Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
Maphen · 3787 days ago · link · · parent · post: When Slang Becomes a Slur - Geoffrey Nunberg - The Atlantic
This is part of why I hate the censorship of books in jr. high and high school. I think it's important to note, along with a myriad of other cultural factors, that certain words change perception. The banning of so many Mark Twain novels, I think, is the biggest loss. That word is not only important to the story, but important to the understanding of how we've changed as a culture, and how much change we still have to make. To whitewash slurs completely from classic literature not only whitewashes the past, but it also causes us to lose out on an important part of learning the development of language and society as a whole.