[Vision2020] How to Handle Political Correctness in theInterest of Real History?

[lfalen]

I would basically agree with both Bear and Paul. In addition I would not change or ban literature from the past such as Mark Twain. Report all history as it occurred and in the context of that time frame. 
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: Paul Rumelhart godshatter at yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 21:36:24 -0700
To: bear at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] How to Handle Political Correctness in theInterest of Real History?

> Personally, I'd prefer historical accuracy over political correctness.  
> I'm sure I'm not alone.  The use of the "N-word" would probably be even 
> more effective today in highlighting the cultural differences between 
> the two time periods.
> 
> Our silly overreactions to these things need to be tamped down.  People 
> should, in my opinion, take context into account.  The use of the word 
> in a historical context should be just fine, in the name of 
> authenticity.  Getting bent out of shape about it doesn't serve us as a 
> culture very well.  Stop it's use as an aggressive slur against a 
> segment of our society, sure.  But ban it because someone might find the 
> word itself offensive, even when it's not being used in a negative way 
> (except in the context of the movie or book or whatever)?  Probably 
> going too far.
> 
> Paul
> 
> bear at moscow.com wrote:
> > Visionaries,
> >
> > I ran across this article about a remake of a WW2 movie and wanted some
> > input from the great  "unwashed masses" so to speak, of how to handle real
> > history in the age of political correctness.
> >
> > Should the poor dogs real name, in the interest of political correctness,
> > be changed?
> >
> > I fought this battle before in the Army when I was teaching military
> > history and wondering what your thoughts are on it.  The incident of
> > history that  I ran into was that prior to his rise to command all of the
> > US troops in Europe during WW1, General John Pershing was called "Nigger
> > Jack"  by his contemporaries to derisively refer to his being in command
> > of black troops rather than white soldiers.  The popular thought at the
> > time was that he never commanded real troops, just black ones. It was a
> > startling discovery at the time I was doing the research, that because of
> > the army promotion system, Captain Pershing couldn't be promoted to
> > Colonel by the President of the US, but Teddy Roosevelt, solved the
> > problem by promoting him to Brigadier General which he was able to do.
> >
> > NEW DAMBUSTERS MOVIE
> > "Dog's name in Dambusters remake causes headache for filmmakers
> > It is not the full-scale replica of a Lancaster bomber nor the special
> > effects that are causing problems for the makers of a multimillion-pound
> > remake of the classic British war movie The Dam Busters.
> > The Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson is producing the £21
> > million movie, to be filmed in Britain and New Zealand, and he has
> > promised to be true to the original story.
> > However RAF hero Guy Gibson, head of the mission that destroyed German
> > dams during the Second World War, had a dog called Nigger and filmmakers
> > are now wondering whether they dare utter the N-word in 2009.
> > The canine with the politically incorrect name, who featured in the 1951
> > book The Dam Busters, was mentioned 12 times in the 1954 film starring Sir
> > Michael Redgrave."
> >
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> 
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