Even if only one student acts irresponsibly, that could easily hurt others, and I'm not willing to risk it.

Honestly, I'd read it myself if I didn't have the vivid images of racism I grew up with haunting me. I don't think there's harm in reading the word, and any kid who would break the spirit of the rule and use it harmfully wouldn't be deterred by rules anyway. I don't usually have a problem building a kind and tolerant class culture, though. I have faced more issues of homophobia and xenophobia than racism, and I'm kind of known as the "intolerant asshole whisperer" as I can usually bring those kids around to tolerance somehow. I love teaching topics like racism and the holocaust and slavery because it really does help kids begin to build empathy, as does reading literature.

A lot of my kids use the "N" word in their lives, of course, because they are minorities who use it without the hard "R" in the common usage of today. They aren't being hateful. They're reclaiming the word, I guess? I'm never sure on that one. But to me, it represents hatred, and I share that with them, so they respect the context of my classroom and don't even use it in the "my man" or "bro" style way. They completely understand where I'm coming from in 99% of cases and the other kids pressure the 1% of dicks to be decent people in at least this small respect. I really enjoy speaking about language in context, though, personally. Like how in certain novels and films, cursing is 100% understandable because they're conveying intense emotions, but how in the classroom we speak in academic frameworks. The kids get this so much better than "cursing is evil" -- they understand the difference of art vs. academia and how both have a place in the English classroom.