Racial Slurs-Freedom of expression?

Question

"Books containing racial slurs should be ALLOWED on school reading lists or in SCHOOL libraries"

I am in a philosophy class and must be objective towards this statement and be going FOR it not against. I'm having a difficult time with this, and have resolved that these books should be allowed for ppl. to view how back then ppl. used to freely express themselves, and this is useful for educational purposes. Learn about what our history was like...

However, I feel i dont have enough support for the arguement....any suggestion ?

please & Thank you =)

Answer 1

Believe it or not, chances are that you have forms of expression, art, morality or speech that are acceptable or tolerable now, but will not be acceptable to a future generation.

Would you have them ignore your art, literature, or ideas only because you don't conform to their sensibilities?

Answer 2

One of the favorite targets for the racism card is Mark Twain. His usage of the "N" word in dialog is often cited by those who have not bothered to read his books.

For a start, read "Puddin'head Wilson". It is a book about the foolishness and illogic of racism.

"Huckleberry Finn" is another good example, where Huck "Knows it's a sin" not to turn in a runaway slave, but decides he'd rather go to Hell than send Jim back to slavery and break his family (I think, it's been about 50 year or more since the last time I read it).

Racial slurs are a tricky subject, particularly when it is considered OK for some people to use one (such as Richard Prior) and for another person is condemned for it.

"Political Correctness" has not helped the situation but made it stretch to extremes of ridiculousness.

Answer 3

people can use the 'n' be conscious by ability of the 1st substitute merely like another racial or sexist slur, yet one has to question the awareness in doing so. Context - how that's pronounced, to whom that's pronounced, the place that's pronounced and while that's pronounced - has lots to do with how others improve into conscious of those derogatory words, so awareness dictates notwithstanding if use of any slur may well be suitable or proper below the situations.

Answer 4

Back in the late 60's, early 70's, when I was in jr/sr high school, I read books, sold at the book fairs in our library, such titles as "Look out Whitey: Black Power's Gonna Get Your Mama;" "Black Like Me," a "biography" by a white man who had his skin colored from within and later died of the consequences, but not before writing of his experience--which turned out to be totally bogus.
I read James Baldwin, and other authors and titles I can't remember. Do you know what the slurs and racial "issues" taught me?
It doesn't matter. Just read the material with all the reason your mind can muster, and challenge it all, and believe what you will, but read.
In "Look Out Whitey:" by Julius Lester, I read this: "[The field niggers; Nat Turner, Garvey, and Malcolm X,] the hustler on the corner and the high school drop out. They have never been considered 'a credit to their race,' and one does not learn about them in public school."
Hmm..?? I learned about them in school. It was in a 99.9% white, overwhelmingly Dutch community. I learned left wing socialists were so cynical they didn't see the truth. I met a leftist who admitted freely in one of my classes that he and some others fire bombed the local FBI office.
It was cool being able to read without being censored. I'm not stupid. I can make up my mind about right and wrong.

Answer 5

1. Suppressing human emotion is reactionary. Rather, the behavior ought be understood, if only as psychologistic. (This includes oppressed peoples' reactions to "hot button" terms.)

2. Kindly visit http://www.slate.com/id/2178122/entry/2178125
for a perspective which adds information, albeit not necessarily germane to your prescribed position.

3. Also, kindly visit http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.html for an example of how MSM has apparently "gotten it wrong" (and Senator Kennedy and others in media and political life continue to do so, for whatever reasons).

4. Honest history doesn't benefit by burning Holocaust photos, denying Ukranian holocaust data or Rwandan intertribal strife, Khmer Rouge horrors, etc.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills is a leading professorial site on "murder by state."

"A Philosophy of Universality," O. M. Aivanhov, is interesting.

cordially,

j.

Answer 6

I think your own innocent remark makes a chilling backbone for your argument. You say, "... these books should be allowed for ppl. to view how back then ppl. used to freely express themselves, and this is useful for educational purposes." My god, child, don't you see what you said? That you now accept not being able to express yourself as a normal thing in our society.

A generation ago we COULD freely express ourselves, as we are supposed to be able to do according to the Constitution.

In one generation we have lost that. It is now illegal to say certain things. And the kids of today think that's normal.

Answer 7

I think it's instructive to see how our ancestors thought and expressed themselves. Maybe not for grammar school, or even early high school, but certainly for college level students.

Philosophy class--high school? College? Grad school?

Context is everything!

Answer 8

I think it is simple. According to our right to free speech we can say whatever we like. People choose to be offended or not.

Answer 9

I agree with you, you can't change the past but you can learn from it.
You can't learn from it if you don't know about it.

Answer 10

To forget history is to repeat history..........