by larc 5 Replies latest jw friends
Recently, I watched a program about Mark Twain. During time I thought of a question, that I have wondered about for a long time. My question has to do with his book, Huckleberry Finn. On occasion, I have read that some African-Americans consider this book to be racist. Is this a general opinion among minorities, or is it a minority opinion among minorities?
To state my opinion up front. I always considered the book to be anti-racist.
No, Huckleberry Finn is hardly "racist". My measuring stick here is that each of us is a "racist": this attitude stems from our tribal origins.
Further, racial prejudice may - sadly - often exist more in the eye of the beholder than in reality. If you want to find it, you will succeed...
Mark Twain was no racist in any reasonable sense of the word. In his writings, colored people in general are not portrayed badly or unsympathetically.
Genuine "racial" differences do exist, and should be celebrated, not reviled. Homogeneity is boring!
Real, hateful racism does exist and that is what should be focused upon and opposed.
By the way, the idiotic Watchtower held (in an issue of The Golden Age) that Uncle Tom's Cabin, the masterful 1850s work by Harriet Beecher Stowe which highlighted the wicked, inhuman treatment meted out to slaves by the "more blessed white race", was:
the work of SatanWell, logic/fairness and the Watchtower would make strange bedfellows, even if the bed chariot was made of iron rather than aluminum, I guess.... Russell would not have wanted the "non-Aryan" races to get ideas above their lowly station, we know - but The Golden Age was produced during the Rutherford era (era? E.R.A??).
If you want to read the classic (not, not the absurd The Golden Age!), surf to:
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/ecp/10/223/0001/html/0001all.html
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Focus
($0.02 Class)
Focus,
Good to see you back again. I thought your essay on this subject was outstanding. Thank you for your contribution.
It is interesting that you mentioned Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was Mark Twain's neighbor and friend after he settled down and lived in New England. (I wrote New England, because I don't know if I can spell Conneticut correctly.)
larc wrote:
Focus,You are too generous..
Good to see you back again. I thought your essay on this subject was outstanding.
It is interesting that you mentioned Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was Mark Twain's neighbor and friendCome, come! Did you actually think it was a coincidence that I mentioned Ms. Stowe after discussing Twain????
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Focus
(Nook Farm Class)
Dearest larc... peace to you!
May I respond? Thank you!
As a Black (okay, African American, negro, whatever... so's I don't offend anybody...) woman, I wish to tell you that it truly depends on who you ask in the Black community. By that, I mean, if you ask someone who is anti-anything that depicts Blacks being oppressed, no matter what the POINT of the story is, you will get that yes, Huck Finn is racist. If, however, you ask someone who has read the book and attempted to understand what Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was trying to show in the relationship between Huck and Jim... you would get no, Huck Finn was a book that actually tried to show the atrocity of slavery and the mind that perpetuated it.
I am of the latter 'school' of thinking, but, well, who am I?
There is an unfortunate phenomenon in my culture, one I am as guilty of as the next person, and that is believing the RHETORIC behind a subject. For instance, I had never seen Gone With the Wind, until just recently. Why? Well, I was always TOLD that it depicted Blacks unfavorably. And my Lord knows, I had already seen enough of THAT in my lifetime. A dear friend, however, told me how GOOD of a film it was, encouraged me to watch it, and I did. LOVED it. It was great! Gonna watch it again, too. But... I must say that I can see what made many Blacks... ummmm... uncomfortable.
You see, in movies/stories LIKE Huck Finn and Gone With the Wind, the 'roles' played by Blacks... are always quite demeaning. I mean, Scarlett's maid (what's her name?), got on my NERVES! Heck, I wanted to slap her myself, after awhile. And Butterfly McQueen's character made me... well, squirm.
Why? Because to ME, they were depictions of how White people THINK we are. But in truth, I can tell you, if anyone I have known in MY lifetime knew anyone like either of these women, we would have 'checked' BOTH of them: "Girl, I don't know WHERE you came from, but you need to pull yourself together and STOP acting like a fool!" Black people seem to be 'clowns' to most other people... and, unfortunately, we have bought into that view a great deal. Personally, I can't STAND watching the Wayans Brothers, Marlon and Shawn; they are just WAY too Amos-n-Andy for me. But other folks like them... even LOVE them. And that is their perogative, just as NOT preferring them is mine. I do like their brothers, Damon and Keenan, though. A bit of a different type of humor, one I prefer.
Anyway, as I said, when asking questions regarding 'racial' connotations/undertones, etc., it truly all boils down to who you ask. As it does with any other question raised under the sun.
I hope this helps.
Peace to you!
Your servant and a slave of Christ,
SJ