Peter Salwen is correct to say that many of those who object to
teaching _Huck Finn_ in schools have not read the book.  But I think that
another point is being missed in the discussion of the novel in junior and
senior high schools.

I've found that what troubles many African American
students has to do with their emotional reactions to classroom situations
in
which they are in the racial minority, hear  "nigger" being used by
whites in the reading and discussion of the novel, and
then feel that they are being associated with that term in the minds of
their white classmates.  And since this is an emotional response, no
amount of rationalizing about what Clemens might have tried to do or in
fact did with the book can help--even though they probably understand
those reasons.  To focus classroom discussion on the racial aspect can
even make the situation worse.  I know of one case, to give an extreme
example, where the teacher, trying to involve the class in the race issues
of the novel, required the only black student to read Jim's
lines alound--and then criticized him for not getting the accent "right"!

 While I have no solution to this problem of the emotional
reaction of students, which I know from experience is
a real and fundamental one, I need to say too that banning the book or
restricting it ANY way is no solution.

 What do others do about the
emotional rather than the (ir)rational responses of students, et al?

Greg Zacharias
Creighton University