University of Florida Levin College of Law UF Law Scholarship Repository UF Law Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2003 Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn in the Modern Classroom Sharon E. Rush University of Florida Levin College of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Education Law Commons, and the Juvenile Law Commons Recommended Citation Sharon E. Rush, Emotional Segregation: Huckleberry Finn in the Modern Classroom, 36 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 306 (2003), available at http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/171 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at UF Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UF Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UF Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. EMOTIONAL SEGREGATION: HUCKLEBERRY FINN IN THE MODERN CLASSROOMt Sharon E. Rush* In this article, I explore emotional segregation and how it junctions in the context of Huckleberry Finn for both personal and academic reasons. Recently, I read Huckleberry Finn because it had been assigned to my daughter's middle school class. I was concerned for her welfare because she is Black and worried how the book would affect her. To understand her reactions, I had to understand the con troversy surrounding the book, particularly as a White mother. I have reflected quite deeply on the question whether the book is racist. I define "racism" as a belief in the myth of White superiority and Black inferiority, also known as the race pre cept.1 I conclude that Huckleberry Finn is racist.