School district removes "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Huck Finn because they contain racial slurs

[davidn3600]

A Virginia school district has pulled copies of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from classrooms and libraries while it weighs whether it should permanently ban the American classics because of the books’ use of racial slurs.

In response to a formal complaint from a parent, Accomack County Public Schools Superintendent Chris Holland said the district has appointed a committee to recommend whether the books should remain in the curriculum and stay in school libraries. District policy calls for the formation of the committee — which can include a principal, teachers and parents — when a parent formally files a complaint.

The parent, Marie Rothstein-Williams, made an emotional plea at a school board meeting Nov. 15, saying the works had disturbed her teenage son, a biracial student at Nandua High School on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

“I’m not disputing this is great literature,” Rothstein-Williams said. “But there is so much racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past that, and right now we are a nation divided as it is.”

School libraries and curriculum are frequent culture war battlegrounds, and it is not uncommon for parents to raise objections to books that many consider classics but that also contain offensive language or mature themes.

Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is the book most often targeted for removal from school classrooms and libraries among the titles the American Library Association tracks. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic set in 1936 Alabama, is also high on the list of works that people seek to remove from schools. Both books use the n-word liberally.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/school-district-weighs-ban-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-huck-finn-after-complaint/2016/12/03/92701c80-b8b0-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html

[nycbos]

1. Jesus

Do these morons realize they can use these books to give lessons about racism?

[MichMary]

3. Even if handled sensitively

the slurs are so pervasive in those books that I'm sure many young people are deeply offended.

It's sad that it's come to this. Both those books are brilliant literature, and rife with moral truths.

[X_Digger]

5. Who the fuck says students have a right to not be offended? n/t

[X_Digger]

4. Fucking special snowflakes.

Turn a teachable moment into a goddamned book banning.

[treestar]

6. But doesn't that show how things were in those days?

We don't want to forget.

Reading Huckleberry Finn, the weirdest part, that showed the mind at the time, was where Huck wondered if he was not doing wrong by the widow for taking her property, Jim. He was depicted as wondering if it were right, the widow had done well by him, and here he was taking her slave, her property. He got over it, but his thinking that at all showed how they thought at that time.

Another strange thing was that the n word almost was not really an insult at that time. The slaves used it too. The tone with which is was used was not ugly.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Is "My Pet Goat" on the approved list?

[busterbrown]

8. I always believed that TKaM

had a message of Compassion and empathy over hate.
I think the educational powers, don’t wanna deal with the issues of racism and hate.

[spanone]

9. what year am i living in?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents

[JonLP24]

11. The controversy behind this book stretches back decades

[spanone]

14. i know this book well....this was eons behind us.....i thought.

so sad ...devolution

[trof]

10. Aw crap.

Tom Sawyer was set in a time about 20 (short) years after the South's surrender/defeat/ass whuppin'.

Nigger Jim is a character in the novel.
"Nigger" is a term that was in very common usage north and south, east and west, upside down, and downside up back then.
And for many years after.
More's the pity.

OK.
WE DON'T DO THAT ANY MORE.
Well, most of us, anyway.


But to denigrate (damn, was that TOO close to the deaded "N" word?) an author's creation just because customs and mores of the time it was written in offends you now is just dumb.

In my humble opinion.
I have given copies of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to My daughter and grandchildren and I think they are better people for having read them.
So there.

[JI7]

13. i read it again recently and Twain was so much ahead of his time

And with trump probably ahead of many living today.

[JI7]

12. Huck Finn was a liberal

[beveeheart]

15. My 10th grade cousin is one of those oppposing the removal

of these books by the Accomack county committee. I have to admit I was very surprised because both he and his mother are very religious.

[romanic]

16. And some wonder why they call it "Generation Snowflake"

Blame the helicopter parents protecting little Billy or Becky from the big bad world.