The erasure of the word "N*gger" in Twain’s text, seems more an attempt to obscure the history that produced the word in the first place.
Don't Take The 'Ni**er Jim' Out My Story
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
“Radio, don’t take the 'ni**er' out my song" -- R. Kelly, “I Wish” (Remix)
A few years ago, R. Kelly released a remix of his popular song “I Wish.” As the song comes to a close, he utters the above phrase. What might seem like an odd choice, in a song that essentially eulogized a dead friend, his mother and in some ways his innocence, was an attempt by the popular singer to acknowledge that the word “ni**er” has many meanings, and in this instance, it was a term of endearment directed toward a dead friend.
One wonders how Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain would feel about the current decision, by NewSouth Books to publish an edited volume of Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, minus the word “ni**er” (it appears more than 200 times). Twain is recognized as one of the first great American writers, precisely, because he understood the role that vernacular language played in American society in the 19th Century -- and the word “ni**er” was a critical component of that vernacular.
In a society in which Black-face minstrelsy was the popular culture of the day and one could purchase a puzzle called “Chopped Up Ni**ers,” Twain’s use of the word “ni**er” to describe “Miss Watson’s big ni**er,” Jim, is absolutely reflective of the time that it was produced. Published in the United States in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chronicles life in the Midwest, two decades before the emancipation proclamation.
But Twain’s use was more than reflective; he was also offering comment on the institution of slavery and its lingering impact in the years just after emancipation. As Jabari Asim notes in his recent book The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why, “on many occasions Twain puts his most racist venom in the mouth of his most ignorant characters.” Twain needed the word “ni**er” to mock the system that would equate the word with the very limits of Black Humanity.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com
Don't Take The 'Ni**er Jim' Out My Story
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21
“Radio, don’t take the 'ni**er' out my song" -- R. Kelly, “I Wish” (Remix)
A few years ago, R. Kelly released a remix of his popular song “I Wish.” As the song comes to a close, he utters the above phrase. What might seem like an odd choice, in a song that essentially eulogized a dead friend, his mother and in some ways his innocence, was an attempt by the popular singer to acknowledge that the word “ni**er” has many meanings, and in this instance, it was a term of endearment directed toward a dead friend.
One wonders how Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain would feel about the current decision, by NewSouth Books to publish an edited volume of Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, minus the word “ni**er” (it appears more than 200 times). Twain is recognized as one of the first great American writers, precisely, because he understood the role that vernacular language played in American society in the 19th Century -- and the word “ni**er” was a critical component of that vernacular.
In a society in which Black-face minstrelsy was the popular culture of the day and one could purchase a puzzle called “Chopped Up Ni**ers,” Twain’s use of the word “ni**er” to describe “Miss Watson’s big ni**er,” Jim, is absolutely reflective of the time that it was produced. Published in the United States in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chronicles life in the Midwest, two decades before the emancipation proclamation.
But Twain’s use was more than reflective; he was also offering comment on the institution of slavery and its lingering impact in the years just after emancipation. As Jabari Asim notes in his recent book The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why, “on many occasions Twain puts his most racist venom in the mouth of his most ignorant characters.” Twain needed the word “ni**er” to mock the system that would equate the word with the very limits of Black Humanity.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com
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