Minnesota school district REMOVES To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the English curriculum because they repeatedly use the n-word

The new puritanism.  "To Kill a Mockingbird " was once used to preach the evils of racism but even that is not enough to save it these days.  And it is total nonsense to say that blacks are offended by the n-word.  They use it among themselves all the time

A Minnesota school district has removed To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because it fears it could leave students feeling 'humiliated or marginalized'.

Duluth School District officials cited Harper Lee and Mark Twain's repeated use of the racial slur in the classic American novels as the reason for the decision.

'We felt that we could still teach the same standards and expectations through other novels that didn't require students to feel humiliated or marginalized by the use of racial slurs,' director of curriculum and instruction Michael Cary told the Duluth News Tribune.

Cary added the move comes after years of complaints by parents and students, who said the books made them feel 'uncomfortable'.

Although the novels will no longer be required reading, they are not banned and will still be available at the school libraries for any student who wants to read them.

The local chapter of the NAACP welcomed the school district's decision, which they called 'long overdue.'

This isn't the first time Harper Lee's novel is considered too controversial for schools: last year, Mississippi's Biloxi School District also removed the book from their required reading list.

School districts in Virginia and Pennsylvania have also dropped the book after receiving complaints from students and parents.

Both Lee's 1960 novel about a little girl navigating the segregated South, and Mark Twain's 1884 novel about a poor white boy and a slave running way down the Mississippi river are required readings in high school literature classes.

Still, the novels have always been controversial, and their use in English classes has long been debated; both works have been featured on the American Library Association's Frequently Challenged Books list.

The National Coalition Against Censorship opposed the Duluth School District decision.

'While it is understandable that a novel that repeatedly uses a highly offensive racial slur would generate discomfort among some parents and students, the problems of living in a society where racial tensions persist will not be resolved by banishing literary classics from the classroom,' the group said in a statement.

'On the contrary, the classroom is where the history, use and destructiveness of this language should be examined and discussed.'

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