Celebrating with Censorship

I've been pretty silent so far about the Huck Finn N-word removal story that was recently in the news, and I figured, what better day to talk about it than MLKJ Day?  So, here's my take, as a writer, as a white person, as a woman, as a Christian, as an American, and as me, specifically.

There are things in the history of "my people" that I wish I could blot out.  Things I would love to erase and replace with happier things.  I can't do that.  There are things in the short 10 years of my adulthood that would be great to erase and replace as well.  But I can't.  Even if I could do that, to remove those parts would be to change who I am today.

I've been one to stereotype.  I've discriminated against people. I even dropped the N-bomb.  And I don't mean when singing lyrics to a song when I'm by myself in the car.  I said it to a person, about him.

I've also been on the other side of the table.  I've been discriminated against.  I've been abused and mistreated and even went back to the one who did that to me.  I've been cheated on.  I've been lied to and lied about.

Now, by no way am I saying that I personally have had to endure anything like the segregation, mistreatment, or hardships that blacks have.  I suppose I'm just saying that there are things that have happened in my own history of adulthood that are uncomfortable to talk about.  That doesn't mean you change the words to make it sound nicer.  That means when you talk about it, you use it as a learning point or teaching point to see where you've been and how far you've come.

Our nation has set aside this day to celebrate the life of a black man who took massive strides to ensure that all people will be treated fairly.  And while there is still a long way ahead of us, we've certainly come a long way from the time when my mom was in her twenties, which was when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and we've certainly come a long way from 1884, which was when Huckleberry Finn was first published.

I can see major changes in my life from how I was 10 years ago to how I am now.  And while I try not to dwell on my past, I'm not closed off about it, either.  I don't use prettier or more acceptable words when explaining what's happened to me or what's happened to others because those parts of our history (whether our own or our country's) aren't pretty and aren't acceptable, but they're accurate.

A dear friend of mine, Kailei Higginson, who happens to be one of my favorite black men that I know, said as we were discussing this issue "history is dirty and pretty at the same time. . . The removal of the word 'nigger' is offensive to me.  It's like saying my history didn't happen."  I feel the same.  I'm horrified by some of the things that have happened in this country.  However, I'm not going to act like it hasn't happened.

I suppose that if people are so afraid to talk about the uglier parts of our history when reading classic lit to our children or just afraid to face it when reading it for themselves, then go ahead and change the words for them, but then the book should be labeled as an adaptation, perhaps The Adaptation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn by The Society to Produce a Prettier, Politically Correct History, and not pawned off as "the real thing".

Some people are content with a generic, watered-down version of life or books or what have you.  I am not.  I prefer the full flavor of a book and of my life, even though that flavor is sometimes sour or bitter.