Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Who The Hell Thinks They Have The Right To Rewrite A Mark Twain Classic?!

Here's the CNN Video Link

Seriously? I mean, really? They want to remove the word "nigger" from Huck Finn and Mark Twain.

That's right, I used the word, instead of saying "n-word" like they're doing on CNN. To me, it is just a word. I would never use that word when describing another person. I use that word when referencing the way white people used to refer to blacks.

I read both of those Mark Twain classics back in school. We were taught that the books were written to sound like the people of that time spoke. The people of that time called black people niggers. It's a historical fact. When I was in school, it was understood that, just because it used to be acceptable then, it is not acceptable now. If any of my classmates had been caught calling someone else a nigger, they would have been corrected and disciplined.

In my opinion, this is a simple matter of laziness. People, teachers even, are too lazy to teach students about context, about history. They would rather just change the word "nigger" to "slave." So does this mean we are going to pretend that black people were never called horrible things? Does this mean we are going to pretend that the racism and bigotry weren't as bad as they were? As they still are?

History is history. No, we can't change it. No, it wasn't always good, BUT, we can learn from it. We have learned from it. We ended slavery in our nation. We pushed through with the civil rights. Look at our current president!! Imagine what people from the time of Tom and Huck would think about Obama. Look how far we have come!

I am completely disgusted that people think they can rewrite Mark Twain. They are, in my mind, trying to change history. And it's not going to work. It is censorship, and I believe it is wrong.