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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Gary Henrickson <[log in to unmask]>
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Thu, 5 Mar 1998 14:23:32 -0600
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If I were to comment again on a thread that I had suggested had gone on long
enough, would that make me...what?

Nonetheless, about Mark Twain and racism.  A few years ago I was teaching
Huck Finn in Syria.  My students were horrified and offended by the passage
in Chapter 24 in which Jim is dressed up in King Lear's outfit, painted "all
over a dead solid blue," and THEN labeled: "Sick Arab--but harmless when not
out of his head."

Should they have been offended?  Of course.  Should I have taught something
else from that particular imperial period of the American state?  I doubt it.

Gary Henrickson
North Dakota State College of Science

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