Another step backward for rational discussion of racial relations

I've written here before about race and racial relations, and my view that we'll never actually achieve a "post-racial America" until we learn how to engage in mature discussions of racial distinction without instinctively crying "racism".

This won't help:

What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books' upcoming edition of Mark Twain's seminal novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" will remove all instances of the N-word -- I'll give you a hint, it's not nonesuch -- present in the text and replace it with slave.

The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it.

"Race matters in these books," Gribben told PW. "It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."

No, Alan, it's not.

Pardon the unfortunate expression, but you can't whitewash history. Part of the reason you read Huck Finn in the first place is to gain a window into history, into a time where this simply was the way that people spoke and related to each other. To gain a proper understanding of our history and where we've come from (and, more importantly, where we're trying to go), you can't pretend that history was different than it was. To do so is irresponsible at its best, extremely dangerous at its worst--those who are ignorant of history are, as we've so often heard, doomed to repeat it.

We can pretend all we want that we've progressed beyond racism in our country, and that President Barack Obama is a symbol of how far we've come. I've done so myself for a very long time, dismissing incidents like the Jena Six debacle as isolated pockets of racism in an otherwise enlightened society. But the fact is that racism is still very much in vogue (much to my own dismay), and in my opinion this is in large part because we continue to refuse to have the difficult conversations that must be had. If we're not mature enough to let our children read books that talk about "niggers" and "Injuns" without becoming red in the face, then we're certainly not mature enough to actually achieve the racial harmony that we pretend to be striving for. Political correctness is a far cry from political equality.

There's plenty of blame to be passed around on this issue, but the one thing I am certain of is that censoring the "n-word" is a transparent attempt to seem progressive and politically correct without actually addressing the underlying discussion. You can't read Huck Finn without thinking and talking about racism, and that's the whole point--reading that book can often lead to a well-reasoned discussion about broader racial issues, but that conversation becomes that much less likely without the inflammatory language. A "Twain expert" like Alan Gribben should know that, but apparently he does not. This is a huge step backward for rational discourse and for "post-racial America". Too bad.

[CNN]