Banning the N-word

The N-Word.
How is it any different from saying the actual word? Comedian Louis C.K says (I’m paraphrasing) that using the expression ‘N-word’ is cowardly, because instead of actually avoiding use of the actual word; the writer has put it into your head.
So, essentially it doesn’t eliminate the word at all, it just puts the guilt onto the reader.
The latest edition of Huckleberry Finn aims to get rid of every mention of the N-word. 219 times Mark Twain wrote the racial epithet. Now the book was written in 1884. The slur itself was an accepted practice back then, I’m sure. Twain, a celebrated and classical author, wasn’t criticized until the political correctness Nazi’s got a hold of the novel, I’m sure.
Wait, that’s not true you say?
In fact, when the novel was published for American audiences, many libraries refused to carry it. The public library in Concord, Massachusetts decided against cataloguing the book, saying its humour, as limited as it was, was crude, and ‘more suitable to slums than to intelligent, respectable people.’ The Brooklyn Public Library in New York banned the book in 1905, calling it obscene.
The book itself was criticized by literary giants Louisa May Alcott, Ron Powers and Ernest Hemingway. It should be noted these authors believed the novel was generally well written, until the end of it, when Jim is freed by Huck Finn.
As a side note, you’ll notice I didn’t say ‘N-word’ Jim. He’s never called that in the book. Not once. Read it yourself.
The fact that the story itself, as I interpret it, is an attack on racism is generally glossed over. A fact that most scholars are aware of, but most policy makers and ‘nanny-state’ legislators don’t see. The see the N-word. 219 times.
It’s not the only book to use the slur. To Kill a Mockingbird, written in the 1960’s by Harper Lee also makes use of the N-word. But the use is almost exaggerated. And it’s used blatantly as a tool to point out how wrong racism is. That being said, Lee has come under criticism for the use of the word as well.
The publishers of the 2011 version have replaced the N-word with the term ‘slave.’ I can’t help but wonder if this will make it any different. I mean, it’s like Louis C.K said, now it’s all in your head, isn’t it?