Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I think that people in this thread are finding easy, comfortable answers and are really avoiding the real issue. In addition, there are misperceptions floating around concerning the use of the word n*****
N***** was not a pejorative term until some point in the 1900's (where "colored" became the preferred term). It had nothing like the meaning it has today. This is well understood by everyone who has looked the word as it was used contemporaneously - i.e., Conrad's "N***** of the Narcissus," Christie's "Ten Little N*****s," other usages by Twain (i.e, Life on the Mississippi) - even politicians who campaigned for full voting rights for black Americans in the early 1900's campaigned for voting rights for n*****s.
Huckleberry Finn is primarily not a book about racism (although it is *a* theme), and the use of the term n***** is in the book because it reflects contemporary non-pejorative usage - not because Twain was trying to make a point by using the word.
A lot of comments in this thread are taking the easy way out because they are ignoring the reality that Huck Finn is almost never read in schools anymore because of its use of the term n*****. New South's solution is to substitute a word that is not Twain's language, but that does more accurately convey the contemporary meaning of the word than n***** does. (I.e., calling people n*****s in the 1880's is *nothing at all* like calling them n*****s today.)
So it would seem like the ideal solution would be for teachers to explain this to students, and in those few schools where the book is still taught, this is the usual approach. But the much more common result is for the book to not be taught at all.
So I think the real choice is either: (1) Huck Finn is not read in schools at all; or (2) it is read in schools with "slave" substituted for "n*****". In the real world, I think that this is the real choice...and I don't think it's an easy choice at all. I think Huck Finn is an important book, a very good book, and while I think that hs kids (that's usually where it's taught) could deal with the n-word, in practice, they just won't have that opportunity. So they either read it with a minor change, or they don't read it at all.
I suppose I would prefer them reading it as edited, as long as they are also taught what word was edited out, why it was edited out, and are able to discuss that particular issue, too.
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Wrong. Wrong. And Wrong. "Nigger" has ALWAYS been a racial slur to the peoples being described. It was considered a slur to black people WAY before the 1900's.