That was the question Lenny Bruce asked a shocked audience one night in 1960. His point - right or wrong - was that "the suppression of the word gives it the power of violence and viciousness." I was thinking about Lenny this morning when I read on the website AlterNet that someone took it upon themselves to remove the "N" word from a new edition of Huckleberry Finn and replaced it with the word "slave".
We cannot start pretending that THAT WORD never existed. It is not only futile, it's kind of silly, don'cha think? Are we expected to burn all copies of Dick Gregory's excellent 1964 autobiography which was called (by the way) "Nigger"? Gregory knew damned well the literary sledgehammer effect of the "N" word. It's a horrible word, no doubt about it. But it's a damned powerful word, too. There are certain places in American literature where not only does it work, it's essential - in Huckleberry Finn for instance. Old Huck was an illiterate, ignorant kid. That's how illiterate, ignorant kids talked in those days. In fact, that's how some of them talk still. To pretend he had the vocabulary of David Copperfield doesn't make any sense.
And, please, let's not forget that Mark Twain is not some re-visioned, nasty old southern bigot. Next to Frederick Douglas, he was the most enlightened human being of his age on the subject of race - and I would include Abraham Lincoln in that assessment.
It's a word; a terrible word, yes, but it's only a word.
That was the question Lenny Bruce asked a shocked audience one night in 1960. His point - right or wrong - was that "the suppression of the word gives it the power of violence and viciousness." I was thinking about Lenny this morning when I read on the website AlterNet that someone took it upon themselves to remove the "N" word from a new edition of Huckleberry Finn and replaced it with the word "slave".
We cannot start pretending that THAT WORD never existed. It is not only futile, it's kind of silly, don'cha think? Are we expected to burn all copies of Dick Gregory's excellent 1964 autobiography which was called (by the way) "Nigger"? Gregory knew damned well the literary sledgehammer effect of the "N" word. It's a horrible word, no doubt about it. But it's a damned powerful word, too. There are certain places in American literature where not only does it work, it's essential - in Huckleberry Finn for instance. Old Huck was an illiterate, ignorant kid. That's how illiterate, ignorant kids talked in those days. In fact, that's how some of them talk still. To pretend he had the vocabulary of David Copperfield doesn't make any sense.
And, please, let's not forget that Mark Twain is not some re-visioned, nasty old southern bigot. Next to Frederick Douglas, he was the most enlightened human being of his age on the subject of race - and I would include Abraham Lincoln in that assessment.
It's a word; a terrible word, yes, but it's only a word.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan