Banned Books!!

Good Evening, my avid readers. Ha, yea right. Anyways, I'm here tonight to talk about how important banning books is. Not very. For this unit in my integrated class, we are reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and talking about the freedoms we have in school and in life. It turns out, that the aforementioned book is one of the most challenged books for schools. Why? Well, if you have read it, you probably noticed the 200+ times the word "nigger" shows up. This, being so blatantly put out, is harmful to a certain demographic. I realize that since I am not black, I don't completely understand the affect this could have on people. However, there are things that offend everyone. This book is meant to be satirical! It shows that a moronic, street urchin, learns that blacks are people too. Therefore, implying that everyone else who doesn't realize this, must be even stupider than Huck Finn. Sure, you can watch Mind of Mencia, he throws out racial slurs every 30 seconds, and it's funny. Yes, there is a painful past, and still a lot of racism in the world, but allowing this accurate piece of literature to still harm people, even though it is meant to ridicule the oppressors, is not progress. In an article we read in the class, a man said that the African American race needs to respect itself before others will respect them. Complaining about a book written almost 130 years is not going to gain respect for yourself. Eventually, the word will leave the vocabulary, if they put on some tougher skin, and not let it get to them. Most literature has some kind of bias, and can hurt anyone. Should we ban the history books, because a jewish student seeing a swastika could be offended and hurt because of the holocaust? Anything can be offensive, Huck Finn just makes it more blatant. In all reality, it was reality. The book accurately portrays the way people thought of blacks. If all students could read was books that were completely unbiased and unoffensive, they would see the world as a peaceful place. It's not, there is prejudice for anything. The clothing you wear, the way you walk, the music you listen to, hair color, anything. The fact that blacks use the word with each other, only keeps it alive. The fact that Huck Finn is so challenged for it's use of the word, keeps it alive. Pico v. Island Trees states that a book may be banned for being vulgar. It cannot, however, be banned for being unpopular. It's all up to perspective. I see it as neither vulgar or unpopular. I believe it is just another word, but it's the meaning an idividual puts behind it that makes it offensive. Slavery, and oppressing blacks was wrong, but it's time that we leave that ugly past behind, and start off with a new page.