It's also about how far the South has come. For him, the subject of race and the N-word goes beyond any debate about the book. Williams, a son of Alabama, says the civil rights movement changed him as it did much of the South.
cradle of the Confederacy and where Jim Crow was once king. Williams runs NewSouth Books in Montgomery, Ala. Randall Williams told Pitts the word is poison.Īsked if he used the word, Williams said, "Oh, I used to. 'Nigger' was what made slavery possible," Bradley explained. 'Nigger' has to do with calling somebody something. And it's nothin' for anybody to be ashamed of. "But do you lose that reality when you take out the N-word and replace it with 'slave'?" Pitts asked. There is a reality there that you cannot avoid." But that's one of the reasons we can't mess around with it. "We're talkin' about students: What are we teaching them? This may be their first encounter with slavery. It's not Huckleberry Finn anymore," Bradley said.
"I smiled because like I just kind of think that constant use (of) the N-word, and to me, it feels unnecessary," Efesoa said. "Melvin, you smiled," Pitts remarked, while interviewing the students. "If you replace that with the word slave, of course people would be less bothered, but I think Twain wants people to be a little bit bothered," Jaurdio said. It gets our attention," Farrell told Pitts. And every time we read it, it does exactly that. Twain put the word in there to get our attention.
"I feel that that word is in there for a reason. It's not just the way the words are written, it's the ideas," she said.Įleventh graders Melvin Efesoa, Joseph Jaurdio and Ryan Farrell confronted the controversial word and their feelings about it. It makes sense to bring up all of the hard emotions. "It makes sense in this novel to teach it with the controversy.
When Nora Wise says the word, she feels its impact on students is worth it. But I can certainly do my best not to harm them," she added. "I might not always reach and nourish and nurture every single student.
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