Hide the 'niggers!'

[gsdx]

As much as I hate the words, that was the language when Twain wrote his books. To change those words and dismiss them is erasing a part of history which still exists today. I mean, maybe one of those words has disappeared from our vocabulary, but the other one certainly hasn't.

 

[Shepherd 2]

I was relieved to find a fairly serious content here, and prepared for the worst. I am an out and out antiracist. Editing Mark Twain for the twenty-first century is appropriate for use with school children.

AT the same time it is a teaching moment about language, especially language that denigrates others, even if it was culturally permitted in the nineteenth century.
I have said enough.

Shep+

 

[strangepoetry]

Editing Mark Twain for the twenty-first century is appropriate for use with school children.

AT the same time it is a teaching moment about language, especially language that denigrates others, even if it was culturally permitted in the nineteenth century.
I have said enough.

Nicely said.

Obviously some people aren't black school kids and don't mind because "it's just a word" and doesn't affect them in any significant way. How about if they replaced "niggers" with "faggots" and you sat in a class with your classmates reading about faggots, faggots, faggots all day? Even tho you're a little "faggot" it shouldn't bother you, right, because everyone called you "faggots" faggot openly and freely back then.

 

[The_Bennu_Bird]

Maybe next Dr. Alan Gribben can clean up the rap worlds songs to protect our children from the n word some more.

 

[strangepoetry]

I really don't see the point in changing the wording of the book. If you don't want kids to read it don't teach it in school...

I also agree with this. It's the CHILDREN part that bothers me more than the word.

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

AT the same time it is a teaching moment about language, especially language that denigrates others, even if it was culturally permitted in the nineteenth century.
I have said enough.

Shep+

No, it's not a teaching moment; it's an ignorance moment. Kids need to learn that some terms, even if acceptable, are still inherently racist, and without encountering the word in a learning environment they are going to not question it. The situation in Huck Finn needs to come up where it can be discussed, not hidden away when it's inconvenient. At the very least, these kids are going to come off as ignorant when the book is discussed, and they're going to be like, "I'm sorry; that word wasn't in the book."

Yeesh...

RG

 

[strangepoetry]

Oh?

You're familiar with my race/ethnicity?

I said somewhere in the OP that I "didn't mind because 'it's just a word?'"

And you've never read anything with the word "faggot" in it?

Oh, I wasn't referring to YOU specifically.
I like you. That's why I infiltrated your thread.
Just giving my opinion...

And, No, I never had any grade school books with the word "faggot" littered throughout them.

 

[gsdx]

No, it's not a teaching moment; it's an ignorance moment. Kids need to learn that some terms, even if acceptable, are still inherently racist

I think you should reread this. It's not a 'teaching moment' but it's a 'learning moment'? One cannot learn without being taught.

 

[Lefty]

Let me guess,

These guys went to the same Institutes of higher learning that

their fellow scholars in England went too.

You know......the hystericalian...oops...historians that propose

to delete reference to the Holocaust that did not happen because

that information might irk some members of the Muslim communities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shut the fuck up Lefty...you are a shit stirring trouble making 70% gwailo

with no sense or sensitivity whatsoever. 30% injun/wetback don't count.

 

[ShihTzuTylenol]

Total bullshit! Samuel Clemmens is rolling in his grave! Saying the 'N' word like a madman off his meds! Fuck it!

 

[ShihTzuTylenol]

either teach the novel as is or dont 'teach' it

really that simply

and BINGO was his name-o!
They could go with John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath....but then they'd just wanna tidy up Tom Joad's murderin' spree! those bastards!

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

I think you should reread this. It's not a 'teaching moment' but it's a 'learning moment'? One cannot learn without being taught.

Blame the person I was responding to . But definitely...

RG

 

[LilBit]

Agatha Christie's best-selling novel, And Then There Were None, was originally published as Ten Little Niggers, and it was sold in England under that title until (I shit you not) 1980. (I have two copies of the book bearing that title.)

In the US, the word "nigger" was replaced by "Indian," and a few of the film versions were called Ten Little Indians. Now, it appears that even the word "Indian" is considered offensive, and current editions of the book replace all of the "Indian" references with the word "soldier."

Oddly enough, nobody pitched a fit about these changes.

[/off-topic]

As for the edited version of Huck Finn, I think that the book should be taught in its original version to children who are old enough to engage in a discussion about the dangers of racism and racist language. Abridged editions for very young readers (i.e. paraphrased editions) probably shouldn't include racist language because very young children have difficulty distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate language.

 

[Kigan2006]

This is absurd.

Censoring the language because the way people think of the word has changed...there's no purpose in that! It is an old work and was never meant to be read as it it used the language of current years.

If it is such an issue for children, give them an abridged version which somehow does not include the racist language. I can understand where that might be coming from, but I also understand that only applies up to a certain young age.

Otherwise, if you want to take any issue with the use of words in the book, do so without fucking with it. It is bad enough Twilight is considered literature, we don't need classics getting hack jobs.

The book doesn't need this kind of "saving", it needs people to pull their heads out of their collective asses and stop trying to act like the past didn't happen. Pretending Twain didn't write the book in a different time isn't going to help anyone. Better use would be to use the language to teach about racist language and the dangers it can pose.

Honestly, you call yourself a Twain scholar Mr. Gribben? Scholars study, they do not change things to suit them.

If my belief that you don't fuck with a great literary work like this makes me a "textual purist", then I'll wear the title proudly.

 

[Lefty]

What the fuck

when it comes to Huck

The story within

regarding the Finn

wasn't for kiddies

or prurient biddies.-

--------------------------------

Where are the smilies for wiping ass or puking.

Actually, A dunce cap and thumb up the ass would work

 

[andy12]

I think it's racist to assume that an entire group of people are incapable of hearing or reading a six-letter combination of letters, a word that they themselves don't have a problem using.

Words aren't hateful, people are.

Quick, some put clothes on art work before the CHILDREN ask inappropriate questions!!! When did we become a society of puritanical killjoys? Oh, right, that's who founded this country.

 

[strangepoetry]

Think you're missing the point on why them taking out this word is the problem.

Probably. Was responding mostly off gut-instinct (however misguided that may have been).

But, anyway. Bored with the subject.
My opinion is now that Non-"niggers" should being downright outraged to lose the word from literature.

I digress.

 

[Lefty]

And how do the Muslim type Indians like

the new term slaves...or will it be annotated at each usage

with an apology?

 

[quasar]

As I said at Mod Towers when this thread pinged the radar...

"Personally, I think we're doing future generations a dis-service by sanitizing literature in the name of racial and political correctness.

In years to come they'll be changing 'slaves' to 'freedom denied human labourers'...

*damn - I've taken too many Cynicillin tablets today!"

I think keeping the word is a great 'in' for a teacher to start discussing black history, and 'hate' speech directed at other nationalities, races, religions and sexualities too.

(I've done a lot of reading lately about race hate etc after I inadvertantly upset someone here who I liked), and I just think that some 'dolly-dogooders' need to learn that laws and banning certain words doesn't stop racism, bullying or hatred, and neither does it stop people using the words - education does, and right now, we need that more than we do laws and re-wording internationally acclaimed literature.

Just my personal two-penneth!

 

[skips]

Holy fucking shit. Why not just erase the derogatory words from the books? What the fuck is the purpose of replacing them with the word "slave"? *SMMFH*