The 1880s saw the collapse of civil rights for blacks as well as the publication of Huckleberry Finn. This
collapse was an effort to bury the combustible issues Twain raised in his novel. The nation, as well as
Tom Sawyer, was deferring Jim’s freedom in agonizing play. The cyclical attempt to remove the novel
from classrooms extend Jim’s captivity on into each generation of readers.
[…]
In the early eighties I read Huckleberry Finn again, provoked, I believe, by demands to remove the novel
from the libraries and required reading lists of public schools. These efforts were based, it seemed to
me, on a narrow notion of how to handle the offense Mark Twain’s use of the term nigger would
occasion for black students and the corrosive effect it would have on white ones. It struck me as a purist
yet elementary kind of censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children. Amputate
the problem, band-aid the solution. A serious comprehensive discussion of the term by an intelligent
teacher certainly would have benefitted by eighth-grade class and would have spared all of us (a few
blacks, many whites – mostly second-generation immigrant children) some grief.
- Toni Morrison, ‘This Amazing, Troubling Book’ (1999), p. 389
Some might argue that Mister Twain is a product of his environment and is only providing an enjoyable
tale of an adventurous youth privileged by hue. In reality, Mister Twain has authored a novel that
perpetuates the inexplicable, insidious, and heinous sense of entitlement that dominates an entire
society, manifested in the seemingly innate characteristics and dialogues of the fictional, racist, child,
Huck Finn. Many would take umbrage at calling the accomplished author, Mister Mark Twain, a racist
and would consider it tantamount to calling the stars and stripes un-American. I disagree. I believe the
old adage: if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then its probably Mark Twain's rendition of the
duck in question, Huckleberry Finn. Until adulthood, most children do not have to suffer the angst and
trauma of moral ethical dilemmas. However, Mark Twain's pre-Civil War character, Huckleberry Finn, is
not like most children. A product of his environment, Finn is portrayed as a rebellious, oft times
confused, young racist child. Of course, living in this incendiary historical time, Finn's precocious racism
would be accepted and considered admirable to most all of Twain's white readers.
[…]
I realized that my classmates would never feel the visceral, almost palpable frustration I experienced
while reading the racist ideas of a man whose thoughts have been placed in literary perpetuity. This
assignment could have been the catalyst for possible enlightenment, a rare opportunity to provide a
small bridge across the racial divide; instead, even if only dialogically, in Dr. Hamlin's class, Mister Twain
succeeded in keeping the races as segregated as they were in the time that he lived. […] The most
calamitous, gut wrenching moment of class occurred when Dr. Hamlin calmly allowed the word Nigger
to flow from her lips. Unless blessed with large amounts of melanin, one cannot imagine how from zero
to twenty seconds, a trusting smile, willingness to participate, and a steady heartbeat can turn into a
confused grimace, an unwillingness to continue, and overwhelming heartbreak. Feeling lost, abandoned
and betrayed as the lone black trio, we looked from one to the other in utter amazement and shock that
Professor Hamlin had the insensitivity to give this heinous vitriol new life. Unwittingly, she had
empowered and armed the whites in the class with a Weapon of Mass Deconstruction. Not trusting my
own voice, after class, I sent an e-mail to Dr. Hamlin to remind her that the damage of a dropped
guillotine is irreversible. The next day, Professor Hamlin offered a well intentioned ‘don’t do as I do; do
as I say’ speech regarding the use of the (now) "N-word." I appreciated her effort but it was like
relighting the flames of a smoking ember. Even more amazing, the class did not seem to understand Dr.
Hamlin’s need to offer epithetical guidance.
-
‘Racism and Real Life: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the
Undergraduate Survey of American Literature’ Author(s):
Annemarie Hamlin and Constance Joyner Source: The Radical
Teacher, No. 80, TEACHING BEYOND "TOLERANCE" (Winter 2007),
pp. 12-18