[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Chopchurch

As one of the actual persons of color who use this forum, I have no problem with this book being censored. Though I would have preferred they used "negro" instead of "slave".

I'd be a lot less annoyed if they swapped it with the word "negro" or "coloured." By changing it from a racial term to a legal-status term, they *drastically* change the meaning of the thoughts and conversations.

Changing it to "slave" shows that the editors really, really didn't want to deal with the issue of race, wanted to pretend that Jim's race wasn't a crucial aspect of the story.

I also always love it when someone in the back of the room mentions that "a certain urban subset of black people have reclaimed that word, so it can't be all that bad".

This. Most of my gay friends call each other "faggot;" that doesn't mean it's reasonable for a lawyer or senator or random person on the street to address them that way.

Using an insult as a mark of camaraderie and shared experience doesn't make it a non-insulting term. Nor do the beliefs of teenagers who've never directly faced the term used as an insult because they've lived in pocket communities where their race was in the majority.

I'd rather not see the word in my literature, I'd rather my nephew not have to see the word. That is of course, an opinion, my opinion. And you are entitled to your own opinions, no matter how wrong headed, distasteful or ignorant the opinions you express may seem to me.

I have no problems with keeping the books out of schools (or at least, out of official curricula) as inappropriate for children, loaded with too many markers of another time to allow for teaching in the limited way that schools can manage. Schools don't have time to discuss at length with each reader what impressions he got from it, and what parts bothered him and why, and what he can do with that knowledge.

If those parts are removed, I'm not sure what makes the book worth teaching--or at least, not worth more than dozens of other coming-of-age stories involving epiphanies about legal bigotry. This is not a unique and isolated type of story; if it were, it wouldn't be worth using. And, being a common type of story, schools should be able to find something that directly relates to their students, not try to make sure millions of students all over the country have read the same book so they can claim they got the same education.