Should "Huck Finn" Be Banned in Schools for Its Use of the Forbidden N Word?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Moo2400, Jul 17, 2008.

  1. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    If you want kids to read something, just ban it.
     
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  3. CutsieMarie89 Zen Registered Senior Member

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    I read Huck Finn over the summer between my sophmore and junior year and we never even talked about the "n word" just the the story itself. My freshman year we read Of Mice and Men and my english teacher really just discussed the word to an extent to make sure that no one was overly offended by it (meaning me because I was the only black student in the class). Growing up as always being the only black student in most of my classes I often felt singled out when topics such as the "n word" or slavery was disscussed. I think its a part of American history no matter how often people try to discredit it or talk about it or pretend it doesn't exist or whatever. All children including the descendants of the people mentioned in your books need to just suck it up and listen to other viewpoints besides just sitting and brooding in the corner. You can really learn a lot. At least I did when I stopped acting like I didn't want to hear what they had to say. The disscussion lasting two weeks is a bit excessive it should 1 maybe 2 classes tops. After that I think students who are made uncomfortable by have room to complain, but this is not a good excuse for banning a book, but then I don't really believe in censorship.
     
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  5. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    It should be easy enough

    When considering the cyclical storms surrounding Twain's famous book, I always pause to recall the author's warning, printed at the outset:

    Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

    (Mark Twain)​

    While the warning might seem to make the teaching of Huck Finn problematic, the reality is that it should be easy enough to work around. The story is an American masterpiece, despite its lack of moral or plot. It is only by assigning Twain any motive that a plot is constructed, and only from that false construction can we draw any moral admonition.

    In this sense, the book has tremendous literary value. It is, quite simply, a story. In that context, determinations of plot are left to the reader, and thus we engage the aforementioned cycle. It is best to heed the author's warning.

    In the meantime, as long as people fail to account for the whole of the book, we will continue to have these debates. 'Tis unfortunate, but it also is what we choose. There are plenty of reasons to object to the teaching of Huckleberry Finn, but the most part indict the text because it is much harder to condemn the teacher. If the book is taught poorly—a statistically unavoidable result—it will cause problems.

    The solution, then, is to consider the complaints, compare them against how the book is taught, and use that result as a starting point to adjust the method of presentation.

    • • •​

    Maybe things are different across the Pond, but in the States, we have a custom that might, to some alien anthropologist, seem strange. Within various strata of friendly association, we have the right to insult each other. In one part of my social circle, three former housemates always call one another "fag" or "asshole", "fucker", or any number of rude words. We have a ritual called the "gay-off" (from the word "playoff") in which either a voice on television or someone in the room wins the honor of having spoken the most homosexual double-entendre during a sporting event. Friendly convention contextualizes insults like "sheep fucker" that we would never sling at other people.

    Thus, it seems obvious to me that the difference between a black man calling his friend "nigger" and me calling a black man a nigger is simply a matter of convention and context.

    There doesn't seem to be any deep question about it. But that's just me.
     
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  7. synthesizer-patel Sweep the leg Johnny! Valued Senior Member

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    I love the gay-off - that's hilarious - I must play that - if you're really brave try Gay Chicken - where you and a male buddy have to head towards giving each other a passionate kiss - the first one to back off is the is the loser

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    On a serious note though, I take the point in what you are saying, but there really does seem to be a line drawn by "the N word" for white folks not to cross - I've joked around with some of my black friends with all kinds of racial slurs bouncing back and forth between us, but I'd still never dream of calling one of them nigger - perhaps I'm just an uptight whitey though.

    to lighten the mood here's some satire:

    http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/
     
  8. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Is your mind dirty enough?

    Yikes. Sounds fine by me, but it wouldn't go over with my friends.

    American football is a really good source of gay-off quotes. My own infamous quote came in the closing minutes of the Seattle Seahawks NFC Championship win to send them to the Super Bowl a few years ago. As the end of the game drew closer, I actually said, "I can taste this fucker coming."

    Damn.

    But if you listen closely, you'll hear in that sport all sorts of weird things. Like a running obsession for "hitting the hole". Like, "You see he has the ball secure and he comes up behind, and just pounds the hole. He's been hitting the hole all afternoon."

    Or if you want to just skip the pretense, the last couple UFC events (85 and 86, I think) feature Joe Rogan going on endlessly about how slippery and sweaty the guys in the octagon get. It's almost something you can do as a drinking game.

    Major League Baseball: Dave Niehaus, for the Seattle Mariners, I believe when Richie Sexson made his first appearance against the M's for the Cleveland Indians: "My goodness, that young man is just poured into that uniform."

    A big part of it, of course, is our own dirty minds, but that's also what makes it fun.
     
  9. angrybellsprout paultard since 2002 Registered Senior Member

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    Swing by an education department at your local university, and tell that to them. It is the job of the teacher to take every subject and tie it into the subject at hand as best as they can.
     
  10. synthesizer-patel Sweep the leg Johnny! Valued Senior Member

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    yep - it takes a barve and secure man to play Gay Chicken - a lot of blokes aren't up to it.

    One of the all time classic Gay-off quotes from British sport comes from Cricket.
    England Vs the West Indies 1976.

    "The Bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey"
    referring to bowler Michael Holding bowling to English batsman Peter Willey

    (Willy being British slang for penis in case you didn't know)

    Not a Gay-off quote, but another classic from the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat race:
    "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew," Harry Carpenter on BBC TV.

    (the cox - or coxwain, being the person who calls the stroke count to the rowers on the boat in case you didn't know)
     
  11. kenworth dude...**** it,lets go bowling Registered Senior Member

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    k,i will do.they might be a bit confused at a foreigner telling them how to do their job in broken japanese but ill give it a crack.
     

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