On The Joy Behar Show, they discussed the legitimacy of “Huckleberry Finn” publisher substituting the “N-Word” (which was mentioned 219 times) with the word “Slave”. Behar points out that the N-word is a negative “epithet, a slur” and that the word “slave” is not an equal replacement. She also wonders if it’s, “a rewrite of history or political correctness gone wild?”
Alan Gribben, Twain scholar says, “The book is so much better than that word. I want to give another option for teachers whose school districts are not teaching these books. People are calling this censorship. I am actually trying to expand the readership of the book. So much about the book is about the N-word.”
Behar’s guest, Mark Lamont Hill – a cultural anthropologist – is concerned about the publisher’s intent and how the new readership will not know that racism was a key element in the book. “I appreciate his intentions…When you take out the N-word. It’s no longer the book…So much about this book is about the N-word. So much of this book is about how people are navigating race in this historicalthe opportunity to talk about something really moment...To take that out, is to deny students and teachers the opportunity to talk about something really important.”
Hill also points out that this would be censorship because Twain is the author and he wrote his book with specific words and they should not be changed. Proof is the pudding. Twain famously said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
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