Censoring the Classics

This was originally published at http://uco360.com/blogs/censoring-the-classics/ on Jan. 13.

Some say the classics never go out of style, but they do. However, one reason something is considered a classic is because its lessons are not only timeless but also get stronger with age, even if its language or technique becomes offensive or passé.

That is why Professor Alan Gribben of Auburn University and Alabama-based publishing company NewSouthBooks’ decision to edit the “N-word” and the word “injun” from Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” is an affront to the education of American students.

Gribben et al. may have good intentions for changing the “N-word” to “slave” (219 times) and “injun” to “Indian,” he said doing so will make them more appealing to students who are reading less than ever. However, it results in nothing more than a mousy attempt to censor and soften the sharp edges of racism that have shaped our country.

This is not just about censorship; this is about us confronting a disturbing past and having an honest conversation about race in America. This is about us valuing art and learning the lessons it provides.

Huck Finn, like all classics, offers a connection to a lost time and a small glimpse into the reality and lifestyles of our ancestors. They give us a historical context and subsequently provide new avenues for self-examination that may not have been originally intended by its creator. Changing Twain’s work allows us to ignore the work we need to do as a country to overcome racism.

Some claim this is not censorship in its truest form because Gribben has not changed every copy of Huck Finn and is simply offering students a safer alternative. Censorship can never be justified, in any form and having an “alternative” is pointless unless it is taught alongside the original.

With this ham-fisted logic we could gloss over the American Revolution as a quaint trade of power between Britain and the American colonies and change Shakespeare’s writing so that its not over-rated and wrought with incest and trite love stories. Why stop there? Let’s just burn all the books that make us uncomfortable.

Some argue that we do not need to read the “N-word” 219 times to know that it is hurtful. This may be true, but it effectively conveys the harshness of the word. I’m sure African-Americans did not need to hear the word every time they spoke to a white person to know they were subjugated and deemed inferior, but it drove home that point.

Twain chose every word for a reason. Words like the “N-word” provide students with the brutal reality of what was normal in interracial interaction at the time. Even though the two characters in the novel were friends, the element of race persisted. It was their truth, their reality. Removing the word removes the reality of racism and the over-arching lesson that cooperation and good can be achieved in the face of ignorance.

Stewards of education, like Gribben, should know to leave the truth alone and not edit the classics.