Twain Censored?

Recently Mark Twain's works have come under fire for his use of the work "nigger."  Now as a white male, even typing that word is a bit uncomfortable for me, so I can at least see a bit of the understanding for "why" the word would raise eyebrows.  However, editing it out of these works is irresponsible and greatly reduces the messages and themes of the books.

  

For starters for those unaware I was an English major for awhile in college and even after the change to Finance I stuck with it and got a minor; one class I took was African American Literature.  Now does taking an African American Lit class make me an expert?  Absolutely not, but I have read a lot of works written by and about African Americans, many of which were about slavery, post slavery, or the civil rights movement.  So while this does not in any way make me an expert by any stretch, I think I have a fair bit of context with which to draw and frame these works, and ultimately the use of the word.

Basically, the use of the word "nigger" and its appropriateness comes down to context.  And the central question of: Is the use of the word ever ok?  In this case Twain is wrote a work based in a historical time period where this word was widely used.  And it was used in the manner in which he wrote it.  While works of literature can be interpreted many ways and only the author truly knows how he/she meant for something to be read, I offer my interpretation and "justification" if you will for the use of the word.  Twain use the word was meant to set up the great divide between the African American slaves and the white men.  Not only were these men slaves to the white men, they were further degraded by being called not by name alone but by "Nigger ", such as Twain's character "Nigger Jim".  Now this right off establishes the great chasm between the  races and spotlights the extreme racism of the time.  Flash forward to the end where along the way it is apparent to me that the best friend and the most decent human is in fact Jim.  The irony being that the individual who was thought to be, frankly in the minds of the white people of the time a "lessor" person, ended up showing more compassion and humanity than any other character.  This realization to me drives home the idiocy of the racism that was common place at the time.  By changing the use of "nigger" to "slave" the initial racist tones and ultimate divide between the characters is watered down.  Jim was a slave, so by calling him "Slave Jim" they are only scratching the surface of the initial improbability of the impending relationship between the two characters.  This watering down effect ultimately, in my mind, lessens the impact of the friendship that grows between the characters.  And frankly cheapens the works as a whole.

On the other hand, some believe that Twain was a racist and his prolific use of the word and exaggerated characteristics of the Jim character were solely meant to be racist.  As you see above, I disagree, but that should be for reader to decide.  By editing this word out in my mind someone, somewhere is deciding for me that Twain meant for them to be racist and therefore the word must be removed, and if removed it will have little impact.  I feel the impact loss is huge.  In my mind there are many other places and mediums where this word is used in a far more damaging way, I hope they reconsider and leave these works alone and let readers interpret for themselves the message Twain was trying to deliver.

A panelist on CNN actually said something I agree with with respect to the teaching of these works in school.  The word shouldn't be removed just so it is more politically correct, if a teacher is not prepared to have a serious racial and cultural discussion with students then they should not be teaching the book.  Face it getting a student to re-read a book they've already read that only has approx. 219 words changed later in life is tough, hell it's a struggle to get them to actually read it the first time.

Ok need to stop before a I go any further, kind of got on a Lit paper type rant there, in fact I could probably write a 5-10 page lit paper on this topic very very easily.