Ahh sweet censorship; I know thy stench.
The recent ruling by the Powers of Appropriateness in Accomack County deciding that perhaps
they should look again at banning such books as “Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a
Mockingbird” have now shifted their perspective to non-banning. Of course, they should not be
banned.
In most cases, IMO, censorship is at best wrong-headed and at worst the imposition of a
few incompetents over the rest of us somewhat sane people.
It’s outrageous to me that a book like Huck could get shelved because someone’s sensibilities
seizes on a scrap of language, doesn’t take into account how it fits into the theme of the work,
and then extrapolates their unease to such an extent that they feel it best to keep everyone away
from such a thing.
No doubt, they are saving the world from having to actually think.
Huckleberry Finn is a condemnation of racism. Not addressing the very thing that it is
condemning is tantamount to not calling the current anti-social activities that drive things like 9-
11, the Orlando shootings, and the incident in California by its true name: radical Islamic
Terrorism.
And yet, how many people have actually read the darn thing?
People cast about and see a word they don’t like and immediately assume the worst of its use.
But how can you write about an evil thing without defining it? In Twain’s case, most of these
“inappropriate” comments and language are there to prove a point. They cast Huck’s naiveté in
the midst of one of the most horrendous ethical dilemmas of his and our time. Heck, it’s still an
ethical dilemma and it likely won’t get “fixed” until we the people expunge it.
Look how far our country has gotten away from racism to date? How far we have come since
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke his “I have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, and spoke
about having his children judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.”
Sadly, I don’t think we have come very far despite the intervening 55 years.
Racism is a multi-headed beast. It is hidden in our society except when dredged up by various
circumstance. It is also not a one way street. Racists come in all kinds of varieties. It is also a
tool for some who when on the beach see the stone and not the sand it has become.
We all need to do better about race. We all need to be sensitive to others and their feelings when
it comes to race. As a white man, it’s impossible for me to understand that kind of oppression.
In discussion with one of my friends a decade ago, he told me that the problem with being an
African-American is that every morning when he woke up he’d look at his hands and his skin
was still black.
Race is something that we cannot simply set aside like an old suit. We wear it every day. But
ignoring it, or not taking it into account, is fool hardy. Later this week I will turn 62 years old
and if there is one thing that I know it’s that people are good and bad and indifferent. What
really matters is the content of their character.
And to bring that back around to Huck, we need to see what his character says and does and then
we may be able to judge the literature. But if we get caught up in the surface, if we think the suit
is too old, then we may as well not try to make things better. We may as well just wallow in our
own self-pity and think the sun revolves around the Earth
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