A near as I can tell, I've never read a banned book.
I did read Huckleberry Finn before the retcon changing Nigger Jim to just Jim though.
Censoring is far worse than banning.
The reasoning as to why every instance of the word nigger (oh and we do no justice by dancing around it and saying n-word) was removed is that its very mention is so harmful that nobody should ever hear it or say it.
The people most harmed don't seem to have gotten the message, or noticed the mortal power of the word because they use it frequently in speech and song.
I will believe it does harm when the people claiming the harm stop doing the harm themselves.
The idea that people of one race are forbidden to use a word because it's a mortal insult while they are free to use it and when they do it's nothing... That's racist. If you can't see it as racism, you're probably a racist yourself.
That's the real problem, not a mere word.
I did read Huckleberry Finn before the retcon changing Nigger Jim to just Jim though.
Censoring is far worse than banning.
The reasoning as to why every instance of the word nigger (oh and we do no justice by dancing around it and saying n-word) was removed is that its very mention is so harmful that nobody should ever hear it or say it.
The people most harmed don't seem to have gotten the message, or noticed the mortal power of the word because they use it frequently in speech and song.
I will believe it does harm when the people claiming the harm stop doing the harm themselves.
The idea that people of one race are forbidden to use a word because it's a mortal insult while they are free to use it and when they do it's nothing... That's racist. If you can't see it as racism, you're probably a racist yourself.
That's the real problem, not a mere word.