No Sympathy to Slaves
Many writers on the African-American diaspora have attempted to capture the black experience in America, although some to no avail. Most Black authors like Zora Neal Hurston, Martin Delaney, and countless others have succeeded in painting the most accurate image of black people with the characters in their stories. Nevertheless, some authors fail in their portrayal of black people by using recycled economic stereotypes, highly metonymic based characters, and Fetishization. Questions often arise regarding whether or not these authors have taken a serious look into the African experience in America or simply expressing, subtly, racist views. Mark Twain is the author of two very important, however controversial, stories about blacks. Is Mark twain just another subtle white racist attempting to mask secret contempt for the African-American race? It can be argued that Twain is, based on the texts, a racist. This conclusion can be demonstrated drawing multiple examples from his works such as “Puddn’head Wilson” and “the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Additionally, conceptual examples of white negligence regarding black people provided by Toni Morrison will be used to further the argument of Twain’s racist views.Mark Twain is loose and irresponsible in his excessive use of the word “nigger”. It appears as if Twain has no regard for black people regarding the derogatory nature of the word. To him, it seems as if it is just some other ordinary word to describe people of color. He, based on his numerous uses, is negligent and possibly oblivious to what offense the use of the word might have toward black people. Further, it is also a possibility that his book was not even aimed to entertain black people. Accordin…
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…ualities of an African male: He is brutal, aggressive, lazy, and irresponsible with money. Twain is, moreover, irresponsible with his portrayal of Tom and is victim to the perception of him as a racist and the Fetishization of black people by white writers.Conclusively, It is unclear whether or not twain is deliberate in his racist views or simply afraid to paint black characters in a better light due to a possible contrary backlash from white critics, white readers, or other white contemporaries. However, readers can only construct arguments based on what they know about the text. In this case, based on Twain’s use of the word “nigger”, his negative representation of black people in many of his stories, and his irresponsibility in making an effort to understand African peoples more intimately, he is a racist and does not hold black people in this highest esteem.
