AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
Controversial Book On Obama Appears To Have Lifted Key Quote
Walker Recall Effort Struggles To Gain Momentum
N word
Huck Finn, Censorship and the N-Word Controversy
By Delia Lloyd - Politics DailyLONDON -- My 10-year-old came home from school the other day with an assignment from his teacher: write an original story based on the concept of a "shipwreck." He promptly sat down at the dinner table and began composing his opus. It was the story of a "tan-skinned" pirate of Somali origin who hijacks a boat with an AK-47. In broken English, the pirate threatens all the passengers on the ship with his weapon. Then they die. When my son showed me his essay afterward, I was mortified. "You can't write this!" I exclaimed. "You sound like a racist!" I then forced him to expurgate the most ...
Opinion: Let 'Huckleberry Finn' Stand
By not in system - AOL NewsYou've probably heard the news by now: Mark Twain is getting an extreme makeover. An Auburn University professor, Alan Gribben, has decided to whitewash the 219 instances of the N-word right out of "Huckleberry Finn," and while he's at it, he's going to remove "Injun," too, for good measure. The new and supposedly improved version is to be published by NewSouth. The impetus behind it? To get the book back into the many classrooms from which it's been banned in recent years precisely because of those words. Is this a good idea? Short answer? No. Amazon.com "Huckleberry Finn" by ...
Opinion: Mark Twain and the Word That Dares Not Speak Its Name
By not in system - AOL NewsMark Twain's classic "Huckleberry Finn," one of the most frequently banned books in America and one that is increasingly erased from reading lists and curricula across the country, is about to re-emerge in a racially cleansed format that makes it palatable for our oversensitive times, erasing a word I dare not mention, along with its historical significance in the process. The word rhymes with trigger and originated from the Latin word niger, meaning black, and in these politically correct times must be written in a manner I find ridiculous -- its first letter proceeded with a dash and the ...
Opinion: This Isn't the First Time 'Huck Finn' Has Been Targeted
By not in system - AOL NewsAs the news flows to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom about yet another bowdlerization of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," my heart breaks. Pre-emptive censorship harms us on many levels, but the worst damage is done to young readers who are denied access to the richness of classic literature. Our office is all too familiar with "Huck Finn" censorship and "adaptations." The book was banned from some library shelves beginning with its first publication in 1885. Then it was for "vulgarity"; now it is more likely to be targeted because of the ...
Opinion: We Need Good Teaching, Not Censorship
By not in system - AOL NewsMany people are outraged over the news that a publisher is producing an expurgated edition of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for use in schools. As someone who defends free speech for a living, I share the view that this is a very bad idea. But it is important to recognize that the publisher is not trying to corrupt America's greatest novel. It is trying to make it easier to teach. Amazon.com "Huckleberry Finn" is one of the most frequently challenged books in the country. The problem is, how do you use a book like "Huckleberry Finn" in schools? The "N-word" appears more ...
Opinion: Why Mark Twain Can't Win After All These Years
By not in system - AOL NewsPoor old Mark Twain. Dead for a hundred years now, he's recently undergone the two worst kinds of editing that any writer can endure: too much and none at all. I'd have said the two worst kinds of editing that any writer can endure and live, but of course it's too late for that. Too late by a century. We can still hope for the survival of his reputation, though. In spite of the too little editing that he demanded outright, and the too much that he's getting whether he likes it or not. Amazon.com "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is the undisputed fountainhead of American ...
Opinion: Scrubbing 'Huck Finn,' and Our History
By not in system - AOL NewsI, for one, have never endorsed the common use of the phrase "N-word" to replace the offensive racial epithet. For one, it reduces otherwise intelligent conversations about race to something that resembles the way adults spell out hot-button words so that they glide over the heads of innocent children. The recent scrubbing of the word from "Huckleberry Finn" in NewSouth's edition of Mark Twain's classic, replacing it with "slave," seems to be the next logical step in the well-intentioned effort to rid American English of problematic terms. Amazon.com "Huckleberry Finn" explores ...
Ron Franklin Fired, Capt. Owen Honors Relieved of Duty: Has America Become Too PC?
By Yelena Shuster - AOL NewsLooks like sensitivity training should top everyone's list of resolutions for 2011. Three separate news events in the span of just a few days have some people questioning whether political correctness is running amok, or a much-needed societal corrective is under way. Ron Franklin, the veteran ESPN College football commentator, was canned Monday for his comments to Jeannine Edwards, a female sideline reporter whom he derisively called "sweet baby" and an "a**hole." Though Franklin later apologized for saying "some things I shouldn't have," ESPN stuck to its decision. "Adhering to our ...
Student Urinates on Methodist Church, Tells Police 'I'm Catholic'
By Joe Peacock - AOL News(Aug. 24) -- Stop me if you've heard this one. There was once a writer of the finest caliber who was also very handsome. This writer was tasked with covering the story of a Catholic college student who urinated on a Methodist church. When the student was caught by police, he told them, "I'm Catholic." This is a pretty funny topic, the writer thought to himself. Church. Pee. That's funny. The writer used a well-known, funny religious joke to set up the piece. It was a total riot. But this joke did not fly with his editors, who explained that we report news on a site with a demographic ...
Dr. Laura's Next Moves: Sharks, iPhone App, Kung-Fu?
By Steven Hoffer - AOL News(Aug. 20) -- It's a new day in a whole new media world for Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Sure, she just announced her retirement from her popular, long-running radio show, but you really didn't think she would just fade away, now did you? Admittedly, after her live "N-word" outburst last week elicited a wave of criticism, things weren't looking exactly promising for the 15-year radio veteran. But now she's begun a new PR push to show her fans that she regrets the incident and is moving on, starting things off with a candid interview in the Hollywood Reporter on Friday, in which she reveals myriad ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- Irked Senate Panel Votes 30-0 to Cut Pakistan Aid
- GSA Bash Organizer Steps Down
- More Stories »
- Know Your Enemy
- Obama’s Challenge in Egypt
- The Edwards Waiting Game
- Are Doctors Doing Too Much?
- The Pagan Cult of Reagan
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics