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IJUSTWANNANOTGETBANNEDAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:21am
One slight addendum in your listing of Trump’s racist past. Trump maintained that the Central Park Five were guilty even after they were cleared, so by simple logic, he is still calling for them to receive the death penalty.
And there is not a single white person in the history of the United States that says the sort of dog whistle (bullhorn) things Trump says in public that doesn’t use the n-word in private. That person, literally, does not exist.
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decgeekAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:10am
Going to be hard to teach it when school districts are banning books by Twain, Harper Lee and other writers where the word was used in their work or just purchasing reprints where the word has been changed to some other less offensive term.
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MajorBurnAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:46am
While Twain painted Jim as an honest and noble man; (contrasting with some pretty cruel and villainous whites) whose appelation is meant to be ironic; given his nature, “Injun Joe” in The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, does not enjoy the same treatment. Further, many of his character flaws are blamed on his “evil Indian Nature”. Also Jim’s speech patterns seem to be played up for comedy, that is one heck of a patois.
I would personally object to having the book pulled from school reading lists. Twain was pretty progressive for his time, but he still managed to absorb and keep some of the common stereotypical, marginalizing views of his day. I’d rather discuss that afterwards in a classroom setting, with a focus on how the book may be hurtful and express harmful views of Native Americans/First Nations people.
Also with all the PR and “branding” of popular writers, actors etc today, it’s (IMHO) better for students to have reinforcement of the fact that people are complex and have flaws.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/indians/joe.html
http://progressive.org/op-eds/mark-twain-s-politics-obscured-museum/
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ARP2Andre Perry
8/21/18 11:34am
The problem is that they’re too lazy/afraid to teach the word in its appropriate context. To them it’s not worth the trouble or complaints they will receive to teach it correctly: A black mother objecting to its use without understanding the context in which they’re teaching it; an offended white feminist (because of course she is) who uses all the right PC words and doesn’t want her child to hear it, but retains all the prejudices and fears of a Trump supporter; a racist who isn’t offended by the word, but by the progressive nature of the books that teachers will use to try to teach the context of that word.
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Quantum Jimmies of Pangaean Are Both Russled And Not RussledAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:29am
(US) White fee fees/white tears.
In the right context, that s__t “literarily” can change history.
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Quantum Jimmies of Pangaean Are Both Russled And Not RussledAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:29am
(US) White fee fees/white tears.
In the right context, that s__t “literarily” can change history.
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CorporalTrim'snewaccountbecausethecomputerbrokeAndre Perry
8/21/18 6:38pm
You know, people laugh at trigger warnings, but they’re spectacularly useful here. For context, I’m a white person, a professor of Communication, who started my teaching career in English literature. We didn’t call them trigger warnings back when I started, but there were topics, and words, that needed context and recognition that they caused discomfort, and needed student input before you went on with the conversation as usual. If I was dealing with pornography in a classroom, I told students what was coming and let them leave if they were uncomfortable (oddly, nobody left ;-) ). If I taught a book in which the n-word was used, that was mentioned at the beginning and rules were sorted out. I don’t censor Toni Morrison, because, shit, this is Toni Morrison—but I taught _The Bluest Eye_ in several courses and you can’t and shouldn’t avoid the term. You can, however, talk about it, and even decide on conventions for using it (first general rule: use it in quotations only; in your own speech, and reference to the term, use “the n-word”). My own preference is to talk about it and use the term, but if a black student objected, I’d defer. That person’s pain was more important than my point about censorship, which was already made in the discussion and we could move forward with a “n-bleep” noise when reading quotations if necessary (I am perfectly willing to be awkward as fuck in the classroom).
This isn’t unusual, and I learned this from an otherwise spectacularly tone-deaf mentor. It isn’t hard to do and I don’t see why anyone with any credentials can’t figure it out.
That said, if you come to a Chaucer class and get upset with the word “cunt” I don’t know if you should be there (this one still galls me ;-) ).
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Platypus ManAndre Perry
8/21/18 10:37am
The only mention of the n word that I can recall in my (largely white) education history was when we were about to read Huck Finn in 11th grade, the teacher said there was some presently-inappropriate language in the book and if that made anyone uncomfortable they could opt out. No one did. But I also don’t recall anyone saying it out loud in class.
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roadkillembeddqwertyAndre Perry
8/21/18 12:34pm
Yet Brown wasn’t fired because he uttered the n-word. He was fired because he didn’t know how to properly teach it.
Finally. Because while I felt that teacher was EXTREMELY disrespectful to his students. I was really uncomfortable with the amount of people commenting that it should never be used in the classroom. It just needs to be contextualized.
There is no escaping the fact that teachers must use the n-word. But how they use it makes all the difference.
Exactly.
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MarilynAndre Perry
8/21/18 12:23pm
It comes from the slave trade, and the "gg" comes specifically from the Dutch slave trade.
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