[Free ThinkerNY]

[livius]

Bambi’s NOT an “African American.” He’s not even an American.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Didn’t the lefties want to lynch Governor Palin for this a couple of months ago?

[KosmicKitty]

African American mothers

Wonder if they ever listened to what was coming out of their kids' mouths

[mrsmel]

One man’s poison and all that. I would keep novels containing graphic sex and violence out of schools. Those are for adults (if they so choose to put the garbage into their minds). This used to be common sense, self-evident, but everything’s backwards now. When trash like “The Color Purple” is considered “literature”, but Mark Twain is not, you know everything’s backwards.

[AuntB]

God help us.

Thank you, Sam Clemens. No, we haven't learned a thing. I bet you thought we'd be more civilized by now.

"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Mark Twain

[SandRat]

[ReeseBN38416]

"Why not replace it with a more modern, less discomfiting novel documenting the epic journey of discovery?

Why gosh, I'll just bet he'd prefer having his class read something like "Dreams of My Father."

[RichInOC]

I expel a John Foley every morning.

[Domandred]

Let the PC book burnings begin!

[tbpiper]

I predict that Barry and friends are going to put the ‘igger’ back in the ‘N’ word for a lot of people. It's a damn same that the first black president had to be him. There are a lot better black folks than him. On a day tht celebrates Martin Luther King, we have the sad prospect of inaugurating a president who was elected not for the content of his character but mainly for the color of his skin.

[olezip]

For years, English teachers have been explaining away the obvious racism in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." And for years, the book that perhaps best explains Americans' genetic predilection for hitting the road, only to later find themselves, has stayed near the top of many high school reading lists.

My question to the class: "Is using the "n" word necessarily racist? Understanding and appreciating the context of words in a classic novel could be very useful to students learning about themselves and US cultural history. Today there many meanings of the "n" word, usually negative but not necessarily racist. The preoccupation with the use of certain words reflects more on the perpetrators than on their biased understanding of the originators, IMO.

[Natural Law]

"John Foley figures he has pretty much maxed out on explaining to African American mothers why it's OK to call a black man the N-word....."

Because it is an accurate historical depiction of the times and language used then. To deny all children a peek into the times would be like denying that slavery and racism once existed in our country.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Teacher wants to expel Huck Finn

Well, not really. He admits that he no longer knows how to teach that and other classics to today's young heads-full-of-mush, and they aren't interested in it, and he's using "offensive language," demaning portrayals of blacks, and dialect as his excuse. Best to stick with comic books, I guess.

I'm glad that the article at least captures what everyone with any kind of literacy knows about "Huckleberry Finn" -- and that is that Jim is one of the few completely moral characters in the book, and is its hero. In that context, the use of "nigger" in reference to him is even more despicable. Twain knew that. That was the point.

[mlo]

Have the read the damn book? It is not racist. It speaks the way it does because that’s how they spoke at that time and place.

The main supporting character is a runaway slave. Huck and Jim talk about the absurdities of slavery. *It’s an anti-slavery, anti-racist book!*

Idiots.

[ApplegateRanch]

Did they ever read Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Why or why not is the same language/stereotypes okay in the one, but not the other?

If they have no concept of ‘where they came from’, then how are they supposed to know how to get to where they want to go?

In point of fact, Twain’s books are a very good snapshot of the prevailing attitudes and language of the times and places prtrayed.

I would be more interested in hearing those same African American mothers explaining why it is okay for their kids and thair kids’ favorite rappers to use the same terminolgy at each other.

[Savage Beast]

Gee--in my opinion, Huckleberry Finn is anti-racist as well as anti-slavery. What I find objectionable is Samuel Clement's horrible "negro dialect" and the sloppy and uninspired second half of the book. Huck is truly an epic hero in the persona of a neglected and abused waif, and the book reaches epic magnitude and beauty, e.g. "the sky looks ever so deep when you lay on you back in the moonshine", "She was deef. The po' little thing was deef.", and, especially: "Okay. So I'll go to hell," as epic hero Huck readily walks into the gates of hell rather than betray Jim--and himself. (I'm quoting from memory, as most people well readly know.) But some of the book is downright corny.

[Paleo Conservative]

For years, English teachers have been explaining away the obvious racism in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." And for years, the book that perhaps best explains Americans' genetic predilection for hitting the road, only to later find themselves, has stayed near the top of many high school reading lists.

Twain accurately portrayed the racism of his charcters in order to mock them.

[Iron Munro]

[wideminded]

Reporting from Ridgefield, Wash. -- John Foley figures he has pretty much maxed out on explaining to African American mothers why it's OK to call a black man the N-word

I have very good information that this doesn't come up very often at his school. Maybe that actually makes it a more sensitive issue.

Some years ago I read Huckleberry Finn to one of my kids and I became aware of another problem with this book. In a number of parts it reads as though Twain was rushing to finish a chapter, as if he just wanted to get a certain amount of writing done so he could go do something else.