Agatha Christie and Censorship

02 JAN 2017

Research into school stuff this week led me into some dark corners of the internet and uncovered censorship I was never aware of. For example, Ten Little Indians, a nonsense rhyme I heard as a kid, was not always ten little Indians but was The Ten Little [N-word]s! And one of the biggest areas where this is pertinent is a very popular mystery novel by Agatha Christie titled (now) And Then There Were None. The original title was Ten Little [N-word]s. They changed the title and the novel.

This led me through a long chain of events to an IMDB page about one Stepin Fetchit. Here is a partial section of the page, to give you an idea of the level of censorship:

"Because of the degrading image Stepin Fetchit represents to many African-Americans, Perry's appearances in mainstream movies typically are cut out of the picture, regardless of the narrative logic. Most of his films have not been widely released on video."

And also to a Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia in Michigan of all places.
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

We also watched the not-for-TV version of The Green Mile, excellent movie. The movie owes some of its greatness to the amazing writing that really captures the feel of long ago. Example, John Coffey, refers to Tom Hank's character as Boss, while Tom Hanks' character refers to him by his name. This was normal back then, blacks referred to whites using a title or sir, but whites referred to blacks without titles or sir. When they are introduced, the black man is introduced to the white man and not the other way round.

FYI, I grew up in Los Angeles next to a black boy of roughly the same age, my closest friend by all accounts. I am not racist by any means, but I found a lot of this troubling in terms of changing things. I don't like the n-word, never have, but changing things to make it more palatable does not feel right to me. Just leave the past as it is. If we white-wash this stuff, maybe it will happen again. On the other hand, people who haven't seen these images or read these words may be inspired to use them again.

Now, how does this pertain to writing? Well, it makes me wonder. I will have stories written in different time periods, throughout the history of my world. Would it make it more real to censor some past instances?

One phrase I came across today I think will stick with me for a while, and be embedded in my writing somehow:
Southern and other white Americans could experience fondness for black folk, but would "put them in their place" at any time, for any reason. 

Amazing that this was the norm, not too long ago.

May your days be good and long upon this Earth.