Feb 07 2007
Out of the mouths of babes: Huck Finn, racism and my daughter
Bumping this back to the top.
Note to all: My daughter is sincerely gratified and slightly overwhelmed at all the positive sentiments expressed here. This blog and her poem has found its way into numerous forums and blogs, and she wishes to say thank you to everyone.
My daughter had an unsettling experience today. Her class is preparing to read Huck Finn, the Mark Twain classic.
As is common these days, the subject of its racially offensive elements came up, in her case in the form of a PBS Documentary involving efforts in other places to remove the book as racist.
It may have been one of these:
http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/hfcoursepack.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/section1_1.html
(it was the second one)
They need not have looked so far, Renton Schools dealt with this in 2003.
Well my daughter is a very open minded, and sensible girl. In the discussion she stated that she felt the protests went too far, and that the book should be read because it contains our history and the reality of what slavery was, and that "we should look in the eye and face it". That only by facing it can we make sure we don’t repeat it. I agree.
The response from her peers was shock. One girl of mixed race noted "Well that’s because you are white" implying the famous "it’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand" defense.
My daughter was called a racist because she wants to look racism in the eye and denounce it.
Huck Finn is offensive, but not because of the "N" word. It is offensive because slavery is offensive as a moral concept. It deals with it openly using the ignorance of the day to show how ignorant and wrong it was.
The irony was that Twain was intending to satirize racism, not induldge it, as anyone who has studied the book should know.
http://www.salwen.com/mtrace.html
But what is the book really about? It’s about nothing less than freedom and the quest for freedom. It’s about a slave who breaks the law and risks his life to win his freedom and be reunited with his family, and a white boy who becomes his friend and helps him escape.
Because of his upbringing, the boy starts out believing that slavery is part of the natural order; but as the story unfolds he wrestles with his conscience, and when the crucial moment comes he decides he will be damned to the flames of hell rather than betray his black friend. And Jim, as Twain presents him, is hardly a caricature. Rather, he is the moral center of the book, a man of courage and nobility, who risks his freedom — risks his life — for the sake of his friend Huck.
Note, too, that it is not just white critics who make this point. Booker T. Washington noted how Twain "succeeded in making his readers feel a genuine respect for ‘Jim,’" and pointed out that Twain, in creating Jim’s character, had "exhibited his sympathy and interest in the masses of the negro people."
The great black novelist Ralph Ellison, too, noted how Twain allows Jim’s "dignity and human capacity" to emerge in the novel.
"Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain [Ellison wrote], that Jim was not only a slave but a human being [and] a symbol of humanity . . . and in freeing Jim, Huck makes a bid to free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for civilization by the town" — in other words, of the abomination of slavery itself.
I heard William Raspberry speak at the NCO Academy in 1992. He asked a fairly hotheaded young black sergeant if he found the sections of the US Constitution that spell out the former treatment of blacks offensive. He did. He then asked the Sgt if he would remove them, expunge them completely? The Sgt said yes.
And William’s response was that he was a class A fool. Because if you take the history of the ills away, then what do you have to help you prevent it from reoccuring? Nothing.
Have not the holocaust deniers shown you how easily a travesty in humanity can be conveniently forgotten?
Back to the school.
My daughter was devastated. My response was anger, but mixed with a sense of futility.
Who could I complain to? No one. No one would take up her standard, and say she was wronged because the other girl’s attitude is the prevailing one in public school.
But as I seethed, my daughter wrote a poem to deal with her anger. I share it with you now.
I can say honestly that rarely have I ever been more proud of her.
You and I
© K Swenson
When I am angry with you,
I am mistreating you.
When I call you names,
I am being racist.
When I ask my opinion be heard,
I am smothering you.
When my opinion is different from yours,
I am a bigot.When you are angry with me,
You are congratulated for fighting the white yoke.
When you call me names,
You are feeling your ancestor’s pains.
When you ask your opinion be heard,
You are exercising your rights.
When your opinion is different from mine,
Yours is right.When I ask a book be read,
I am glared at.
When I say this book is a part of our past,
It is because I am white.
When I talk about pursuing my dreams,
I am suppressing yours.
When I tell you that you hurt my feelings,
I am being racist.When you ask a book be read,
It becomes a required reading.
When you say this book is a part of our past,
You are held high above others.
When you talk about pursuing your dreams,
You are throwing off suppression.
When you tell me that I hurt your feelings,
I am being racist.Your idea of racist and mine,
Are entirely different in perspective.
To you, racism is only whites,
Who suppress your people.
You are free to call me names,
And to make me cry.
It doesn’t matter if you do it,
Because when you do it, it is not racism.You holler about your rights,
when you suppress mine.
You punish me for the past’s mistakes,
Even though I was never involved.
You make me cry, saying it’s fair,
Though I’ve never made you cry.
And when I protest,
I am racist.To you, racism is one-sided,
The whites are only racist.
To you, it is alright,
To make me cry.
You are never racist,
Because of the injustice to your people.
Yet by accusing me of what I am not,
Aren’t you being racist?I have never treated you down,
I have treated you the same.
No matter the skin color,
It doesn’t matter to me.
When you prick my skin,
My blood comes out red.
And when I prick your skin,
Your blood comes out red.Yet you call me names,
And treat me down,
You laugh at my mistakes,
And call me names.
Yet to you, it is not wrong,
It is your right,
Yet what happened to my rights,
When you wanted yours?You pull out books of racism,
Pointing out where it says that I am wrong.
You point your fingers in my face,
And say I am wrong.
You say I am a majority,
That I don’t understand,
A minority’s suffering,
Through my white hand.Yet I pull the same book out,
And point out the facts.
Racism isn’t just white,
It’s those of every race.
Racism is biting words,
Of hate,
To those of,
Another race.You claim I don’t understand,
That I’m a majority.
That I can’t understand,
Your minority.
Because I’m a majority,
And you are a minority,
You are right,
And I am racist.Yet never once did my fathers or yours,
Say in those words,
That the minority,
Is free to hurt the majority.
I am not part of a mass,
I am my own self,
A self that you have hurt,
Time and time again.You use statistics and words,
Twisting them to your own way.
You use them to make me cry,
And to make me go away.
And now I speak,
Through this piece,
That someday I hope,
You understand true peace.
12 Responses to “Out of the mouths of babes: Huck Finn, racism and my daughter”
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You are truly blessed to have such an insightful intelligent daughter. Now , if there was a way to clone her …..
No wonder "our" schools are way behind… Wasting time like this…
Congratulations to your daughter on her maturity and uncommon common sense. Congratulations to her parent as well. You must have done something right.
Cuzzin’ Karl,
Your daughter impresses me more and more.
Huck Finn is a literary symbol for those whites who did what they could to raise blacks out of slavery. How convenient it is to forget that, in a very real war, over two million whites volunteered to serve in the Union Army, went into the breach and suffered years of horror and privation, many of whom sacrificed their lives to successfully free blacks from slavery. On the Union side the death toll was 364,000 and the number of wounded reached 275,175. Sure there were non-whites involved in the fighting but the majority of the combatants were Caucasian.
Given that fact I can honestly say that no white who believes slavery, bigotry and oppression were and are wrong has any reason to feel guilty.
How unfortunate that now that we’re approaching a century and a half since the end of slavery there is still bigotry and prejudice both with whites against blacks and with blacks against whites.
When someone points at another and says you think that way because you’re white, they are being prejudiced. You don’t think a certain way because of your skin tone; it’s because of the input you received as you grew up. Name calling solves nothing.
There is a white man’s guilt that allows some of these things to fester. Take the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a noble organization with great aspirations. What if whites formed a National Association for the Advancement of White People? America celebrates black history month, another great idea to highlight a history that had been neglected way too long. What would the reaction be to a call for a white history month? If you’re white those pangs you just felt were white man’s guilt. Perhaps what America really needs is a National Association for the Advancement of Disadvantaged Americans and an American History Month.
Just as there is a need to understand black history there is a need to understand white history as pertains to slavery. If we don’t understand the thought processes and motivations that were used to justify slavery then we won’t know how to avoid making the same horrible mistakes in the future.
In order to realize Martin Luther King’s dream, prejudice and bigotry must be eliminated on both sides. There are no easy answers all we can do is keep working on it one person at a time.
Your daughter has the heart for it. Don’t let another’s prejudice and the pain it causes ignite prejudice in yourself.
I am sorry that your daughter has to go through this in a “public school.” I am sorry that any American has to subject their children to this tripe, and to have to pay for the privilege of the system’s attempts to brainwash our children. And I am sorry that we have very little recourse.
Your daughter shows a lot of maturity in this poem, a lot of common sense, a lot of insight. Too bad she is in the minority in this among her generation.
My great-great grandfather was a Kentuckian who fought for the Union in the War Between the States; he took a bullet in the leg and was lame for life for the end of slavery. Many great-great grandfathers were not so fortunate. Many never lived long enough to become fathers, let alone great- or great-great grandfathers, members of my family included.
Martin Luther King, Jr., took a bullet for this as well, but I am sure that, as he looks down on us all, that he, at best, shakes his head at the direction things have taken. I am sure he sheds a tear every time a black person justifies their racism rather than face their demons.
Racism is alive and well, but the disease does not look at the color of a person’s skin before infesting them, and the sooner we ALL recognize this, your daughter’s experience is not isolated.
Hi. I’m a friend of your daughter’s, and I think one of the first people she showed this too. It’s a rough situation to be stuck in, I know. I’ve even seen some of this sort of thing, sad to say, at my college, and it’s not just blacks and whites either. Sadly, it is a reality. But one thing I’ve learned in all of my history classes is that reality can be changed, but only if people like your daughter are smart enough to realize it, and strong enough to stand up and say no. I would like to see this poem shared with a bigger audience, and I think it should be published, or at least shared through e-mail. A message doesn’t get out unless someone sends it. She’s also given me permission to read it at my school’s creative writing club meeting tomorrow morning. So let me just say in a nutshell that you have an amazing daughter, and I have every faith in her that she will go far with her brain, her talent, and most importantly, her heart. She is a true healer, and you’re right to be proud of her. I’m proud just to know her.
-Calliope
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The courage to change the things I can,And the wisdom to know the difference."
What a wonderful daughter you have and you must be good parents to have her so smart.Keep up the good work
I probably read The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn at least 14 times and found it to be the most non racist book written for that time period in our history. This book was written when Racism was still prevalent in this country,even in the north. I`m surprise Mark Twain had the courage to write this book and poke a satiracal finger in the eye of the multigenerational racists society that existed in the 1800`s. Not only a great book but a great read too.
Out of the mouths of babes: Huck Finn, racism and my daughter…
I just had to cross post this for Leaning Straight Up! I mean, this is just heart wrenching…
My daughter had an unsettling experience today. Her class is preparing to read Huck Finn, the Mark Twain classic.
As is common these days,&nb…
[...] Huck Finn Still Stirring the Pot Leaning Straight Up’s daughter encounters the prevailing public school attitude of, “Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is racist.” Sad, really, that to this day and age Mr. Twain’s book is so horribly misunderstood. His daughter’s poem is beautiful… (excerpt follows) [...]
Im in a college American Literature class. We just finished Mark Twains novel a few weeks ago. Though there are no blacks in the class the issue of racism came up very frequently. As a class we all took a turn at why we thought this book was racist and most, but not all came up with “the N word”…(Another point is if its that horrifying for them to hear why do they refer to themselves with that word???) YET to all the courage, dignity, and compassion that Huck showed Jim completely cancelled out all feelings of racism! TOGETHER we came to the solution that the novel was based on freedom. Freedom of slavery, all forms of racism, and of course freedom from the way you were born to think to find your own opinion in life. Your daughter is exactly right this novel is our past. Its a way for our future not to make the same petty mistakes. Its a shame that some of our society cant put their feelings on the back burner to learn about our nations history.
PROPS to YOU!!!
PROPS to YOUR DAUGHTER!!!
I’m taking an A.P. English class and we have just finished reading Huckleberry Finn. I think that your daughter is right about the racism isssue. Not reading a book because it’s “racist” won’t erase the history of the country. The past is past, but there’s something wrong about those people that just can’t seem to see past those issues. Slavery was morally wrong, I won’t deny I think that, but people, if they actually paid close attention to the book, would see that the book is not racist. Jim and Huck have a close ralationship, slave and boy, but you can even say that Huck and Jim are closer than Huck and his “white” father. Another thing, the use of the “N” word. we have discussed in our class that a lot. we’ve all come to the conclusion that there’s many ways of expressing that word. It can either be in a mean way, or a respectful way, without any inuendo behind the word. Luckily, everyone in my class is mature, and has had a mother like you, to see our way.
The past of slavery is undeniable, but that can be changed. I understand the feeling that African-American people get when they hear the title of the book, but if the could just see Mark Twain’s point of view, maybe they wouldn’t feel so bad about it.