Huck Finn and Amos and Andy

The other day in class, we discussed the racial overtones in Huckleberry Finn. Some have thought this novel is blatantly racist because of the stereotypes portrayed of African-American characters. They are simple-minded, cowardly, superstitious, and very poor. At dinner last night, my aunts and my dad were talking about T.V. shows they watched growing up. They mentioned "I Love Lucy", "The Andy Griffith Show", and "Amos and Andy." I said something about having never heard of Amos and Andy. They told me that this show that they loved as children had been banned for being "racist." It portrayed its black characters much in the same way Mark Twain did. It admittedly stereotyped African-Americans.

I think that banning a show or book, for that matter, for being stereotypical is somewhat ridiculous. My aunts were talking about how even their black friends growing up had loved "Amos and Andy." It was not offensive to them. Then, one of my aunts brought up the point that she thinks it's strange the way everyone throws a fit about "Amos and Andy" but doesn't care about the ghetto, gun-firing, drug-doing African-American stereotype of today. It is very ironic. This new stereotype seems worse to be because it encourages violence in youth today when the one of years ago only encouraged superstition. However, most stereotypes are based on some fact so I don't think it is necessarily wrong to show that in the media. Those who are offended by individual characters in a work should first look at the over-riding message of the work (which in the case of Huck Finn is totally not racist) before they ban it.