N Word In Huckleberry Finn

During the 1880’s African Americans were referred to by a derogatory term given to them by southern slaveholders to make them feel and seem inferior in the eyes of white Americans. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, was a satire of the “civilized” society in which slaveholders lived in, which were actually poisoned with hatred and inequality. In order to keep black and white youth educated and well informed about American history, The “N word” must be kept in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Many parents wish to teach their kids as much as they could and by censoring some parts of history from them, they are depriving their kids of the truth. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the “N” word is used frequently to demonstrate just how poorly regarded African Americans were in a slave culture society. If we trade the “N” word in for slave it would take away from the shock that comes with this derogatory term (Glave). But the reality is that Huck nor any other white character in the story would have never used the word “slave” which would make the book factually incorrect. Also, in order to turn these …show more content…
In the words of Marcus Garvey “A people without the knowledge of their past history, is like a tree without roots.” Many adults say that when they were kids they read the uncensored version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And that they felt uncomfortable because many of the white kids would try to find any excuse to say the “N” word in class (Butler). Although that may be true, it does give the teacher a chance to explain to those white kids that the use of the “N” word is prohibited, rather than having this white child grow up and never truly learn how it feels to be called such a derogatory name