The hoopla about the use of "nigger" is a bunch of bullshit, but there's no debating that Huck Finn is a pretty racist book. Jim is presented as primitive and irrational, and is often shown as being overly superstitious and as needing guidance from Huck--a child. I'm not sure if it's the kind of book that, as an American, I want as one of the definitive works of our literary canon.

The hoopla about the use of "nigger" is a bunch of bullshit, but there's no debating that Huck Finn is a pretty racist book. Jim is presented as primitive and irrational, and is often shown as being overly superstitious and as needing guidance from Huck--a child. I'm not sure if it's the kind of book that, as an American, I want as one of the definitive works of our literary canon.

Huck Finn is a pretty racist book. Jim is presented as primitive and irrational, and is often shown as being overly superstitious and as needing guidance from Huck--a child. I'm not sure if it's the kind of book that, as an American, I want as one of the definitive works of our literary canon.

There were no African-American literature or history courses at Northern Michigan University, so when I learned that the concentration for American Literature III would include the Harlem Renaissance, I jumped into the course. Two months later and the only black person we'd talked about in the class was an uneducated slave named Jim in Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn, for which white students got to read the word "nigger" repeatedly aloud in class. I was the only black student in the class and after seeing the word in the book so many times, I continuously volunteered to read aloud because my ears almost bled from hearing the racial slur amongst white students. I can't stand saying the word, so I definitely didn't want to hear white people say it.

I definitely don't agree with censorship in any way, shape, or form. I'm just recognized that Huck Finn is, in many ways, a racist portrayal of blacks. I don't dispute that the use of the n-word is historically accurate and not racist in itself, but the portrayal of Jim is. This just leads me to doubt its deserving of the status as a "Great American Work of Literature".

Indeed, Twain scholar Thomas Wortham, at UCLA, compared Gribben to Thomas Bowdler (who published expurgated versions of Shakespeare for family reading), telling PW that "a book like Professor Gribben has imagined doesn't challenge children [and their teachers] to ask, ‘Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language?' "

n-word

And as for saying boo fucking hoo, that's pretty immature/ignorant as a white male who has only lived in Western countries. Telling oppressed people that they are just being pussies is pretty comparable to the standard white America bollocks of pull yourself up by your bootstraps even if you don't have boots. Paraphrasing of course.

A good teacher would use the word as an opportunity rather than a problem, discussing why it's uncomfortable, what the history is, and why some people want it banned. The commentor there who huffed 'might as well remove the sex from DH Lawrence!' is exactly right.