Mark Twain’s “nigger” becomes “slave” in the act of political correctness (or stupidity)

I can’t help to ask the question: When does political correctness become a sheer stupidity? Or, maybe I should ask if there is a difference between the two at all?

The latest example, as nicely described in THIS ARTICLE, is the re-writing of the classic masterpiece, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” For the sake of correctness, in the new edition, which is to be released by NewSouth Books, the word “nigger” is replaced by the word “slave.” Granted, The New Yorker magazine writes about it in a politically correct manner, but the essence is the same - some idiots in charge of the reprinting of the Twain’s well-known classic, decided that the word “nigger” has become too offensive for some readers. I used the politically challenging word “idiots,” which some may find offensive, but it is done in effort to find the strongest and most descriptive word to define them, which could be widely used by all who care about literature, literacy and state of mind of the average reader.

Being an immigrant and as such not offended by it, I asked the opinion of co-workers in the newsroom, and all of them confirmed that, yes, they find “nigger” a very offensive word. Yet, this is the word used at the time Mark Twain penned Huckleberry Finn, and, who knows, maybe the old master intentionally used such racially highly-charged word to put the emphasis on some characters. To my racially-ignorant opinion, it can be an insult only if it’s directed to someone. The word may have a negative connotation, but if used in a literary piece as a way to express the language of the time, it must be permitted. We should not be afraid of words, and we should stop underestimating reader’s ability to differentiate between an insult and a literary expression.

That brings me to my regular pet peeve -- the authorities nowadays are trying way too hard to be correct. As a result, we lost Christmas Holidays to Holidays Season, Christmas Tree to Holiday Tree (a couple of years ago by a decree from Toronto City Council, which was reversed the following year after the outcry from - check this! - Muslim and other religious communities in town), black people became African-American or African-Canadian, etc. Next on the list, I guess, are Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, which should officially become South-Asian-Canadians (replace “Canadian” with “American” where applicable), and for the sake of distinction, Asian people we should start calling North-Asian-Canadians. Since, as a European, I don’t like to be bunched into the same sack with the Germans, French and Brits, I’d prefer to be called Mediterranean-Canadian. On the second thought, I don’t want to be mixed with Italians too, they have Mafia there, so, please, refer to me as a North-Adriatic-Canadian.

But, why can’t we all be just Canadians? When I moved to Canada about fifteen years ago, all I wanted is to blend in, to become Canadian, and not to worry about the fine religious and ethnic divisions back in the Balkans, which made me come here in first place. Little did I know that Canada is a country where everybody belongs to an ethnic clan, a country which hasn’t discovered its own identity (yet), and maybe never will. Even during the Vancouver Olympics, highly praised for bringing up the sense of national unity, an Asian-Canadian spectator interviewed on TV said that he first cheers for Korea, the country of his origin, then for Canada, although he lived here for the most of his life. Until people like him learn that home is where your feet are planted, where you live, work (and pay taxes), and where your kids go to school, until we all realize that Canada isn’t something we can exploit while calling ourselves anything but Canadians, there will be no such thing as a real Canadian. And, politically correct people will keep editing our daily language, afraid of every shadow and unable to call a spade a spade. What we can use here is a little less correctness, and much more of the real Canadian backbone.