I really did not want to write a diary, but I just can't resist. The reaction to Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" has reminded me of recent debate about a new "sanitized" edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The New York Times had a story about it (www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/books/07huck.html) and I read at least three columns in The Washington Post and The New York Times on the subject. All were written by white people, and all lamented the removal of the word "nigger". For these writers, Huck Finn was simply depicting the history of that time and it was important for children today to read that awful language to show them what things were really like.
Bullshit.
That word is nothing more than a reminder to black people of the enormous pain suffered in America generation after generation. Its a horrible feeling as a child to be sitting in a classroom reading that word. Its a horrible feeling being the only black kid in class and being taught that actually your ancestors were seen as nothing but property, property that could be beaten and raped at will. The word "nigger" is not something educational. Its something nasty. Indeed, I believe its gratuitous use in shows like the Sopranos and movies such as ones made by Quentin Tarantino show just how effected the American psyche is: blacks are not equal. Blacks are indeed a people that can easily be called nigger.
Anyway, I was intent to leave it alone. I read all these people who have no idea what the word means defend its use as something sacred. Oh well, that's America and that's white people (so arrogant so often). But the reaction to Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" has reminded me just how weak and powerless black people are in this country. Rather than support the abandonment of the word "nigger" some columnists are denouncing any attempts to remove it from a new version of the book. At the same time, some dodo uses the term "blood libel" and there is a major outcry. Frankly, I have no problem with the outcry. This is not a diary about Jewish power. Its more a plea or maybe one long rhetorical question: If you were aware of the Huck Finn "controversey" recently, were you in support or against the "sanitized" version. And if so, what are your thoughts on the "blood libel" "controversey"?
The National Jewish Democratic Council had this to say:
This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries—and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today.
I think this statement very clearly expresses the sentiment of many black people toward the term nigger. Its a heinous word that is so directly intertwined with racism towards blacks around the world.
Sorry for this hasty diary. I understand it could be more well thought out and better organized. My apologies.