The Huck Finn Thing & Why It's Not The End Of The World

Earlier this week, news broke of a publisher planning to print new copies of Huckleberry Finn without the N-word and all Hell broke loose.



I mainly refer to the opinions expressed by the majority white representatives of the media (to be fair, usually strategically backed by someone professional of African American decent who shares their opinion, but for different reasons) that this is PC at it's worst; that it's completely unnecessary & stupid; that it's a major plot by "others" to destroy our past by replacing it with something that is false and misleading....and then some of these people tell you to go read the Bible. #irony

I have my own personal history and view of the N-word & it's uses and the key word there is personal. Every body's pretty much entitled to their own opinion..except when they're forced to listen to somebody else's afterward that may effect their own view of said subject. You know, the whole purpose of Debating.

The main point I'm lacking in hearing out there is a very basic and fundamental fact: the word nigger is a very uncomfortable word in our society. Period. Yes, I'm very uncomfortable simply just typing that there; but I'm not afraid to admit that. It seems like a majority of people are afraid to admit it's use is controversial and that's the "whitewashing" going around right now that makes me unsettled.

There are plenty of corners of the internet & the real world where the word is thrown around in conversations, observations & personal statements with others with no unpleasantness whatsoever because everybody involved with the exchange is fine & on the same page, so to speak, with what is being discussed. And that is fine. I just find it a bit suspect whenever those same people choose not use that same language in a public setting while trying to defend it's full use in a public setting. If teachers in classrooms were to replace the term with "The N-word", like many of these defenders seem to be doing, when using it in their school work, you can't tell me that would change the very situation of why this book is not being taught in schools right now: because the term and the thoughts associated with it are controversial.

And they know it. That's why they don't use it in their reporting, their terminology & their defense of it. Because they don't want to take the heat; they don't want to have to answer the questions people might ask of them if they used it; they don't want to have to burden the same responsibility that teachers would have to when being presented with these choices.

This new printing is not changing history. There are millions & millions of copies of this book lying around this world that are not going anywhere (I missed the part where the publisher is holding a giant book burning to destroy the evidence of the past) and at the very least, someone is making a Wikipedia entry right now that will forever let future generations know that the book that they read in school was not the original writing. Isn't that true of all books?

P.S. Also: yay for me for finally figuring out how to make links on Blogger! #fuckingupallthegoodwillibuiltforthisblog