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LinnaeaBorealis -> RE: The Cleansing of Huckleberry Finn (1/7/2011 4:48:29 AM)
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Really, Butch? Much "to do" about nothing? Apparently you haven't read Shakespeare.
I find it interesting that when there is a debate on here about what is or isn't racist, it tends to be mostly white folk who chime in. So I was very happy to see comments from the 2 Black men. If their feelings about this issue represent Black people as a whole, it appears that changing Twain's words is simply to assuage white guilt. And I agree with their points of view. But I'm not Black, at least not on the outside. LOL I didn't grow up Black, I haven't experienced what it's like to be Black in this culture, I've only observed it from a position of white (relative) privilege.
I think that it is a travesty to take classic literature & update it so that it is meaningful & not uncomfortable for the masses of today. However, it happens all the time. Look at the modern versions of Shakespeare's plays which come out of Hollywood. But those are movies, or even films, if you wish. This is a book, written about a different era in our history. How can we teach our children to not repeat history if we don't teach them the reality of that history?
Yes, I grew up during a time of segregation in this country. It was not pretty and the one black kid in my elementary school was teased & taunted & was a very angry young boy. I didn't understand it at the time. I was raised to not be racist, but they didn't want me to marry one. I saw the news when they took fire hoses to the black people in the South who were in the forefront of the Civil Rights movement. I think that it's unfortunate that today many of our offspring & their offspring have no idea of the struggle that this nation went through to get to this point in our history.
I wonder if they will take the violence of the Civil War out of Stephen Crane's work?
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