Virginia highschool tempbans two classics for racial slurs

Article

A Virginia school has temporarily banned two American classics after a parent said her high school-age son was negatively impacted by the racial slurs they contain.

The decision to remove "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain and "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee came after a parent filed a complaint, WAVY reported. The parent cited excessive racial slurs as the reason for wanting the books banned, Superintendent Warren Holland told the news station.

The parent, whose son is biracial, said that her concerns are "not even just a black and white thing."

"I keep hearing, 'This is a classic, This is a classic,' ... I understand this is a literature classic. But at some point, I feel that children will not -- or do not -- truly get the classic part -- the literature part, which I'm not disputing," she said at a Nov. 15 school board meeting. "This is great literature. But there (are so many) racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can't get past that."

The parent said her son, who was reading "Huckleberry Finn" for a high school assignment, couldn't get past a certain page in that story on which the N-word appeared seven times.

A racial slur appears 219 times in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and 48 times in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

"So what are we teaching our children? We're validating that these words are acceptable, and they are not acceptable by (any) means," the parent said, also noting psychological effects language has on children. "There is other literature they can use."

The parent proposed a committee made up of parents and teachers of different cultural backgrounds come up with a list of books that are inclusive for all students. She also offered to donate books and raise funds in the case of budgetary concerns.

The complaint, which was "a request for reconsideration of learning resources," will go before a committee made up of a principal, librarian, teacher, parent and potentially others, according to WCMH. The committee will then make a recommendation to the superintendent.

Holland said that there is no set date for when the recommendation will be made.

 

[Ruin]

They banned To Kill A Mockingbird? The entire message of that book is racism is bad. No wonder people are getting dumber.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

>To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn contain racial slurs.

Way to miss the forest for the trees, lady.

 

[Unseemly and Feral]

Surely there's a watered-down-the-slurs-version they can get? I'm surprised if there isn't.

 

[Bassomatic]

This doesn't shock me it's happened before and sadly will again.

Fun fact I REALLY hate Steinbeck, I just want to punch him as I flipped the pages in his novels we had in high school. So I played this card and got to spend my entire year reading Lovecraft. I even got my black friend in on it and he got to read anything he wanted too all year around. Shit was giggles, manipulating the school as wee 10th graders.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Banning classical fiction at any capacity, temporary or not, is hurting one of the few core curricular's that actually help improve your reading and writing. Why the fuck do they think the Newbery Medal is even a thing?

 

[IV 445]

To Kill a Mockingbird was an amazing piece of literature. These English teachers do their profession shame.

Spoiler

I disagreed with certain elements, like the way they portrayed Tom and Atticus as these impossibly righteous pillars of morality with no flaws. That just wasn't very relatable, how perfect and unblemished these two men were. But that's my only critique.

 

[Lackadaisy]

They banned To Kill A Mockingbird? The entire message of that book is racism is bad. No wonder people are getting dumber.

Yeah, the whole point was that race shouldn't have an effect on justice and that misconceptions can hurt people. You'd think SJWs would be all over it (other than the implication that not all white people are evil).

 

[Unseemly and Feral]

When my high school read the Great Gatsby we liked it so much we actually talked about it outside of class. If they get rid of that book that's intellectual starvation.

 

[Lackadaisy]

When my high school read the Great Gatsby we liked it so much we actually talked about it outside of class. If they get rid of that book that's intellectual starvation.

I can't see a racial justification for removing Gatsby though. Maybe commies would want it out of schools.

 

[Unseemly and Feral]

I can't see a racial justification for removing Gatsby though. Maybe commies would want it out of schools.

Tom and his fellow elitists got worried in a scene about 'The Rise of Colored Empires." That's all the justification they need.

 

[Yhwach]

This mother has raised a spineless brat. How can this guy survive in the real world as an adult if reading a few racial slurs triggers him? That boy's going to be a laughingstock at school, so I hope his mom's happy with this.

 

[Unseemly and Feral]

There should be more satirical books out there written to mock SJWs perception of what is offensive. Just take the basic ideas of good stories and PCify them and act like you're such an amazing person for doing it, I bet some of them will adore you.

 

[Spellskite]

I'd be veey curious to see what literature they suggest instead. TKaM is a powerful message against racism and discrimination, I doubt they'll be able to suggest something on par with it if they're worried about offending people.

 

[Euphues Evenlede]

Forgive me MLK for taking the name of Blacks in vain.

It's especially ironic that the two books that were instrumental in the rise of Civil Rights should be the ones subject to such censorship.

This kid's in High School? He can handle the Nigger word. Or does she want her son to grow up to be a faggot?

 

[Coldgrip]

Couldn't they of just banned the Great Gatsby instead? That book was garbage.

 

[Lackadaisy]

If the kid is biracial, is his mother (who requested the ban) black or white?

 

[CWCchange]

The war on American literature in American schools has been ongoing for quite some time now. I'm not surprised outright bans are being issued in a frenzy, with it being Trump's fault and all apparently. Some years back, politically correct versions of Mark Twain's works were proposed by replacing the word n1gger with "slave," "Injun" with Indian, and "half-breed" with half-blood. Frankly, I'm surprised the last term isn't offensive to this retarded mulatto.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Any day I read about how SJWs got triggered by classic literature, I halfway expect to also read that they proceeded to burn the books that offended them.

This person might think she's doing the kids a favor, but ultimately, she fights for ignorrance. If she finds the use of these words offensive and thinks kids should not just be exposed to them, she could verify that the children have enough educational background to understand the context of these books and the words.

FFS, these people want to keep their kids in a precious bubble where nothing "badwrong" may enter, even if it's just a word they disapprove of... and they are naive enough to expect this to somehow improve anything.

 

[Henry Bemis]

Surely there's a watered-down-the-slurs-version they can get? I'm surprised if there isn't.

They exist, or at least new "revised" versions crop up every time this old debate flares up. These versions never catch on.