Filed under: Race, Class and Society
The Dangers of Revisionist History: Keep Nigger in Mark Twain’s Huck Finn
The recent controversy surrounding Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huck Finn has got me shaking my head with grave concerns. My concern relates to the decision to replace the use of the word nigger with slave. I consider this effort to sanitize the book a dangerous form of revisionist history, which leads us down a road of denial and dishonesty about our national identity. Taking such measures detracts from what made and continues to make this a literary classic, an honest portrayal of American life, even if it makes us uncomfortable. We also run the risk of watering down the realities of what constitutes the American narrative and creates an escape route from dealing with our historical and current issues. All was not good in the land, and Twain knew it!
What makes this a classic to me is the boldness and courage that Mark Twain put forth in this satirical social commentary. It was a critique of America’s absurdities in dealing with the “Negro question-what to do with the recently freed slaves?” The nation was facing some major shifts in its social order and a complete change in the labor supply that fueled our economy. Can you imagine what the conversations were like for business owners who had to go from a free labor supply to having to negotiate labor costs with those who were once enslaved? I imagine the language and the discourse was not too civil and the full n*****r word was commonly used. The Post-Reconstruction Era (1875-1900) was not at all a “gilded age” for those of African descent politically, socially, and economically during our nation’s early stages of recovery from its addiction to free labor. If we feel that the selection of a contemporary references for the aforementioned makes us uncomfortable, well imagine the level of discomfort that African-Americans who were subjected to more than being called nigger had to live under.
Twain was one of the greatest satirist of his day. Huck Finn was Twain’s platform to point out the absurdities of the nation’s failings to treat African-Americans as fellow human beings and provide them equal protections under the law as citizens. His use of the word nigger was not merely a matter of colloquialism. It was an intentional and decisive act and an exercise of his social conscience to draw attention to the prejudices and racism of the times. It is a safe bet that Twain was well aware what the word represented; to belittle, disparage, and generate scorn for an entire segment of the population. This scorn became a part of popular culture and helped usher the adoption of public policies and laws that relegated entire classes of Americans, as second-class citizens for decades far beyond what Twain probably could have imagined. And the impact of this relegation has been lasting.
I can’t speak with certainty about his intentions or know what he harbored in his heart about people of African descent. But his personal philanthropy and advocacy indicates that Twain was indeed guilty of being committed to the cause of social justice. It is documented that Twain provided financial supported for one of Harvard’s first African-American students. He was an out of the closet supporter for Booker T. Washington’s efforts at Tuskegee to build an institution dedicated to the “pull yourself up by your boot straps” mentality that would keep Black folks self-sufficient and limit their reliance on white folks. This was a brilliant strategy to keep them out of harm’s way of white folks with tendencies for lynching. Like it or not that was who we were and a failure to acknowledge this, is to deny our collective American Experience. I am confident that Twain’s word choice of nigger was not intended to denigrate, but was part of his act to shed light on the ugliness of who we were as a nation. In a time of ugliness, Twain was not gentle in his depiction of a not so gentle times. His greatness was he spoke up with his pen to confront issues and left a legacy of making us feeling uncomfortable about who we are as a nation with the hope of provoking us into action. He did his job!
To revise the language he chose is to deny us of a teachable moment that advances learning opportunities about the complexities of our shared strife ridden racial history.
Regards,
Lil Black Man On the Prairie
Here it is, a way to answer what everybody has been asking me? What the heck are you doing in North Dakota? Masked behind this question is the real question on most people’s mind-Why is a black man living in the middle of the country amongst all those white folks and that cold weather?
Well here is my effort to respond to that question and share some of my views on the random events of life, from the 701. It will range from the serious to the not so serious, just my take on the state of things. I have been going back and forth for about a year now debating-should I or should I not do this under the moniker, “Lil Black Man on the Prairie.” I am sensitive to Lil Black Man on the Prairie coming off as “buffoonery” as opposed to a light-hearted attempt to capture the curious and diffuse some of the awkward moments of people’s puzzled looks and people’s lack of having any perception of North Dakota-besides a place where it is cold all the time (believe it or not we get sunlight and warm days from time to time.)
Well judging by the responses and reactions of folks, I am getting over myself and sensitivities in order to give the people what the want; The Lil Black Man On the Prairie Blog. Besides what a better way to describe myself and the place I have called home for the past 3 years with my wife, Cori. She is a North Dakotan-born and raised, who loves her prairie homeland but appreciates the world beyond. You will hear more about her later in these posts. For now all you need to know is she is the one who recruited and signed me up for this experience called North Dakota.
Whenever I am asked why North Dakota, sometimes I feel people’s curiosity and intrigue borders on something more akin to disbelief, skepticism, and in some cases betrayal of the race. Even among North Dakotans there is some skepticism and doubt as to why anyone would chose to live among them. I noticed whenever I began to preface my responses to the puzzled inquirers as to why North Dakota with “I am the Lil Black Man on the Prairie” it seemed to put people at ease and provided an opportunity for segues into some interesting conversations about North Dakota, but revealed more about the “identity crisis of who we are as a nation.” Many of these conversations illuminated for me the depth of isolation and disconnection that prevails among us. Also just how afraid we are of each other as fellow citizens because well- “WE ARE AFRAID BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER.” And because this is a big country to get to know, it requires a little effort to get to know “the who in us.” We as a nation appear to be unwilling or not interested in discovering what occurs beyond our neighborhood. And if we can’t experience it through our television set well forget it.
People don’t know what they don’t know. For me the Lil Black Man on the Prairie blog embodies an opportunity to counter that notion, but present an opportunity of discovery to not just learn more about North Dakota, but my way of overcoming my own fears of connecting with others. So I will be careful to make sure that Lil Black Man on the Prairie doesn’t project only humor and sarcasm, but pensive thought and sometimes outrage as a device to point out some of the ridiculousness of the world as experienced by the Lil Black Man on the Prairie.
