Let's be clear on one thing. This revision is not taking place for some "politically correct" reason, or because some African-American or Native-American was offended. This revision is happening so white people can continue to believe the illusion that nothing wrong ever happened in America's past, ever, especially not at the hands of white people.
Adding, for further evidence of this, look no further today than the U.S. House of Representatives where Republicans who spent an entire election season fetishizing "THE CONSTITUTION" are doing pretty much the same thing to that document that these publishers are doing to Huckleberry Finn and for exactly the same reason.
Also because I happened to have a casual conversation about this yesterday, now would be an appropriate time to once again recommend James Loewen's excellent series of books on the un-teaching of American history.
Update: Pretty good NYT editorial.
We are horrified, and we think most readers, textual purists or not, will be horrified too. The trouble isn’t merely adulterating Twain’s text. It’s also adulterating social, economic and linguistic history. Substituting the word “slave” makes it sound as though all the offense lies in the “n-word” and has nothing to do with the institution of slavery. Worse, it suggests that understanding the truth of the past corrupts modern readers, when, in fact, this new edition is busy corrupting the past.
Also, will these corrupted editions come with some sort of warning label?
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