B.E.T

Minstrel Shows present an important parallelism to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn due to the nature of each piece. Leaving aside the obvious "race transgression " characteristic, the fact that Huck and Jim have arguments such as that about Salomon, make the novel a vivid representation of blacks lifestyle in the 19th century. Additionally, the shows/scams made by the Dauphin and the Duke throughout a relevant portion of the sequence of events ironically present a prototype of a minstrel show such as that of William H. West. Present-day Minstrel Show is without a doubt BET, (Black Entertainment Television.) It presents an stereotypical view of black people, probably directed all non-black people. The video below presents Chris's opinion about "Black Minstrel Television." One could make a strong argument by saying that one of societies fetishes throughout history has been the conception of black people. Minstrel shows are still present and applauded today, somewhat surpassing moral values and codes...  I am pretty sure the are psychological patterns that back this up, I mean, we are some fuc@!kd up specie. 

Into The Sun

Reading Shelley Fisher Fishkin's theory I couldn't help recall someone, but I didn't really knew who that someone was... When reading a segment about the mutation in significance of the novel if the narrator were to be a black kid, I remembered. Like a daguerreotype, good ol' Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was probably the first political leader (that I know of), who played with being interracial, and the first one which this factor directly influenced the outcome of a whole nation.

He was not a nice guy, he is allegedly responsible for the genocide of more than 30,000 Haitians, which is not a nice thing at all. The thing is, he really had it with black people, he despised them. Even despite the fact he was dark colored, and he used make up in an attempt to cover it up. However, since he was kind of nice, he invited American black baseball players to play in the Dominican league, being considerate of the fact they were heavily alienated in their country, and by inviting them, he could satisfy his like for baseball. The guy had serious issues, that's for sure, but at least he was not satirical at all, (except for the make up), during his dictatorship he declared an open crusade to black people, especially black Haitians. He probably is not as cool as androgynous models but still, he had his trademark.

Fisher's theory, is in fact, somewhat incoherent, taking into account Huck as a character is, (up to a certain level), interracial. The purpose of Huck being a white boy beyond any satirical purposes set by the author is that the novel had to evolve as a story of racism in 19th century America. And this was portrayed by the contrasting relationship of Huck and Jim. By Huck being black, half of the moral dilemmas presented by the author in the novel would have been empty or non-existent.

Trujillos pathology emerged from him being black.

Get the point?

"Slightly Crackpot"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/arizona-ethnic-studies-cl_n_558731.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/30/arizona-legislature-passes-banning-ethnic-studies-programs/

Basically, Arizona's new education bill passed last Thursday states to "make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government or promote resentment of a particular race or class of people ". Until this point, everything its fine, in theory, this bill stands as an avant-garde law protecting and embracing individuality and respect for the fellow man. In addition, the new Huckleberry Finn editions censoring the "n-word" would definitely have a massive demand in the south western state cloisters considering the newly acquired sense of fraternity among its citizens and students.

Considering such moral exemplification, the writer would like to trace past bills passed by this state in an attempt to epitomize the morals of such an enviable state.

Oh.

Arizona Proposition 107 - "Was a proposed same-sex marriage ban." Did not pass by a margin of 3% points, bummer.

Arizona Proposition 102 - "Amendment to the constitution defining marriage as being between a man and a woman only." Oh, ok.

Arizona Proposition 103 - "Proposed amendment to the constitution to declare English the official language of the state" Intelligent indeed. 

Arizona Proposition 301 - "Referendum on a proposal to make ineligible for mandatory probation persons convicted of offenses involving the use of methamphetamines." This is definitely wise too.

Oh, and I almost forgot:

The Arizona law

The Arizona Senate Bill 1070 or the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act was passed April 13 2010, for purposes of briefness, I am just going to quote two out of the many aspects the law possess.

-"Requirement that cops check a person's immigration status during traffic stops, detentions and arrests."

-"legal immigrants carry their citizenship papers at all times or face penalties and the provision making it illegal for an undocumented immigrant to have a job."

Helen Kennedy says "the law codifies racial profiling and legalizes the harassment of all Latinos, legal or not." Thing which is not very fraternal now, is it? Well, you are wrong if you think this whole blog is against the position of the noble state of Arizona when facing its domestic issues. The truth is, Arizona is indeed exemplary, (I am not taking political sides here, I am just proving a point). 20 other states are producing similar immigration laws, so I often find myself confused when reading the news since at the end, it comes to a deep and sincere hypocritical position from all citizens, and well, readers. The law itself does not defeat the purpose, which is to have strict surveillance on illegal immigrants, off course, some methods are "slightly crackpot" for the neoliberal philosophy everyone these days have, or pretend they have. The same happens with good ol' Huck. The dialect in the novel did not defeat the purpose considering it aided the piece to eventually become a literary standard portraying late 19th century America. I mean, come on, it was a mean to an end, that if accepting if it is unmoral in the first place. In order to not get involved with sensible debates, I am giving my final argument, (this all off course, isolated completely from the Arizona example, which was only to prove a point.) Theoretically, education is meant to be a practice in order to expand knowledge, broaden truths. The dialect and more specifically the "nigger" word conveys and makes up a relevant portion of the motifs of the novel, meaning that banning it would involve revoking a part of its essence and hence, producing a partial truth. Consequently, the modern connotations of this specific aspect would or wouldn't have an impact on the young reader depending from the way it is being taught. 

But I don't want to expand in that. 

Promoting resentment of a particular race or class of people rely in the scholar, not the poor novel for Christs sake.

Well, it is Arizona after all.

 

Huck Trail