The N-word removed from Huckleberry Finn

Sunhouse
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1/6/2011 1:28pm Edited Date/Time 1/24/2012 4:56am
In the new editions released in February they will replace the word "nigger" with "slave" to accommodate fragile souls, and thus change a cultural and historical masterpiece. The N-word appears 219 times in the Novel.

WTF?! Are you OK with this?
|
1/6/2011 1:44pm
we've become so politically correct these days we're now trying to rewrite books.
huck
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1/6/2011 1:49pm
They didn't ask me....
flarider
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1/6/2011 1:55pm
It's stupid

PC run amok again

The Shop

jonjon714
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1/6/2011 1:58pm
Ever tried to get a copy of Song of the South?
J.F.S
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1/6/2011 1:58pm
According to who is "slave" less derogatory than "nigger"?
Sunhouse
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1/6/2011 2:01pm
J.F.S wrote:
According to who is "slave" less derogatory than "nigger"?
slavery is abolished, yet the word "nigger" is a degrading word still in use, so I guess "slave" would be more in touch with the times and story of the novel...oh, and more PC!

I can´t believe how stupid this is!
Racer92
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1/6/2011 2:02pm
huck wrote:
They didn't ask me....
Get back to work, boy !
huck
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1/6/2011 2:05pm
huck wrote:
They didn't ask me....
Racer92 wrote:
Get back to work, boy !
Void Main
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1/6/2011 2:37pm
In honor of this historic act of censorship I also removed the word from Big Lenny's web site. So huck, you are welcome to visit the site again without being offended. Smile
huck
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1/6/2011 2:45pm
Void Main wrote:
In honor of this historic act of censorship I also removed the word from Big Lenny's web site. So huck, you are welcome to visit the...
In honor of this historic act of censorship I also removed the word from Big Lenny's web site. So huck, you are welcome to visit the site again without being offended. Smile
When's the last time you've seen me say anything REMOTELY racist?
TeamGreen
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1/6/2011 2:56pm
J.F.S wrote:
According to who is "slave" less derogatory than "nigger"?
WTF?

Stop that shit, RIGHT NOW!

Agreeing with you is causing me great discomfort: In other-words...

Perfect POST!
48fordcoe
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1/6/2011 3:47pm
it still in rap music so the kids will still hear it ...just can't read it
Void Main
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1/6/2011 4:50pm Edited Date/Time 1/6/2011 4:51pm
Void Main wrote:
In honor of this historic act of censorship I also removed the word from Big Lenny's web site. So huck, you are welcome to visit the...
In honor of this historic act of censorship I also removed the word from Big Lenny's web site. So huck, you are welcome to visit the site again without being offended. Smile
huck wrote:
When's the last time you've seen me say anything REMOTELY racist?
Certainly I wasn't accusing you of that. I was merely pointing out that you will not get offended like you used to get over there when Bevis used to be able to spew this word. The word has been removed. Wink
Big Lenny
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1/6/2011 4:55pm Edited Date/Time 1/6/2011 4:56pm
J.F.S wrote:
According to who is "slave" less derogatory than "nigger"?
Sunhouse wrote:
slavery is abolished, yet the word "nigger" is a degrading word still in use, so I guess "slave" would be more in touch with the times...
slavery is abolished, yet the word "nigger" is a degrading word still in use, so I guess "slave" would be more in touch with the times and story of the novel...oh, and more PC!

I can´t believe how stupid this is!
Word should have been removed long ago, children's books, not cool....
72kiteboarder
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1/6/2011 4:58pm
How about everyone all agrees to never say, write or sing the "N" word again and we all let it die.

Hman144
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1/6/2011 4:58pm
Speaking of something from the past....

Oh So Yesterday....

Not to worry. They might remove it from classic literature, but they'll never remove it from pop culture. Those who make a living being offended will make sure it survives.

I love how the PC crowd wants to remove stuff like this, but half the books in our High School's AP and Honors English classes contain every vulgarity and perversity you can think of but it is considered a vital part of the classic work. Holy Mother of Muhammed, the hypocrisy is deafening.

Jan. 8th can't get here fast enough.

H
72kiteboarder
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1/6/2011 5:00pm Edited Date/Time 1/6/2011 5:08pm
+++Insert non-offensive smart ass comment here+++
Void Main
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1/6/2011 5:03pm
+++Insert non-offensive smart ass comment here+++
Then you better edit your post because I find it offensive.
Cygnus
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1/6/2011 5:04pm
huck wrote:
They didn't ask me....
Racer92 wrote:
Get back to work, boy !
huck wrote:
[IMG]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n282/huck218/whitey.jpg[/IMG]
I bought some crack from that bitch last week.
72kiteboarder
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1/6/2011 5:27pm
A federal jury seated in Philadelphia may soon decide whether there should be a double standard regarding the usage of the "n-word" by white and black employees in the workplace. Specifically, the jury will consider the case of former Fox 29 anchorman Tom Burlington, who was fired after using the n-word during a staff meeting, wherein reporters and producers were discussing Robin Taylor's coverage of a 2007 mock funeral led by the Philadelphia Youth Council of the NAACP to bury the n-word.
According to court documents, the dispute began when Robin Taylor, who is white, used the word while discussing the event. In that discussion, Taylor apparently referenced the fact that participants had used the full word "at least a hundred times or more" at the event. In response, Burlington allegedly stated, "Does this mean we can say ni**er now?"
In response to his question, Nicole Wolfe, a producer and one of the three African-American employees who were present at the meeting exclaimed, "I can't believe you just said that!"
Click here to view a slideshow of the top 10 n-word controversies of the decade
Burlington has claimed that he was "discriminated against because of his race," because he was fired for using the full word, while African-Americans were heard using the word in the workplace without reprimand.
U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick denied Burlington's claim that he was the victim of a hostile work environment, but allowed the case to go to trial. Judge Surrick has suggested that Burlington may have been a "victim of political correctness run amok," and that he could not conclude that there was a "reasonable justification for permitting the station to draw race-based distinctions between employees."
This is an issue that goes far beyond political correctness.
The n-word has a legacy in the dehumanization of African people in America, which has led to the segregation of opportunity and advancement that we experience today. To be clear, there was no n-word before the transatlantic slave trade -- it was a slur created to cement the powerlessness and subjugation of a people. The root of that slur does not change because those who have been victimized by it decide to adopt its usage when referring to one another.
Franz Fanon wrote in The Wretched of the Earth, how those with a "colonized mind" will "initially express against their own people the aggressiveness that they have internalized" without question. In other words, when African-Americans use the word -- in the workplace or not, they are also contributing to a hostile environment.
Words matter; and their contexts matter. The field of journalism, and the newsroom in particular, is not known for its racial diversity. In fact, only 11.2 percent of newsroom supervisors nationwide people of color, with the inclusion of African-Americans on the decline. According to the American Society of News Editors, the number of African-American journalists has decreased by 539 since 2001, while the number of Asian American, Latino, and Native American journalists increased by 167, 23, and 44, respectively.
Unfortunately, the debate about whether and how to regulate the usage of the n-word is not unique to Burlington's case. The recent resurgence of the debate about whether the word should be banned in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an example of how persistently we are haunted by this word and its legacy. Though referencing individuals via racial epithet is dramatically different than reading a highly contextualized usage of the word in literature, we are all accountable for the language we use.
The trial to determine whether Burlington was wrongfully terminated and whether African-Americans can dehumanize each other with immunity is set to begin on January 18th. However, the real question is whether we will use this incident as a wake-up call to demand the full recognition -- from others and from ourselves -- of our humanity and implementation of a higher standard of dignity in the workplace and beyond.



Link
flarider
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1/6/2011 6:10pm
Huck Finn is a period piece, reflecting a time in our Nation's history, wrapped around the story of a boy and a slave.

The text should not be changed for two reasons
1. It's censorship and editing original works for no sensible or legitimate reason
2. By changing "Nigger Jim" to "Slave Jim" you dilute the text and the low esteem African-Americans were held at that time period of the story. By leaving the text, it gives reality and reference to the negative attitudes towards Blacks at that time.

I will never allow my children to read the edited version, because it would be a poorly faked quasi-replication of a wonderful writing.
Sonny
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1/6/2011 6:44pm
Although I don't care to hear a person being called that. I think today's hip hop culture has really taken the malice out of it. Words like "Moulie" are the new raw nerve. Honestly, I could care less if the word is in the book or not. Changing the word was meant to stop offending, but it seems to have done the opposite.
Racer92
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1/6/2011 6:49pm
Cygnus wrote:
I bought some crack from that bitch last week.
Hope she washed it off first ! Blink
Sonny
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1/6/2011 7:04pm
Better take the word out of Weezy's mouth if you can.

Racer92
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1/6/2011 7:19pm
Do I hafta use white-out on my old Richard Pryor LP ?


flarider
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1/6/2011 7:30pm
Now you guy's are starting a different argument

huck
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1/6/2011 7:35pm
The fucking writer wrote it as "nigger Jim". If it's offensive to some people, don't read it. Who are we to go back and change what was written?
Void Main
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1/6/2011 7:37pm
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/06/1555251/The-Continued-Censorshi…

News: The Continued Censorship of Huckleberry Finn on Thursday January 06, @11:35AM
Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 06, @11:35AM
from the but-there's-a-bad-word-in-it dept.
books
censorship
usa
eldavojohn writes "Over a hundred years after the death of its author, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will be released in a censored format removing two derogatory racial slurs: "injun" and "nigger." The latter appears some 219 times in the original novel but both will be replaced by the word "slave." An Alabama publisher named NewSouth Books will be editing and censoring the book so that schools and parents might provide their children the ability to study the classic without fear of properly addressing the torturous history of racism and slavery in The United States of America. The Forbes Blog speculates that e-readers could provide us this service automatically. Salon admirably provides point versus counterpoint while the internet at large is in an uproar over this seemingly large acceptance of censorship as necessary even on books a hundred years old. The legendary Samuel Langhorne Clemens himself once wrote "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter" and now his own writing shall test the truth in that today."

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