A Little More on Huck...

Last week I talked a bit about the new version of Huck Finn coming out soon, in which the "N-word" is replaced by "slave," and "Injun" by "Indian."  The horrible racism of the time depicted in the story would, of course, remain, but it would be told with less offensive language.  I questioned the motives behind this change.  A friend of mine who is African American shared his feelings about the issue, and put his finger on what I was trying to say.  I thought I'd share his words here (with his permission, of course):

"I don't think this controversy is really about black people at all. I really don't think America cares enough about the opinions or feelings of black people for this to be on their radar. I think this is more about white people feeling awkward about their use of the word. Besides, if you're looking to be offended, try to ignore the thousand times the word is used and look at the depiction of Jim...that's pretty offensive on its own."

Language is important -- I believe that.  But racism is not only about language.  It's about policies and real estate values and schools.  It's about expectations and opportunity.  It's about remembering the past the way it was, not in some sanitized version that makes whites feel less guilty.

But remembering the past, even through an uncensored version of a book like Huck Finn, isn't enough, as far as I'm concerned.  My kids read Huck Finn (uncensored) in our mostly white, suburban high school. They learned, from their white teachers, about racism and how terrible it was.  What they didn't learn through the reading of that novel, or in any other way that I can tell, is how the legacy of discrimination continues to impact people today.  They discussed racism as a past social problem, as something that was solved by the Civil Rights Movement. In their minds, racism ended when Rosa Parks sat down in the front of the bus.  Don't get me wrong, works of history and historical fiction are an important and necessary part of education.  But they are not enough.  The timeline can't stop at the "I Had a Dream" speech.  We need to find ways to explore the topic of racism with students in the present tense, not only as a thing of the past.  And, obviously, that can't happen if the teachers think racism is over.

Teachers out there, what do you think?