Huck vs. Jim: Some Commentary on Racism and the N-word

I wouldn’t think nuff’n; I’d take en bust him over de head. Dat is, if he warn’t white. I wouldn’t ‘low no nigger to call me dat” (67). – JIM

In many of our recent class discussions on the controversial book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we have focused deeply on whether or not the beloved main character, Huck, is really a racist through his frequent use of the n-word in the book. While it is true that Huck is only a young boy of thirteen or fourteen, and very impressionable, much of the class has argued that that has no bearing on whether or not his use of the word is justifiable. Huck uses the word constantly, he knows that is a derogatory term, and that makes him a racist, just like everyone in America at the time. Right?

At the same time though, Jim, almost as prominent of a character as Huck (though African American), seems to use the word as openly as Huck does. The question I mean to raise is, who is more impressionable: Huck or Jim? Why is Jim's use of the n-word justifiable while Huck's is not? In class, we almost view Jim's use of the word as sad because he's been raised to think in such a derogatory way about his own race. Huck may not be African American, but he was raised under the same influence that Jim was. Can he really be held accountable for his actions?

Talking about this in class made me think a lot about the use of the n-word in modern society. It seems that the only people that find it acceptable to use the word are African Americans themselves. Famous rappers (with an extremely large target audience) use the word more than anyone else. I know plenty of young people, even several students from New Trier, that put on a "ghetto" image in order to appear different from their peers; they listen to rap music and they even use the n-word like the rappers they admire. These students are almost never African American; but they're just repeating the words of their favorite rappers; what's wrong with that? If we can call Huck racist for being an impressionable young boy, isn't it only fair to call anybody who sings along or listens to rap music containing the n-word racist too? Not to say that a high-school student shouldn't know better than to go around whipping out derogatory language like nothing, but personally I think that it's more up to the African American rappers; the adults in the situation, to realize the effect they're having on ALL kinds of societies, and take responsibility for it.

Performers today push the envelope with the n-word; rapper Nas (pictured above) even fought to title a 2008 album "Nigger." Thankfully, his label didn't allow it and the album was released untitled. (How would white people have referred to that album on TV and when talking to one another without getting beat up??) These rappers may think that they are "taking pride" in their race by demeaning themselves, but in reality, they're only keeping alive a horrible term that should have died long, long ago.