Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Andrew Manott's Discussion Question 2/21
Do you think that the removal of the N-word from Huck Finn would offend white people? It would make it seem like that other people care more about black people than they do white people.So should they remove the word at all and take out language that may seem offensive to white people from other books? Or should we leave all of the books alone? Explain.
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2 comments:
Jeffrey Seib- I don’t really think removing the N- word would offend white people. It would be strange to get offended because someone removes an insult. I could see how it makes historians mad, but not white people. I personally can see both sides of the story on the debate on whether the N- word should be taken out of the books or not, but I think the books should be left alone. I can completely understand how Africans could get offended, but we should not try to rewrite history for that sake. That is what Hitler tried to do. He tried to burn all the books he found inappropriate for his regime. America could be headed towards oppression of the media if the text was changed, and much historical significance of the book would be taken away. Either keep the word in, or don’t use the book at all.
I don't think that removing the N-word from Huck Finn would offend white people, although a few historians and scholarly persons might take a bit of offense. I do think, however, that removing this racist term would only serve to increase the distance between whites and blacks, as we would be removing an offensive term that is racist without removing non-racist offensive terms. A story is that of the author and s/he should be allowed to write his/her story the way s/he wants to. To censor a book is to change the words of the author. I think that we should jsut leave all the books alone nad stop trying to censor them.
-Emily Thorn
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