CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE: PRETTIFYING THE DICTIONARY WON'T CHANGE THE UGLY FACTS

Two women in Detroit are angry that a racial slur made it into the dictionary.

The "n" word is included in the latest edition of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and Delphine Abraham and Kathryn Williams are both unhappy that the word is not defined primarily as a derogatory term for blacks.

The dictionary makers are defending themselves by pointing out that not including the word in their volume will not deter people from using it, or from thinking the racist thoughts that go along with using the "n" word.

I have to agree; leaving ugly words out of the dictionary will not change anything.

English is a marvelous language, with a dizzying variety of words to express almost every shade of human psyche.

Ugly words, like the "n" word, exist because people have ugly thoughts, not because dictionary makers need to fill up space. People who use that word will keep using it, and will keep finding justifications for its use.

However, I also have to agree with Abraham and Williams that the definition should point out first and foremost that the word is derogatory.

There are people who want books banned because they contain language that is offensive to one culture or another, or one race or another, or one gender or another.

"Huckleberry Finn" contains a great deal of racist language, and Jim, the slave who accompanies Huck on his adventure, speaks like an illiterate fieldhand.

But Twain, who abhorred slavery and was appalled by the overtly racist attitudes of his time, never lets Jim ACT like the caricature of the frightened black man; Jim is a brave and thoughtful man who acts to help his friend.

If anything, Twain probably wrote those passages to reflect the ugly truth of slavery.

Pulling "Huckleberry Finn" off the shelves will not change the fact that slavery existed in this country, that it was a cruel and exploitative industry supported by both the North and the South and that it was pathetically justified by people who tried to prove that the enslaved were inferior to the masters, and so deserved their enslavement.

Taking the "n" word out of dictionaries will not stop people from having racist attitudes.

Taking violent television shows off the air will not stop people from murdering one another or committing robbery or committing rape.

We live in a violent world; this newspaper is filled with stories of people killing and maiming one another over such trivialities as skin color, ethnic background or religious choice.

Our television shows, our news shows, our literature reflect our world; they do not create it.

Words are powerful; "manifest destiny," the catch-phrase by which Americans overran North America sounds much prettier, and much easier to live with, than genocide, the term many Native Americans might choose for the westward expansion.

But censorship, no matter how well-intentioned, will not change the facts: Racial slurs still exist because people are still ignorant enough to believe they are true.

The only cures for ignorance are education and time, and too many people of all colors and creeds and backgrounds refuse to learn.

I wince when I read parts of "Huckleberry Finn," and the "n" word offends me. Maybe that's white liberal guilt; maybe it's just being human.

But I also remind myself that my reaction is a good gauge of how far we have all come since those words were first written and spoken.

And how much farther we still have to go.

Peggy O'Farrell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.