US

Censored: New Version of ‘Huckleberry Fin’ Erases ‘Injun’ and N-Word

The editor calls it more of an “updating” than censorship. But it’s hard to believe that stripping a classic novel of over 219 offensive words is anything but.

Auburn University Prof. Alan Gribben is working on a new edition of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer,” replacing N-word with “slave,“ ”Injun” with Indian, “half-breed” with half-blood in an effort not to offend readers.

“This is not an effort to render ‘Tom Sawyer‘ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ colorblind,” Gribben told Publishers Weekly. “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”

He argues the offensive nature of the classic means its dying a slow death: schools are increasingly banning their students from reading it. And he believes the offensive words put the books in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain once humorously defined as those “which people praise and don’t read.”

Keith Staskiewicz of Entertainment Weekly says the issue is a sticky one. On the one hand, it’s censorship plain and simple. “On the other hand,” he writes, “if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge.”

To him, it mirrors an edited version of a profanity-laced movie shown on TV: “It’s unfortunate, but is it really any more catastrophic than a TBS-friendly re-edit of The Godfather, you down-and-dirty melon farmer?”

But Twain scholar Thomas Wortham of UCLA think kids and society actually benefit from the controversial language. He told Publisher’s Weekly that “a book like Professor Gribben has imagined doesn’t challenge children [and their teachers] to ask, ‘Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language?’”

Another Twain scholar, professor Stephen Railton at the University of Virginia, said Gribben was well respected, but called the new version “a terrible idea.”

The language depicts America’s past, Railton said, and the revised book was not being true to the period in which Twain was writing. Railton has an unaltered version of “Huck Finn” coming out later this year that includes context for schools to explore racism and slavery in the book.

“If we can’t do that in the classroom, we can’t do that anywhere,” he said.

Anderson Cooper recently hosted a panel to discuss the issue:

“The [N] word is terrible,” writes Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri. “But it’s a linchpin of this book. What makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so radical is the fact that in a time when the horror of slavery was still fresh and the specter of inequality hung over the whole country, Mark Twain was still able to use satire to show how wrong it was.”

“This is like changing War and Peace to Peace, because war is unpleasant to remember, or removing World War I from All Quiet on the Western Front,” she adds.

“We’ll just let the readers decide,” Gribben told the Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments (231)

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  • foxislyingtoallofyou
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:33am

    YUP this guy is the publisher and his decision to allow the book to be read in the classroom without offending some people is “changing histroy” You will never be able to hear/say the n-word again! This book will NEVER be printed in its original again!

    SO DUMB YOU ARE!

    Report Post »  
  • MrButcher
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:31am

    this is utter bullspit!!!

    Report Post » MrButcher  
    • Sgt.Crust
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:20am

      Remember, I am praying hard for you Butcher, Jesus loves you too!

      Report Post »  
  • TRONINTHEMORNING
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:30am

    Hey they ruined CHICKEN LITTLE by letting the animals live at the end of the book. Remember, in the original FOXEY LOXEY ate every single one of them at the end!

    Now they’re after high literature. Not to say CHICKEN LITTLE isn’t high literature!

    Report Post »  
  • foxislyingtoallofyou
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:29am

    Fox News Goes After Obama’s Sandals
    January 05, 2011 10:14 am ET by Simon Maloy

    To be a regular viewer of Fox & Friends is to have your expectations lowered every day. Owing either to incurable optimism or terminal naïveté, each morning after I click it off I find myself thinking: “Well, there’s no way they can possibly get any dumber than that.”

    I’ve never been proven right.

    This morning the trio of Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Gretchen Carlson devoted two segments — two whole segments — to the New York Post’s question of whether it was appropriate for Barack Obama, as the President of the United States, to wear flip-flops while on vacation.

    With the chyron “Dressed To Un-Impress: Critics Take On Vacation Attire” beneath them, the three seemed to agree that it doesn’t matter what the president wears on vacation. Carlson even commented: “It doesn’t bother me at all. Nothing does. If he would have had on a full snowmobile suit, it would have been fine with me, too. As long as you’re enacting policies that the American people want, who cares what you wear?”

    OK… So why report on it to begin with? Because it’s a mindless cheap shot at Obama and it plays to the Fox News audience, which is always hungry for reasons to dislike the Democratic president. That’s why, despite their unanimous agreement that the story was completely unimportant, Fox & Friends returned to it a couple of hours later.

    And as for Carlson‘s claim that she doesn’t care what the president wears, she wasn’t so apathetic last June, when she blasted Obama for wearing “fancy pants and a fancy shirt” while touring the oil-covered Gulf coast beaches, because “80 percent of public perception is image, not what you say.”

    But, again, if you think this is insurmountably asinine, just wait until tomorrow.

    Report Post »  
    • Sgt.Crust
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:21pm

      Praying really hard for you ABC, Jesus Christ loves you as well! Have a great day!

      Report Post »  
    • Lucy Larue
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 8:31pm

      FOXISLYINGTOALLOFYOU,

      And so you posted this crap because you never read Huck Finn? You posted this crap because you think indian is not as offensive as injun? What is your freaking point?

      Here’s my point FOX! This nation is in dire straits because idiots like you live among us. You abet the ruin!
      Also…,if you are personally offended because I called you an idiot…, then I’ll change it to the more P.C..You are feebleminded.

      Report Post »  
  • To the Republic
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:26am

    This is NOT PC. This is, in the words of Michelle Obama, “Changing our History”. It‘s hard for me to understand that when this book was written that the use of the ’N’ word was as common as the phrase, “See ya in church on Sunday?”. And now some years later, while many blacks continue to use the same word when referring to a “brother”, it is not deemed proper for others to use it.

    I think it is the double-standard that gets me, more than anything. It’s OK for you to say it, but NOT ok for me. So this is where we have evolved? How many more books must be re-written in order not to offend someone?

    It seems to me that all this does is increase the attitude that being thin skinned, easily upset, easily offended and terminally out to look for vengence, is what we have become.

    Call me a Honkey, call me *******, call me Whitey, call me anything you want. It does not mean that just because you use such “slurs” that I should be able to rewrite history.

    I can handle it ….. sadly, there are a lot people who can’t.

    Report Post » To the Republic  
  • LadyIzShy
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:23am

    Oh my goodness. what gives them the RIGHT to change a classic book just to be PC?
    I hope NOBODY buys this book

    Report Post » LadyIzShy  
  • Sgt.Crust
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:19am

    Very soon, they will try to change the words of the Constitution, to remove the words Liberty, Rights and Freedom! Are we up for the task at hand?

    Report Post »  
  • NickDeringer
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:19am

    2+2 = 5

    We were never at war with Ociania.

    Report Post » NickDeringer  
  • SND97
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:18am

    Can we replace Islam with “Mentally Challenged?”

    Report Post »  
  • bassist237
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:18am

    I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy moved the football.

    Report Post » bassist237  
  • DimmuBorgir
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:18am

    so is my post not showing up cause i used the “n-word” in it?

    I really hate typing “n-word”

    seems so college hippie-like to me, and i don’t like it.

    Report Post » DimmuBorgir  
    • DimmuBorgir
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:21am

      never mind, it got posted. thanks Blaze for not being little sissy girls

      Report Post » DimmuBorgir  
    • foxislyingtoallofyou
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:32am

      Yeah Blaze actually encourages racism. Let your racism show! Your among friends (klan)

      Report Post »  
    • highcarry
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:48am

      no they’re still little sissy girls. they wouldn’t allow my post because i said hell, but they let one in that said bastard. hmmmmmm.

      Report Post » highcarry  
  • Chett
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:16am

    We all need to start libraries, save the real books before they are all gone.

    Report Post »  
  • tinlizy
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:15am

    That is outrageous. this is literary work and no one has the right to change it. If we don’t want to repeat history we must learn for mistakes not erase them.

    Report Post » tinlizy  
  • TXPilot
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:14am

    Why dont the Progressives just make it official and create a cabinet position for Minister of Propaganda?

    Report Post » TXPilot  
  • Rickfromillinois
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:11am

    This is PC stepping up to the next level. Also remember, they are “undocumented emigrants” not illegal aliens. We certainly wouldn’t want to offend anyone.

    Report Post » Rickfromillinois  
  • dpselfe
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:10am

    Not a fan of the “N” word (I won’t do it justice by typing it out, even though it is well within my Constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech to do so), but it seems to me that it’s a step too far in the wrong direction.
    When I stop hearing it from young black men women and children, I‘ll believe it’s truly a “dead” word.

    Why stop with this book? Why not check into the music industry and remove it from the lyrics I hear on the radio? If I am forced to hear it as part of one person’s “culture”, why should it be removed from the “culture” of another person?

    DOUBLE STANDARDS NEVER WORK!

    Report Post » dpselfe  
  • spreadcommonsensenot pc
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:10am

    Classic case of to much time on your hands——thinking out of your arzzzzz

    rehensible, appalling, offended——–thin skinned wusses—-GROW UP

    Report Post »  
  • dadsrootbeer
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:08am

    “Removing words is not censorship”. Words from another radical professor that is teaching our kids and the “N” word is terrible yet rappers and the like use it all the time in songs and to each other. What planet are we living on?

    Report Post » dadsrootbeer  
    • Sgt.Crust
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:21am

      …Planet of the Apes!

      Report Post »  
    • sWampy
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:45am

      While not PC, and I’m sure others will call you names, truer words have never been typed.

      Report Post »  
    • Reagan/DeMint.disciple
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:51am

      @PUBICPENCILDICK.. I see a story caught your eye huh ? Doesn’t post a word on any story this morning, until this one.. What a joke you are…

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  
    • PubliusPencilman
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:47am

      Hold up. I‘m be criticized for having enough of a life that I don’t feel the need to constantly comment on every story on this website? Wow. You cut me deep my friend….

      Report Post »  
    • untameable-kate
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 12:08pm

      Good point Dads, Another question is do we segregate authors into the categories of, those allowed to say the N word and those not allowed. Blacks can say it but no one else? How about injun? Should blacks be censored from using racial slurrs against whites, or is that OK?

      Report Post » Untameable-kate  
  • mtnclimberjim
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:06am

    I have some injun and some n-word in my ancestory and I still love the story of Huck Finn. PC be damned. As our country burns…..

    Report Post » mtnclimberjim  
  • Oh, God!
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:06am

    And people wonder why our history is no longer factual. The PC police hits again.

    My daughter just finished reading this book, I need to ask her if those words was in the book.

    Report Post » Oh, God!  
  • TruthTalker
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:05am

    Samuel Clemens is rolling over in his grave.

    Report Post »  
  • psst
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:05am

    Um. The Bataan Death march was just a parade.
    Did you folks see all those floats?
    Huge Crowds along the way shouted “Throw me something mister”

    Report Post »  
  • oldguy49
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:04am

    didn‘ they do something on this line in germany in the 1930’s

    Report Post »  
    • Lloyd Drako
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 4:15pm

      Yes, they did, except it was largely Marxist works and they did a lot more than just change some words.

      Report Post » Lloyd Drako  
    • Old Truckers
      Posted on January 7, 2011 at 11:05pm

      Throughout history, different nationalities had their own name/titles. The Germans, Irish, Japanese, Italians, Africans, Americans, almost every nationality had to put up with some kind of disrespectful label.

      We all need to cope with it when it comes our way? it is the mature thing to do.

      Report Post » Old Truckers  
  • DimmuBorgir
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:03am

    BOOOOOO.

    what the hell?? the character’s name is ****** jim. you can‘t change a book just cause you’re a sensitive little girl. makes me want to shake these people

    Report Post » DimmuBorgir  
    • 101
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 4:10pm

      .
      Wait until they rewrite the dictionary!

      Report Post »  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 4:45pm

      It’s not his name. I think his moither probably just called him Jim. It is what he’s called, and it‘s totally realistic that that’s what he would be called.

      Report Post »  
    • walkwithme1966
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 7:38pm

      This is really a stupid move – unbelievable – see there are some things I agree with all of you about – and rewritten classic books is just not right. http://wp.me/pYLB7-uK

      Report Post » walkwithme1966  
  • snowleopard3200 {cat folk art}
    Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:03am

    Once again the Progressives are rewriting history of this great land, we have made severe mistakes in the past and need to learn the truth of them, so as to avoid repeating them. This PC garbage has to end once and for all.

    http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm

    Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • ishka4me
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:11am

      what is next, banning the Disney classic’Song of the South”?

      Report Post »  
    • snowleopard3200 {cat folk art}
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:16am

      Yes, and the banning of “Bambi” because of hunting and the destruction of a forest to a large fire.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • CYCLONE
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:21am

      Aunt Jemimhia is’nt going to like this….

      Report Post »  
    • lovenfl3
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:23am

      I read this book again about 3 months ago. I was thinking at the time that I was amazed that some liberal hadn’t censored this book. I guess I should go buy a lottery ticket. Everyday there is another example of political correctness ruining our culture. They better start next on Uncle Tom’s Cabin, then To Kill a Mockingbird. Geez.

      http://www.donsmithshow.com – A great source for conservative news and political humor.

      Report Post » lovenfl3  
    • TexasCommonSense
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:25am

      Why wouldn’t they want to preserve this history so it can be seen how much the black population has overcome? Erasing history doesn’t change history.

      Report Post » TexasCommonSense  
    • TexasCommonSense
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:27am

      Ishka4me, yes.

      http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/sots.asp

      Report Post » TexasCommonSense  
    • Reagan/DeMint.disciple
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:30am

      Well, c’mon people, we wouldn’t want to offend our “ halfbreed ” president, now do we ? :~)
      PC = public censorship….. What a waste of time…

      one years food ration like glenn says  
    • hud
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:31am

      Ban it and they will come. This is a great way to get your kid to read this book, just give them the 40 yr old version that should be on your bookshelf. What’s wrong with “injun”? I’m part injun and refer to myself with that word on a regular basis, and don’t take any offense at myself.

      Report Post »  
    • Cobra Blue
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:33am

      I am going to give a copy of the original Huck Finn to all the kids I know. Required reading. It was never intended or written with a racist bent to begin with. Why not explain the book in a historical literary context…then there is no need rewrite. OH! Stupid me! I forgot. The liberal progressive agenda requires rewriting the historical record for the benefit of the young skulls full of mush. Wouldn’t want them grow up know truth….best to be indoctrinated…

      Report Post »  
    • Xcori8r
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:35am

      No surprise. Michelle Obama famously said that “we’re going to have to change our conversation, we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history”. I will buy a revised copy of Huck Finn to put under the Holiday Tree for next Decembers Festival of Lights.

      Xcori8r  
    • HillBillySam1
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:37am

      The words in Huck Finn are offensive and vile but the words in the Hip-Hop and Rap music industry are still considered “art”??? That sure is a relief!!! I thought that I was going to have to re-write all of my lyrics in my new music genre “Banjo-Rap”….HBS1 in the HOUSE, y’all!!!! Yo Yo Yo-de-lay-hee-hoo…….!!!

      Report Post »  
    • mikem1969
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:37am

      The progressive re-write of history and the disease of PC strike again.

      Report Post »  
    • PubliusPencilman
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:40am

      Hahaha! Go ahead folks, jump to conclusions without actually knowing anything about anything.

      If any of you had done even a tiny bit of research, or if (dare I to dream?) The Blaze had offered even a tiny bit of background information, you would know that Alan Gribben, the editor of this edition, is a conservative! In fact, he has been at the center of at least one PC-related controversy. Feel free to look up George Will’s 1990 article “Radical English,” where Will talks about the Gribben incident at UT Austin. Better yet, if you are really lazy, just go ahead and Google “Alan Gribben Conservative” and you’ll see all you need.

      Silly rabbits (or should I say sheep), conservatives INVENTED censorship!

      Report Post »  
    • BeckIsNuts
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:40am

      This is a disgusting development. I read all of Twain’s works as a kid and while I realized the terms “******” and “injun” were not appropriate for the modern world, I also understood they were acceptable in Twain’s time. Somehow, that made the book even more interesting to read. What a damn shame.

      Report Post »  
    • sWampy
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:44am

      Those freedom loving liberals are always the first to take our freedoms. ;-/

      Report Post »  
    • Cobra Blue
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:44am

      HillBillySam!

      Great comparison…There hypocrisy knows no bounds. Thanks Mr. Obama for bringing us all together by taking the nations focus off RACE…NOT

      Report Post »  
    • White Devil
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:47am

      This iz great news. Only use blacks can say *****. After all, we‘s gots told da ******* dat we’s use it as uh term o’ endearment, but we’s will hit ya over da head wiff racism if ya use it. Stupid whitey peeps what ‘chew thinking man?

      one more thing…Snowleopard3200 loves to break the Blaze rules. He is above the rules don’t you know?

      Report Post » White Devil  
    • HillBillySam1
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:56am

      @PUBLIUSPENCILMAN
      I am truly the epitome of the “lazy Conservative”….could you just summerize your point in short, single-syllable words because my fingers are sooooooooo tired from all of this tedious typing…..please include all relevant info from Media Matters, the Dailly KOS, and the Huffington Post……also in short, single-syllable words…..and can you bring me another comfy pillow??? Some iced-tea would be nice too….no lemon, please.

      Report Post »  
    • TexasCommonSense
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:57am

      The point everyone seems to be missing is, although it is considered profane now, it was common speak during the period. It wasn’t even considered derogatory. It was as common as the term “African American” today. The word originated as a term used in a neutral context to refer to black people, as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun *****, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, meaning the color “black”.

      Report Post » TexasCommonSense  
    • NapoHill15
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:12am

      This is no different than ******* on the Mona Lisa . . . The arts, Clemens, they have been grossly disrespected here. And once again our history has been re-written.

      Political correctness, it’s simply a honed tool of liberalism used to bend and shape the world as if all of the super liberals are the world’s artists creating new realities. We are their media . . . the canvas they master, the stage that they set. We are their print; we are their creation.

      It’s quite ironic that these artists are destroying the art of another artist, one that spoke of truths and mirrored the reality of their time as they observed it. These artists, they destroy so that they may recreate at the expense of others.

      Think of that . . . the liberal mind finds creativity in that which it destroys and then still calls it art, and considers itself its Creator . . . Irony, contradiction . . . liberalism.

      Report Post »  
    • 123gone
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:14am

      The terms in the book reflect the time in which it was written, Period! They should NOT be changed.

      I still think Little Black Sambo was a great story. These, and other stories like them are a big part of Black History and our American Heritage. Anyone who would ban them or attempt to change them is far more bigoted than the KKK.

      Report Post »  
    • Sgt.Crust
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:22am

      hey pencil neck, I am praying hard for you too, just remember Jesus loves you too!

      Report Post »  
    • independentvoteril
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:27am

      Just went to AMAZON and got a copy with all the words in it.. so my GRANDKIDS can read the REAL way it was written.. I have had to do that with several books.. last Christmas I got 2 golden books I read as a child.. SURPRISE DOLL and LITTLE BLACK SAMBO before they took them off the market too.. LOL.. I don’t think they would have taken the first one off but I am sure THEY will be after the second one soon..

      Report Post » independentvoteril  
    • Curator_JDR
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:33am

      PC run amok only dumbs people down and sets up a victim class. Funny, the N word (I’m not even allowed to write it although I never use it) is prevalent in the parts of African-American culture that would SCREAM racism is a white person used the word.

      This animates short feature exposes the insanity of Progressives with big time humor. http://www.marcrubin.com/hairmerica.ivnu An instant classic.

      Report Post » Curator_JDR  
    • PubliusPencilman
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:45am

      Thanks for the prayers Crust, but I would rather have you spend your time outside of the looney bubble you’re stuck in.

      Report Post »  
    • mrlogan3
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:53am

      @ishka4me, song of the south is actually really racist, not historical at all, it has it’s origins in the minstrel song “Zip Coon.” As far as censoring Huckleberry Fin, it’s ok if it allows more schools to read this classic, but if it’s just pc run rampant this is a bad thing. I’m a black person who looks down upon the recreational use of the n word, but in a historical context such as literature, it’s ok to say the word. Hopefully, good teachers who use this edition will tell their classes about the real language of the era.

      Report Post » TRUTH  
    • Marcobob69
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:59am

      I agree with you wholeheartedly SNOWLEOPARD3200!!! Political correctness has got to go, it’s killing the country(along with the progressive movement)! OR “bowel” movement, same thing!

      Report Post »  
    • untameable-kate
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 12:01pm

      Pencilman, I don’t care one way or the other what his politics are, censoring classical literature is uncalled for. Now should we ban the use of the F word? How about all racial slurs? Do we remove the N word from Roots?

      Report Post » Untameable-kate  
    • Trance
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 12:17pm

      I didn’t even know “half-breed” was considered offensive. I guess my two little “half-blood” daughters won’t be hearing me say that anymore.

      Report Post » Trance  
    • Docrow
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:01pm

      Little Black Sambo

      I don’t think we should judge people in history by today standards (or there lack of) nor should we censor history. Also wonder what people will be saying about us 100 years from now?

      Report Post » Docrow  
    • Taquoshi
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:27pm

      Actually, I think if this is clearly stated on the cover that it is an “ABRIDGED” or “SANITIZED” version of the book, six to one, half a dozen to the other, kids will be looking for an original to see what was cut out. They‘lll be disappointed because it’s nothing they haven’t heard before.

      It is a major disservice to Twain, as an author, and to the work as a classic. Like others, I wonder why it’s okay to have rap and hip hop which flung around objectional terms like so much confetti, but this is not “OK”.

      My other question is why it’s okay to have some of the modern day “classics” in the middle school libraries that have explicit sexual terms, but Huck Finn is a major problem. A member of our community stood up at a Board meeting and read two paragraphs about sexual acts out of some new “trendy” library book from one of our middle schools and quite truthfully, after the first sentence or two I wanted to crawl under the table from embarassment. It was awful. When he asked why, he was told that this was the way “kids talk today”.

      So, you know what? I think they can handle a few “N” words and other words scattered in a classic, simply because they are probably hearing on the radio, on their iPods, out of their friend’s mouths and sometimes, even reading it in the school library books.

      Report Post » Taquoshi  
    • jmanuola
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:41pm

      I’m offended by movies using the F-word or showing naked bodies or inferring that my God doesn’t exist or whatever….WE DO NOT LIVE WITH THE RIGHT not TO BE OFFENDED. Jees/

      Report Post »  
    • Ben
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:50pm

      ishka4me, in case you don’t know Song of the South is not available in this country. I bought it from Disney in France via an eBay reseller when my daughter asked for it for Christmas a couple of years ago.

      Report Post » Ben  
    • jorge_washington
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 3:07pm

      “Why wouldn’t they want to preserve this history so it can be seen how much the black population has overcome? Erasing history doesn’t change history.”

      Removing the “N-word” from any text, be it historical or not is not changing history no more than removing signs from restaurants and other businesses that once said “Whites Only”. This period in American history is still vivid in many people’s mind as well as being documented in text boxes and media. When is the last time you read this work? When is the last time you heard the N-word used? Unfortunately, black people in America still top the charts in poverty, prison population and little education.

      Questioning with boldness.

      Report Post »  
    • jorge_washington
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 3:15pm

      “Once again the Progressives are rewriting history of this great land, we have made severe mistakes in the past and need to learn the truth of them, so as to avoid repeating them. This PC garbage has to end once and for all.”

      Can you give an example of progressives rewriting history? If you’re not sure what rewriting of history is, you may want to see what the Texas school board did when it revised it’s school books regarding history.

      Questioning with boldness.

      Report Post »  
    • Clive
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 3:31pm

      PubliusPencilman, you are barking up the wrong tree here buddy.
      Telling these people to actually read and research something before they start yelling is asking a bit much. They like calling our president a “half breed” and smelling their fingers.

      Report Post »  
    • american1st
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 3:59pm

      info@newsouthbooks.com complain to the publisher

      Report Post » american1st  
    • oldoldtimer
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 4:35pm

      Uncle Remius Tales and Uncle Toms Cabin are next. This PC BS is destroying our history and heritage. We need to be reminded of our mistakes so we do not repeat them.

      Report Post »  
    • gwinfrey
      Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:31pm

      Most certainly! An even more racist attack! So what if we change the intent of the authors, they didn’t know what they were doing. “”"“Just kidding””"” It is really hard to play the liberal progressive! I have to lie too much!

      Report Post »  
    • Chuck Biscuits
      Posted on January 6, 2011 at 12:56am

      does this mean I have to start calling those things in the bowl brazil nuts?

      Report Post »  
    • easyed598
      Posted on January 6, 2011 at 9:14am

      Read Huckleberry Finn several times as a kid-Excellent portrayal of life during that time. Would hate to see that destroyed by Liberal PC. Amos and Andy was a very funny TV show in early 50`s but liberal PC has made showing those films a racial issue. Welcome to Obamaworld.

      Report Post »  
    • oldoldtimer
      Posted on January 6, 2011 at 9:45am

      Changing our history and our heritage one word at a time.

      Report Post »  
    • godlovinmom
      Posted on January 6, 2011 at 2:40pm

      whats next censoring MTV…because every other video has these words in them…how about censoring those darn commercials for ladies vibrators…talk about gross…watching TV with my daughter has become a full time job…most of the time we have to turn it off…

      Report Post » godlovinmom  
    • TheGoverness
      Posted on January 7, 2011 at 10:29am

      @ishka4me
      If I’m not mistaken the movie Song of the South was in fact banned in the US. I know that you can find it now (thanks to the internet!) but Disney will NEVER rerelease that movie, so I think one can only get bootleg DVDs off of the old VHS copies.
      fact check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_South

      Report Post » TheGoverness  
    • SnowballDidIt
      Posted on January 7, 2011 at 8:25pm

      Ishka4me – have you SEEN a copy of Song of the South lately?

      Report Post »  
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