Editing Nigger (section)

===Cultural use===
{{Main|Use of nigger in the arts}}

The [[implicit racism]] of the word ''nigger'' has generally rendered its use [[taboo]]. Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word";<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |title=''Nigger'' Usage Alert |dictionary=[[Dictionary.com]] |access-date=July 23, 2015 |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721100920/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |url-status=live }}</ref> see [[#The N-word euphemism|below]].

[[File:MrBradish.jpg|thumb|1885 illustration from [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', captioned "Misto Bradish's nigger"]]
The use of ''nigger'' in older literature has become controversial because of the word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in [[Mark Twain]]'s novel ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1885). ''Huckleberry Finn'' was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the [[American Library Association]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |title=100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999 |publisher=American Library Association |date=March 27, 2013 |access-date=April 2, 2011 |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112170406/http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times.<ref>{{cite web |title=Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |work=The Complete Works of Mark Twain |url=http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |access-date=March 12, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909212120/http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |archive-date=September 9, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Academic Resources: Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |work=Random House |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |access-date=March 13, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122142322/http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |archive-date=January 22, 2007 }} [https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 Alternative URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715171506/https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 |date=July 15, 2020 }}</ref> Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character.

In 2011, a new edition published by [[NewSouth Books]] replaced the word ''nigger'' with ''slave'' and also removed the word ''[[injun]]''. The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar [[Alan Gribben]] in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship{{'"}} that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word |title=New Huckleberry Finn edition censors 'n-word' |work=The Guardian|date=January 5, 2011 |last=Page |first=Benedicte |access-date=February 2, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Twain |first=Mark |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110133900/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 10, 2011 |title='The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' – Removing the N Word from Huck Finn: Top 10 Censored Books |magazine=Time |date=January 7, 2011 |access-date=January 23, 2011}}</ref> The changes sparked outrage from critics [[Elon James]], [[Alexandra Petri]] and [[Chris Meadows]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |title=The 'n'-word gone from Huck Finn – what would Mark Twain say? |last=Kehe |first=Marjorie |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=January 5, 2011 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430202839/http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |url-status=live }}</ref>

In his 1999 memoir ''All Souls'', Irish-American [[Michael Patrick MacDonald]] describes how many white residents of the [[Old Colony Housing Project]] in [[South Boston]] used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.<ref>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Michael Patrick|author-link=Michael Patrick MacDonald|title=All Souls: A Family Story from Southie |publisher=Random House |year=2000|page=61 |isbn=978-0-345-44177-5}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Of course, no one considered himself a nigger. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you. I soon found out there were a few black families living in Old Colony. They'd lived there for years and everyone said that they were okay, that they weren't niggers but just black. It felt good to all of us to not be as bad as the hopeless people in D Street or, God forbid, the ones in Columbia Point, who were both black and niggers. But now I was jealous of the kids in Old Harbor Project down the road, which seemed like a step up from Old Colony{{nbs}}...}}