech only protects the government from disallowing King to write, publish, and sell. It does not protect your product from the scrutiny of the consumer. In fact, freedom of speech arguments are the most incongruous arguments. You are encouraging freedom of speech by telling the OP that they either should not have an opinion on this matter or that they shouldn’t post their opinion on this matter. Thumbs up!
TLDR: The use of a derogatory terms in literature (or other artistic expression) doesn’t automatically make the artist a racist. But the unnecessary and repeated use of cultural stereotypes has brought many people to question why King feels the need to do so. The words and actions of the characters should enhance the story.
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I just finished the stand and it had me wondering why the N word was used so much. In most places it wasn’t even needed.
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Came here because I’m trying to understand this as well. I just finished reading the stand which wasn’t incredible, but the use of the N-word made me so uncomfortable. I just started reading Carrie and came to the first usage and i put the book down and started googling. Does anyone know if king has ever addressed this? I am a white person and it makes me queasy. I’m sorry for the commenter who basically told you that you were wrong/didn’t have good enough reading comprehension for feeling this way.
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Whoops, i meant the stand WAS incredible! What an unfortunate typo.
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I stumbled upon this post on accident, but I’ve recently picked up The Stand again because a friend was reading it for the first time, and after about 250 pages I sent her a text about this very topic. I’ve read The Stand more times than I can count and this time the blatant use of the N word stood out to me. As people mentioned above, it’s sometimes used in characterization for the more ignorant or evil characters, but it isn’t used only in that way. If it was, I get it, particularly because it was written in another time. But even Larry uses it in his thoughts about places in New York, or he uses the word Negro, which was not the standard in the early 80’s. Larry is a hero in this story, not an evil guy. It was weird.
I think the most disturbing scene for me was as society was falling apart, before the survivors begin to pick up the pieces of the world. A group of soldiers murders other soldiers execution style on live television. All the men killing are black, and in his writing King highlights their blackness, as if it was what made them so viscous. The men they kill are white. There is no point to setting this scene in this way unless the intended take away is strategically that these black men are killers, evil and savage. If the only point was to show how things had broken down, how bad it all got at the end, this scene works without involving race in the way he did. It could have just been soldiers crazy with power and fear. He didn’t have to highlight that they were all black, and paint the poor white soldiers as victims. It’s disturbing.
This thinking led me to realize that almost every plague survivor was white. I didn’t finish the novel this time through, but if memory serves, there are few or no characters who are Asian, black, Indian, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander…or anything but white. Pretty much everyone is caucasian besides Mother Abagail. (I think little Leo is described as part Chinese, but he’s also almost feral in the beginning. For whatever that’s worth.) What are the chances that a plague would only save the white people? If it was set in a country where the population was more homogeneous. But these survivors come from all over America.
I wanted to read this again with my friend because this has always been my favorite book of all time. However, this realization left a really sad taste for me. I’m a bit heartbroken. And I’m surprised at myself that these things didn’t come clear to me at some point before.
Thanks for this post. It’s good to know that others are out there wondering these same things.
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Watching people trip over themselves to excuse King is, well, pathetic. I’m sure they’re white folks. It’s easy for them to explain away King’s racist behavior. “Oh they’re bad guys” (except not all of them are), or “That’s just the way it was” (really? So every other novel from the time should refer to blacks as niggers freely, right?). There’s no excuse. The LEAST offensive explanation is that King is an idiot who gets some sad excitement from writing “spicy” words, and it only gets worse from there. Is he so great that we can’t call him out? We’ve called out better people for less, and farther back.
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