Horse Of Air

Nominated for a Nebula Award in 1971, this short story is deeply layered. The first layer is the delusion, what the narrator desperately wants to believe.  The second layer is what he admits he really believes.  And the third layer shifts to third person, observing his actions, interpreting his thoughts.
The narrator relates how he became walled into to the new urban landscape of the Towers due to some conflict of the races.  Dozois uses the n-word frequently in the story for a simple reason, the narrator is an unabashed racist.  The narrator is possessed by delusions of persecution: he laments that he might be the “only survivor of a noble breed”.