The 'N' word

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(08-29-2015, 04:03 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Story time:

Until I was in the 9th grade I never had more than 2 black people in my school (Rural KY and Muncie, IN). Prior to my Freshman year we moved to Forest Park (just north of Cincy). We had to read the book Of Mice and Men; unfortunately I was called on to tell who Crooks was. I used the word that had been used to describe him in the book.

I quickly learned this was unacceptable.

Seeing a lot lately about how liberals are the "PC" type and offended by everything. But, I don't find that necessarily so. Classic example in the anecdote above. I think most liberals would be fine with reading the book, reading it uncensored, and using the language the book uses when discusses it. It is generally conservatives who want to censor the language in books or ban them outright.

Came across an excellent "teaching moment" in graduate school that is sort of related. In Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn, Huck has a black friend named Jim. Numerous characters refer to Jim as a "******" (and Jim uses the term to describe himself in more than one passage if I am not mistaken). However, the character's name is clearly Jim. In literary criticism of the book for decades critics referred to him as "****** Jim" as if that were his name. Huck is called "Huck Finn" and Jim is called "****** Jim" in essay after essay. But his name is simply Jim. And for decades no critic writing about the book pointed this out. It is a pretty good example of the subtle way racism invades our minds.

I am happy to say some critics finally recognized the error and today most don't make the mistake, but I am sure some do. When I wrote about the book I called Jim by his name, but did not feel constrained to censor my language in any way and in classes I don't think anyone did either. We actually talked a bit about how "******" has - like many words - evolved over the years. It seems to have lost much of its power and is more often used as a term of endearment than a term of derision in our times. Language does that. It keeps changing. I am happy students still read this book, read it uncensored, and can have dialogue about these sorts of things.