Re:21st-century editors should keep their hands off of 20th-...
by xg15 on Monday June 12, 2023 @05:38PM
(#36301550)
> but there's definitely no need to print n-bombs in books printed in 2023.
How can a word be a bomb?
And I'm still at a loss how in a supposedly post-enlightenment world, a single word can be so evil that you have to resort to code to refer to it, no matter in which context or whether or not you're quoting.
Yes, you shouldn't call people that way - and if you do, that is a clear sign of a racist mindset. But treating the word itself as some kind of forbidden symbol that must be purged from everything is not much better than medieval magical thinking.
Re:21st-century editors should keep their hands off of 20th-...
by mschuster91 on Wednesday June 14, 2023 @03:59AM
(#36322861)
> But treating the word itself as some kind of forbidden symbol that must be purged from everything is not much better than medieval magical thinking.
Nonetheless, the continued reproduction of that word makes it "acceptable" to be used, and every time affected persons have to read that, it's bad for them.
In general, it's (IMHO) not needed to have centuries old books full of stereotypes in modern curricula. There are so many works that have been published in the last decades that provide far better diversity of all kinds than even a "de-racisted" historic book can. Modern authors, modern artists, modern composers and other artists deserve their shine in the spotlight as well - it's ridiculous how much of curricula is spent on stuff that happened or got created hundreds to thousands of years ago. We have to refocus education on modern events if we want a modern society.
And if you want something filled with racial or other stereotypes in curricula, ffs print it with commentary like we do with Hitler's "Mein Kampf" here in Germany. That is, coincidentally, the only way one is allowed to do a reprint in Germany due to copyright and anti-Nazi symbolism laws.