Keep Nigger in Huckleberry Finn

The word "Nigger" is a powerful word, but as a word, it's meaning is only offensive in its use. To any of my friends and family that are offended by this easy, I apologize: sometimes a common end requires that we take different paths. "Nigger," as used by Mark Twain was not an accident. The language in Huckleberry Finn was deliberate, as was most all of Twain's work. Satire and social comment was at the core of Clemens himself. "Nigger" was deliberate.

There is a move on to teach Huckleberry Finn in schools with the word "Nigger" replaced with the word "Slave." This is absurd, slave is a weak representation of the real and offensive meaning of "Nigger." By replacing "Nigger" with "Slave" we diminish the real problem with slavery in the USA. Today, "Nigger" represents nothing more than a hateful racial slur, contextually nothing more or less than kike, wop, or mic. In the time of Twain, it was more. Much, much more!!!

The Dred Scott decision was in 1857 and Huckleberry Finn was published in 1885. In the time of publication of Finn, the hearts and minds of those that what some would call a person and what others would call "property" was not settled. "Nigger" was not particularly hateful at the time, it was a label given to something that was very much a human being but was not actually a "person." "Nigger" was worse than merely hateful, it was literally dehumanizing. It allowed one class of human beings to be subservient and the property of another. Huckleberry Finn without the word "Nigger" isn't actually "Huckleberry Finn." It is something else. Mark Twain was deliberate and exacting in his choice in words. It was not an accident, and removal diminishes the power and message of the work.