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Originally Posted by HarryT
I can see both sides of the argument here.
For whatever reasons (slavery?), the word "nigger" has exceptionally unpleasant cultural overtones in the United States.
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Not because of slavery, but because the bigotry that allowed slavery didn't end with the practice. Full legal equality for people of color in the US is very recent, and was fought at every step; the people who fought that, and who still fight against social and cultural equality, still use the word.
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1. Allow free and uncontrolled access to the original book.
2. Remove the book from all school libraries.
3. Allow only controlled access to the book, in an environment where its cultural context can be explained.
4. Rewrite the book, thus preserving a good story, but removing the context that is culturally unacceptable.
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1) Gutenberg has it. So do plenty of other ebook sites. While that's not entirely free-and-uncontrolled access, it's as close as anyone's going to get--it's available to anyone who seeks it, who has a modicum of modern resources. There may be schoolchildren who don't even have access to a library computer, but those school districts are likely to be so impoverished that the new reprint isn't going to be purchased anyway.
2 & 3) aren't going to happen in the US. However, it can be *limited* to those school libraries that either are comfortable with bigotry (it's a big country; there are many), or those that are ready to explain its history and discuss the ramifications thereof.
4) Rewriting the book implies that the bigotry is in the past, and no longer happens today, which is why those terms are so offensive today. It's implying that the story, if translated to today, wouldn't be laden with bigotry and stereotypes. It's a way of saying, "it USED to be okay to say those awful things, but it's not now, so we've removed them"--which would be reasonable, if it weren't now.
Since plenty of people, including elected officials, celebrities, comedians, and teachers, still promote those stereotypes, removing them from the book says "this is about an icky time in the past; it's not about issues people face today."
And, aside from the ethics of that, if it's not about issues people face today, the book loses pretty much all relevance as an educational tool. It's just another boy's-adventure, coming-of-age story, and any school should be able to find some of those that don't need to be "rewritten" to be useful.