The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was originally published in 1885 and the author, Mark Twain, used the word “nigger” more than 200 times in the book. In the latest version, the word “nigger” has been replaced with the word “slave.” The editor thought it would be easier for teachers to teach the book without such profane and offensive language.
Changing the word to slave doesn’t change the context of the book, but I don’t believe the word slave is much better than the word nigger.
This is a classic American novel that tells a story of our past era. And as much as we hate to admit it, the word nigger was accurate at the time. Jim, the character in the book, was not necessarily a slave.
This is a piece of our history whether we like it or not. We give too much power to the N word, how else are going to desensitize the word?
Here's a funny video from The Daily Show that speaks on this controversial topic.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Mark Twain Controversy | ||||
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I'd rather music execs change the lyrics of our favorite rap songs. When we say it now, without having a conversation backed by knowledge, reasoning or structure, its senseless and hard (or too easy) to swallow. So let's keep it in the classics and remove it from the stuff our children ACTUALLY listen to.
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