Not "Huck Finn!" I spent hours crossing out the sass-back!

If only that was a simpsons joke, but unfortunately it is completely true.

http://volokh.com/2011/01/04/the-bowdlerization-of-huckleberrry-finn/

I don't understand the mindset that goes into making a decision like this. It seems that the theory would have to be that having the word kids read the word nigger in a book would be racist, so for proper political correctness we must remove it. But that strikes me as being incredibly more racist, do pretend the word doesn't/didn't exist. They are trying to fix history by pretending it didn't happen, that's the kind of thing that belongs in a communist country, or maybe a theological dictatorship, not in a supposedly free country. If you think students aren't mature enough to read the books and understand the context, then don't give it to them to read. Wait until high school. If a 16 year old reads it and reacts in a racist way, then he would have been a racist regardless, and is already familiar with the word nigger. Mark twain is widely considered the greatest american writer of all time, and Huck Finn his masterpiece, and arguably the greatest piece of american literature, but because it uses words we no longer consider polite it can't be taught in school? Only in america where people have so much excess time and money would people worry so much and get so upset about children the greatest work in our nations history. (I personally prefer writers like asimov/heinlein, i don't discredit them or their literary achievements simply because they wrote science fiction.)