What the heck where these SLAVES thinking?

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7360250n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

That is so hilariously wrong. Stinks of historical revisionism to me. Then again I think the Germans are dicks for banning non-artistic use of the swastika. Who bans Huck-Finn anyways.

Please.

You'd be surprised. It's getting so you're better off counting the school districts that DON'T try to ban it.

Oh, no it's the N Word RUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Yeah, what where they thinking?

Kill all math nerds

Just. Fuck these people. Just.

Urgh. You know I should reread that book actually. It was nice.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

The sole reason I've heard that makes this make any sense is this: By removing the N-word, it can be published and read in areas that would otherwise have nothing to do with it because of the N-word.

Which is a shame, because I really would rather we just remind these areas that the word is used predominantly by the bad guys.

Seriously, it's not like he was using it to be offensive. Well, offensive to racists, yeah.

Luckily none of the two private schools I went to ever banned it. In fact in 5th grade we had a book that had a memorable moment in which a character said "We are doing niggers' work!" to drive home just how jerkish the guy was. It worked.

Nigga', you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find a version of Huck Finn that contained the word "nigger". One version got especially awkward when you had African American being said instead of nigger EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

Bet the lynching scenes are completely intact.

Kill all math nerds

I've thankfully never had trouble finding copies with "nigger" left in tact. My schools didn't ban it either...Good. Don't be any more stupid, schools. Just please don't...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Myr, I'm sure you already know about the alternate ending to I Am Legend. I'd say this has more to do with the fact that while many people today are getting used to seeing violence but rarely are ever involved in violence, they have a tendency to brush it off or even expect it to often times be a good thing. Saying something mean to someone, however, happens constantly and people are directly affected by it, meaning that they'll be more angry about insults than violence unless there's violence being thrust upon them.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

And the funny thing about people wanting to go after The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn as racist is that Mark Twain wrote it as a treatise AGAINST racism.

Can you say modern folks are Completely Missing The Point?

They certainly are and they're giving that word far more control over them than they should be.

edited 25th Mar '11 11:11:10 AM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

At first I thought this was gonna be about Nietzsche, but it's not. Oh well.

Yeah, I really hate historical revisionism (or whatever you call it...). Is it just me or is that disrespectful to the people who had to go through all that crap?

It is disrespectful to try to deny that it happened or sugar coat it. You're hiding it. You're destroying it.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Languages changes, as well as their meanings. How many classics do you know of which that have been updated into modern versions of the languages they were written into. Nigger had a different meaning and did not have the baggage then as now. They change the words to fit it. "Ten little pigs" was originally "ten little niggers" LanguageDrift

EDIT: tl;dr stop bawwwing. You cans till get the version of the book with the word "nigger" in it.

edited 25th Mar '11 12:19:19 PM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

Quite a few. I don't like those modern versions by and large. Most of these were Shakespeare Sparknotes things written so modern audiences could understand them. This may be because they just suck ass. In fact it is likely the case. That is just my not liking them. I don't have issues with these things existing.

With Huck Finn there's just something amazingly rude about changing the word both to the people who went through it, the author himself, and the modern day people. There was a point to that word being used. Racism is wrong. It is cruel. This was part of the point beyond "That is how people talk". This is a message that transcends time and is still relevant to this day yet people still feel the need to hide the word because it is deemed offensive. That's point.

There's also the issue of it just sounding awkward and unnatural to have a piece like this altered in this fashion. Words and dialects were very important to the work and to Twain. Replacing nigger with something else is damaging that. Now if you changed how the characters talked entirely this would be fine maybe. As it is you're just sticking an odd out of place word like African American in its place. I've read an adaptation that did this and I was fine with it.

edited 25th Mar '11 12:17:36 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Mark Twain did not use the word 'nigger' in order to make fun of racism though. If im wrong please explain or post a link etc

also, using the word "nigga" would be good too.

or bro, or whatever modern analogue depending on the story context. the "nigger's work" could be replaces with "bitch work" or whatever. You dont have to use the word 'nigger', but note that it is not a censorship of the word 'nigger' you can still get the uncensored version.

edited 25th Mar '11 12:23:34 PM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

You never read Huck Finn did you.

Please.

Mark Twain was quite a progressive guy. He realized the term was used to single out people of a different skin tone. That, in of itself, is derogatory, especially since there was no equivalent for whites at the time. Without equal representation, those with darker skin were in fact being knocked down because of the word "nigger" because it defined and categorized them in manner that caged them.

edited 25th Mar '11 12:31:39 PM by Usht

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

He used the word because southerners used that word. Deleting it is teaching children that the word itself is more important than the context.

Kill all math nerds

He wasn't making fun it so much as criticizing it. The most human characters in the book are Huck Finn and the so called nigger who is supposedly "less than human". Jim is clearly a stereotype when first introduced but he grows out of this and becomes a person. We see that he is a person. His own self with his own feelings. Just like everyone else he is a person. The bad characters are the racist whites. These are the people who are hurting Finn and Jim who we've learned are just people. The book is filled with Huck Finn's difficulty with what he has been taught and what he has learned about Jim and what he feels. His monologues display this conflict. A lot. It's ever present.

The wikipedia article on this.

Some thing I found while google searching the topic. Not very indepth but it provides a small outline.

Twain himself was a very conflicted man in regards to cruelty. He got worse about it as time went on and seems to have died being mostly disillusioned with humans and filled with dislike for them.

^What Myrm brings up is a good point. By doing this you make the word more important than the context. This is wrong. The context is important and everything. It has meaning.

edited 25th Mar '11 12:36:20 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

No kidding.

Kill all math nerds

God Twain was such a happy man...At least he got to see Hailey's comet like he wanted before he died...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Seems like another case where rationally thinking humans (which is, to a lot of people, what makes us so much better than animals) can't determine an idea in it's original context anymore. This is nothing new, just the stupidity of humanity being taught to the youth of humanity to make them stupid older people.