The contreversial ‘N’ word in Huck Fin 3/2/2011

My favorite part of ‘tombstone’ is when Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) met Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn).  Ringo was expecting Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) for a duel but Doc Holiday showed up instead.  And that’s when he said, “I’ll be your huckleberry!” What does huckleberry mean? According to wikipedia, it means ‘one is just the right person for a given job.’ What does this have to do with Huckleberry fin written by Mark Twain? Nothing.   I rented tombstone last weekend and the word huckleberry stuck.  In Mark Twain’s book Huckleberry fin, he uses the racial slur nigger to describe black slaves during bondage.  Huckleberry fin was first published in England in 1884 then the U.S in 1885.  However, since this book was first published more than a century ago, there has been an academic issue of whether we should keep the word ‘nigger’ in Twain’s book or replace it with the word ‘slave’ or blacks.  That’s why Huckleberry fin is considered an American classical literature.  Twain painted a perfect picture of how ignorant society was like during the pre-civil war in the south.   Today the word nigger, which is commonly spelled as ‘nigga’ is used loosely among African Americans.  Back then, it was considered an apporiate racial slur among the whites towards the blacks.  Therefore,  i’d vote to keep the ‘n’ word in Twain’s novel because Mark Twain potrays realism.  Removing it means slavery in America never happened, which is ignorant.   Personally, i don’t feel comfortable using the term but as a dark skinned south pacific islander, i can relate to what it’s like to be an African American in the U.S.  Well that will be my next contreversial topic 🙂