Heck I ain't angered up none, jus wishin folk could talk plain like, mayhap put hurt behin'em.

Pete

Last thing of his that I read was "The Innocents Abroad" should be around here somewhere.

Problem is that it takes two to put the hurt behind them, the ones hurt and the ones doing the hurting. We have not got there yet.:o

I've got this set in my bookcase. It's been a while since I read through it though.

(Not a picture of my actual set, this pic is borrowed from the 'net.)

It is the Author's Edition of The Complete Works of Mark Twain.

Do you remember Clintons' Town Hall meetings on race? They were a disaster. Hilarious some though.

What shut them down was a blue collar white guy got the mic and started talking about black stereotypes. The ivy crowd was horrified, but when he was forcibly taken out the black folks wanted him to continue - they wanted to talk about it.

Pete

Tom Sawyer fine for 5th or 6th Graders. Huck Finn for senior year HS.

'Nigger' or any other ward is not magic. But it exists, and it's a marker for some heavy stuff in the culture. Used with intent it's a bad insult, but that's anything but a reason to make the word itself into a big hairy taboo. Huck Finn opens a way for kids to spend some time thinking about all that.

The whole PC gripe boils down to some people resenting being told they are not supposed to go around insulting other people.

Is there any issue of greater substance here?

I feel like insulting folks based on geographic area. Black, white, red, brown, purple, green, doesn't matter.

Talking of vernacular, I have an old book by Rye & Niley 'Wit and Humor' that can be outrageously funny. It gets tiring though. One author that doesn't is Will James.

Pete

Oh, add in resentment at the implication it's not OK to think badly of broad swaths of 'other' folks.

well

are some wanting it taught because its a great book?
or are some wanting it taught because it uses the n word.

that is the context facing a school board