We’ll warn you up front: There will be use of the n-word. If you want to skip over this posting, we understand. But also understand we can’t reasonably be expected to debate the issue without using the terms under discussion. We’re not pulling punches.
NewSouth Books is reprinting the classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. According to Publishers Weekly, this edition, edited by Alan Gribben of Auburn University, all 219 occurrences of the word ‘nigger’ will be replaced by ‘runaway slave’. Also Twain’s use of the word ‘injun’ will be removed. The reason nigger is being edited out is the reaction of school boards to teaching from a text that has nigger as a commonly used word by the central character, as written by Mark Twain.
Here’s the problem: Twain wrote in the voice of the time and the characters. Nigger and Injun were part of the common language of pre-Civil War America, the setting for Huck Finn. The book itself was first published in America in 1885.
I’ll change to the first person here, as this is personal. I’m a white guy and in my personal memory, black people have been hung from trees for no more a crime that being black.
In my personal memory, as a nine year old, we dodged the Benton Harbor Race Riots in 1966 by four blocks, getting back home in time to see the coverage on TV.
Although I have used the word nigger to refer to a black person, I haven’t for many years. That doesn’t make it right and I can’t apologize enough for it. But I have made a very conscious decision to understand why we fall into those traps of racist stupidity through some rather deep personal examination and study. Does that make it better? No, but at least I am being honest.
(If you’re the kind of person who believes this makes me an unrepentant Bull Connor-grade racist forever, then you’ve been educated beyond your intelligence. I’ve deliberately and very consciously learned more about racism than you know. You can kiss my pasty white ass.)
So, is the editing of the word nigger out of Huck Finn proper? We’ll ask a parallel question instead. Would it be proper to paint a bra and panties on Birth of Venus by Botticelli because some folks are offended with female nudity? The answer is an emphatic no. It is a classic work of art and defiling it to pander to those who object, to ‘protect’ us from a naked female form, is almost a sin of Biblical proportions.
Which means editing nigger from Huck Finn is also wrong. It does perpetuate the use of a vile and hateful word, but that is also a chance for educators to explain the context and the history of the word. It is also a chance for parents to become involved in the education of their children, by explaining that the word nigger does exist, what it means and why it is not an appropriate word for anyone to use, under any circumstances.
Oh, sorry about that, I was assuming that parents have a lick of sense, the ability to communicate and the willingness to become educated about the entire issue of the word nigger. Then, speak to their kids about it. Foolish white guy!
RoadDave 
As I’ve discussed on other sites, the problem with removing the N-word is you stifle discussion. If you ban any mention of Nazis (as Germany did post WW2) you end up with neo-Nazis. If you remove the N-word, you end up with rampant racism. Banned items are always of interest to young people (and others, but less so). They end up thinking it’s “cool”. To educate, as well as to de-mystify, we need to have discussion. If we don’t discuss topics in school, then any idiot on the Internet can teach our kids using their own views. Better to discuss racism, educate our children as to why it’s wrong, and teach them to be better citizens, of their country and the world; rather than allow them to pick up bad behaviour and offensive habits from fringe wackos. While I agree that works of art (including books) should not be “moving targets” being constantly changed to suit the morals of the moment, I feel the bigger issue is a failure to properly educate our children. Only by talking about things like racism in the open, in schools where this discussion is right and proper, can we educate our children to behave better than we may have in our pasts. Otherwise, as the old phrase goes, “Those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it”.
Names/words must be changed if the populus is to be controled. America IS sn aparthied nation. Using or not using specific words or better yet changing a nown to the X word is stupid. I refer to the great American George Carlin’s 7 words every child in the world wanted to hear.
I amj from the North West coast of Scotland. Yes “a white nigger of the north” . Yes we were, en mass, burned, hung, raped, etc. 80% of the slaves in the British West Indies were white, a majority Highland Scots.
Welcome, Dave McLean, and thanks for a great alternative viewpoint. I am (thankfully) unaware of racial epithets directed against the Scots, but remembering a generation of “cheap Scotsman” jokes reminds me that hatred knows no colour. There is a song from the musical “South Pacific”, that talks about how children will play with each other regardless of race or religion – they “have to be carefully taught” how to hate based on colour, or religion, or language, or whatever reason. The more we face up to these situations, the more we talk about “bad” words like “nigger”, the less strength we give those words to be used as weapons of hate. The more we dodge them, the more strength they gain as weapons. You rarely hear “spic” or “wop” or “daygo” (or however they spelled it) these days, because we faced these words down, and took away their ability to hurt. We need to do the same thing today with the dreaded N-word – political correctness will only provide fuel for a future racial fire.