Am I racist for teaching William Faulkner?

[Sampiro]

@Zsofia

Seriously - what happens when somebody tries to teach Huckleberry Finn?

Father’s complain about it because it’s insulting to fathers. Total Pap smear, in fact.

[Northern_Piper]

@limegreen

As far as the “snowflake” appellation – it’s from the SDMB: Special Snowflake, meaning a child who is perfect in every way and sheltered from the cruel realities of life. I’ve never heard it used in reference to black people.

I don’t know that it’s unique to the SDMB; if it is, it’s gone wild.

Lord Business uses it in his almost final confrontation with Emmet in the Lego™ movie: as he’s about to use the knife of Exact Zero on Emmet, he says, “I never got a prize just for showing up! I wasn’t a special snowflake!”

[robert_columbia]

@Zsofia

Seriously - what happens when somebody tries to teach Huckleberry Finn? (Well, I did just typo that “Fuckleberry”, which I think would give a few parents a valid complaint.)

If you actually read Huckleberry Finn and try to understand it, not just tally up the “bad” words, you’ll find that it’s a very anti-racist book. Huck uses the n-word because that’s the word that he was taught to use. We actually see him struggling and trying to reconcile the fact the he feels that African-Americans are deserving of help and friendship, while the culture from which he comes disagrees. It’s a conflict, and he’s trying to come out of the racist mindset that he was brought up in. It’s a very powerful message if you actually take the time to read it for reals.

[Belowjob2.0]

@Malleus_Incus_Stapes

I’d also thought Skald was white. It’s not my fault; skalds were Norse poets. The Vikings are depicted as being white and blond. Ergo, someone named “Skald” should be Nordic-looking.

Totally not my fault, and certaintly not worth waking up the flying monkeys for.

In Norse parlance, Skald is a blue man, no?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blámaður

[Belowjob2.0]

@brickbacon

While I think the lady was a bit off, I think it’s important to discuss context and our evolving standards when introducing things to children that don’t reflect our current values. Not sure how old the kids you teach are, but it never hurts to give them an understanding of the times being written about, and an appreciation for why the work is worth reading even if antiquated ideas and words are used.

Agreed.

Oh noes! I dun rispondid to a zahmbie!

[TBG]

@limegreen

I got reamed out this weekend by a perpetually irate parent because her Special Snowflake is African-American and was ‘forced’ to read a story by William Faulkner in literature class that mentions Negroes (being set 10 years after the Civil War) and once uses the ‘n-word’. Blacks are not the focus of the story, it just mentions one old servant, and she chewed me out for 20 minutes about ‘negative images’ before I realized that she thought the main character was black. (The story is ‘A Rose for Miss Emily’, if you’re familiar with that short story). Miss Emily is white – although Mrs. Snowflake was outraged that a black woman be portrayed as fat, dirty, and crazy. After I corrected her on the race of Miss Emily, it was okay that a white woman be portrayed as fat, dirty, and crazy. AND she told me that I, as a white woman, had no business mentioning slavery, or teaching anything about that period. In fact, she would prefer that the Civil War and slavery never be mentioned in any class because it was a shameful period, and should be forgotten.
Admittedly, I am a white country person. Do black people these days just want to forget the Civil War and slavery, or is she just nuttier than usual?

She’s a nut alright, but these days I wouldn’t dare say nuttier than usual, there are so many nuts now and there’s such a precedent of giving into the nuts that it’s only going to get worse.

[Nava]

@Mona_Lisa_Simpson

A zombie. Or William Faulkner. Maybe a zombie William Faulkner.

Do the overly-verbose books he writes now fall apart easily but keep coming back?

[Infovore]

@Northern_Piper

I don’t know that it’s unique to the SDMB; if it is, it’s gone wild.

I don’t think it is. I always thought it came from “Fight Club” (“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.”)

[Ranger_Jeff]

@Sattua

There’s some implication that shiksas are loose and/or don’t deserve as much respect as Jewish women… or at least that’s the impression I got from my misogynist Jewish grad advisor.

“Shiksa” generally a neutral word unless it’s being used by the Jewish Mother of a Doctor describing her blonde, pretty (if you like that sort of girl (:: sniff ::)), Christian future daughter-in-law, who has obviously made use of her feminine wiles and charms to take advantage of Her Son The Doctor who should find himself a nice Jewish girl instead of throwing away his life like this and breaking his Mother’s heart. :rolleyes:

[Clothahump]

@limegreen

Admittedly, I am a white country person. Do black people these days just want to forget the Civil War and slavery, or is she just nuttier than usual?

Introduce her to George Santayana:

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.