Racism was, and is, a reality. Deal with it!

Have I ever mentioned that censorship really pisses me off?  Well, it does.


New editions of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" will not include the word "nigger" but use "slave" instead.  Why?  Is it because the new editor is from the South and, as he estimated, crowds feel less uncomfortable when they hear slave?  Who cares?!   This should not be about what makes people more or less comfortable.  This is about  censorship and redacting pieces of our historical record.


People that believe race relations are vastly improved in America, and there are some, believe so because of the facade the Political Correctness movement has provided.  We have civilized terms to describe people of  non-anglo-American backgrounds so now we are all equal.  Hooray!  I call it bullshit.  Sorry, America.  If you want real improvement in race relations, let's actually talk about why the word "nigger" makes us so uncomfortable.  Let's bring up some of those other bad words too - spic, kike, jap, fag, injun.


People that still practice and breed hatred may not take issue with the terms I used above, but the majority of us do.  Someone says one of these words and tension fills the room; people look around to see how others respond.  If it is used in a play or in comedy, we pause to see if it is okay to laugh.  You can almost feel the muscles contract of the person sitting next to you.  For people watchers like myself, it is fascinating to watch.


In some ways I liken it to my journey into sobriety.  I was so afraid of dealing with the realities of my life and the "unfun" parts of it that I found it easier to ignore it with pills and alcohol.  We are so afraid of offending others, disagreements and unease that we just pretend it is all okay.  We are collective addicts of the  "political correctness" pill.  I say we need to sober up!


I realize that the word nigger is powerfully offensive, but it is part of our history.  This kind of censorship equates to an attempt to erase negative pieces of our national history.  The hatred and inequality of how minorities were, and are, treated in America should not be softened to appease our collective conscience.  It will be more difficult to learn from our mistakes if we have censored them all.


Divertido, Fe y Besitos!