Today in class we watched a movie about the controversial part The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn plays in schools and libraries all over the country throughout many time periods. Many people in the documentary were upset that the book was mandatory reading in school. They were upset because the book uses the word "nigger" many times throughout the book. People in the documentary were claiming that Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was a racist because of his excessive use of the word. I feel that even though the people believe that Twain was a racist they should still read the book so they can interpret for themselves. The people protesting the use of the book in schools claimed that it was degrading to have to read about their people's past. I have not yet read the entire book so I cannot make my own opinions but from what other people have said in the documentary Twain was not a racist. In fact he was using the questionable language and portraying the black people the way he did to make a point. Another belief that I have is this, a word is a word. In the case of This book the word is nigger. This word holds a VERY strong negative connotation and can hurt many people. However, the only way to get rid of the negative connotation is for people to be exposed to it so they become immune to it. For example, when I was younger I used to gasp every time I would hear someone say "damn" I would react this way because first, I was taught it was a bad word and second because I hadn't been exposed to it. Now that I have been exposed to the word a lot it no longer upsets me. All in all I am very exited to read this book.
3 comments:
interesting stuff here..i agree with you that it should not be censored. I want to add and say that yea i guess you could get immuned to the word but more importantly when told not to do something a person is more likely to end up doing it. banning this book would only increase the chances of people abusing the word nigger.
Nice post,
I originally agreed with the stance that it shouldn't be censored, but When starting the book this week, I realize that if I was Black, especially the only one in my class (like New Trier in the 70's), I would feel very uncomfortable and awkward to hear fellow students using the word "ni****" so freely. So I definitely see where they are coming from, and need to finish the book before I can judge whether its racist or not.
I am also excited for this book because of the references of it I've heard throughout the years. I agree that it should not be censored because it shows what life was like and what language was acceptable and proper then. The book isnt encouraging us to use the language but yet understand the history of our country and what forms of language have been used throughout the years.
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