A new of edition of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in the works. Now, I say that this new novel is in the works, because the publishers New South Books are CHANGING a novel that was first published in the U.S. in 1885. (Yup, that's 125 years ago--and it took me almost that long to do the math.) They're removing the 'n-word' from the entire piece and replacing it with the word slave.
This is a matter of more than syntax. Apparently the reasoning behind this change is that children shouldn't be exposed to language like this in school. I think this kind of language can actually be a teaching tool in itself. The language (and history) of any piece of literature can tell another story complementary to the plot.
Before you read a classical piece of literature like Twain's, you should at least read the preface or foreward. And, really, in this age of technology, start up your iPad and look it up on Wikipedia, for crying out loud! The point is: no one should read a book like this without at least a basic knowledge of the storyline and the author. Context matters.
Reading Huckleberry Finn, you know the time period in which it was written and the time period which it is meant to reflect. In that time in history, words like the 'n-word' were commonplace and were used very practically to describe a group of people. Rather than censoring the 'n-word' from this CLASSIC NOVEL, use it to educate students about the times it describes and about the way the world and our understanding of the word has changed. It is imperative, of course, that students be mature enough to understand the lesson here. I feel like it is a misunderstanding that because Huckleberry Finn is a young boy the book is meant for young children. There are a lot of themes, such as slavery, that are above the understanding of a 7th or 8th grade student. I know I read Tom Sawyer as a 7th grader, and I don't actually think I got much out of it. At that point, I think I was still going by the movie version with Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Tom and Huck...don't pretend you didn't love him!)
Changing the language of this CLASSIC LITERATURE is essentially changing history. If we change everything ever written as the language goes out of style or changes meaning or becomes offensive, we will lose the authentic record of how people were thinking and feeling at that time in history. After all, those cultural artifacts that include art and literature and music are just as important to the study of the past as all of those textbooks that we never read in high school history classes.
I won't even go into the First Amendment values that are being violated here. I think its pretty clear. Freedom of speech, press, expression and all that. Even though good ole Samuel Clemens is dead, he still gets rights, too! But seriously, he had them when he was alive and an American citizen just like the rest of us!
Check out this clip of Steven Colbert on the New York Times website. Also, check out the link at the beginning of the paragraph to read the "Room for Debate" about this issue. http://nyti.ms/hyTDoG
Side note: for the record, Colbert had the best tweet about this BY FAR: It's great that they took the N-word out of "Huckleberry Finn." Now get to work on "Moby D-Word."