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In Toni Morrison's essay about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the author touches on a variety of topics and issues she has encountered over the course of her many readings. The novel has always been unsettling for her, and she deduced that this uneasiness could be attributed to a number of factors, like gaping silences strewn throughout the novel, for example. These silences come after revelations that could spark controversy, like Jim acting as a father figure for Huck. These issues were too polarizing to be discussed in the 1880s, and for the most part, they are still too controversial to be discussed in detail in every day society. This fear of controversy displays how there is still so much work to be done in regards to race relations in the U.S.

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Owen and Neal on Using the Word in Comedy

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Owen and Neal on Using the Word in Comedy

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Very similarly to Mark Twain's tackling of controversial topics in his writing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, modern day comics and comedians tackle issues like race and prejudice constantly in their acts, writings, monologues, etc. Unlike Twain, however, these performers run straight at the issue, facing it head-on as opposed to using metaphor, allegory, and hyperbole to get their points across. This no-holds-barred approach, discussed by comedians Owen Smith and Neal Brennan, is incredibly powerful and effective. Using this strategy in comedy is even more ingenious; there is no better way to address a controversial issue than through the use of laughter. Creating a comedic situation out of horrible events inspired by racism and prejudice takes out all of the difficulty and polarization of discussing said events and allows the comedian or the audience to look at the issue for what it is, without having to tip-toe around controversy.

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The ABC sit-com, Black-ish, in its latest season, decided to make an episode discussing the injustice that is the lack of celebration in regards to Juneteenth, the day in 1865 on which all of the slaves in the U.S. were freed. The episode utilizes two brilliant tools that make describing the most horrendous situations easy: comedy, and music. Along with countless brilliant jokes that touch on a huge number of racial topics, such as ignorance and white privilege, the story of Juneteenth is also told through song with a few Hamilton-esque music numbers and one Schoolhouse Rock parody. This brilliant mix of comedy and carols allows, much like Mark Twain or any comedian, the show to touch on controversial topics in depth with ease. This ability gained from these unorthodox techniques, combined with ABC's broad base of viewers, assists the show's creators in spreading controversial thoughts and concepts (e.g. issues regarding the lack of Juneteenth celebration) to Americans who, most likely, would otherwise have no knowledge of said concepts.

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In contrast to other sources, most of which focus on race issues being exposed through pop culture, The Washington Post looked at how the n-word affects every day African Americans. Farmers John and John discuss experiences involving the horrible word, and one event featuring a very young, white child using it exposes a harrowing truth about race in the U.S. The child's proclamation, describing a group of black farmers using the n- word, shows that deep-seeded, racist attitudes are still prevalent in America, so much so that children still use incredibly hurtful racial epithets. Incidents like these happen in such a fashion that one could hear an identical sentence being uttered during Reconstruction. This sort of event does not show racial progress regressing, but instead, like Kendrick Lamar's Alright, shows racial progress staying in a place that could be argued to be similar to Reconstruction relations.

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Clint Smith: How to raise a black son in America

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Clint Smith: How to raise a black son in America

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In this poet's hair raising tale of being raised as a black son in America, Clint Smith discusses events and lessons that plagued his youth. The primary event discussed is an incident in which Smith was playing with some of his white friends, having a water gun war in a hotel parking lot. Smith's father pulls him inside and tells him he can not play like his white friends were; this disturbing truth contributes to an idea that is built through the piece: black people are presumed guilty when they are born, and spend their lives fighting to be proven innocent. The poet discusses police brutality and Black Lives Matter, saying the movement is a proclamation that African Americans are people, too. These struggles and issues, much like John and John's discussion, or Lamar's Alright, expose modern day race issues to be a shadowy reflection of Reconstruction relations. Smith's talk goes further, however, discussing his childhood as more of an exposé than some kind of nostalgic tale, painting vivid pictures detailing racial issues in the United States.

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In contrast to Black-ish's episode discussing lack of Juneteenth celebration, FX's Satire featuring a young African American music manager looks at cultural appropriation and white privilege in regards to the holiday. Earn, the show's protagonist, along with his girlfriend, Venessa, visit the home of an affluent white man throwing a celebration of the sacred day in 1865. The affluent man, Craig, who has taken interest in black culture as some sort of hobby, serves as the show's device for spewing social commentary; much like many of the characters and locations in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn serve as devices to show what Mark Twain had to say about his society. Throughout the episode, the audience learns one very important lesson, no matter how much a white person is immersed in black culture, they will never understand what it is like to be a person of color in the United States. From awkward slam poetry about Jim Crow, to asking if Earn has ever visited Africa, to enquiring about what part of Africa Earn's family is from, Craig's efforts come off more as cultural appropriation and ignorant behavior rather than understanding and genuine interest. All of this perpetuates the episodes message that nobody can understand being black in America except black people, and that white privilege eliminates any attempts at understanding from white people.

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Feeling Like A Tourist: Being Black In New England

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Feeling Like A Tourist: Being Black In New England

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In Debra Nunnally Beaupre's short article for NPR, she discusses some of the difficulties being African American can present while living in New England. Through descriptions of these difficulties, one of which includes a lit cigarette being flicked at her while being pregnant, she exposes the truth that, even in New England, a historically liberal area, people of color still face torment and mistreatment regularly. Beaupre even goes as far as to say that she would feel better living in the South in modern-day segregation, with black people being focused in one part of a town and whites being focused in a different part. This philosophy can also be connected to Clint Smith's story; his father would have likely felt safer if his son was playing in an African American-dominated part of town rather than a white area. This logical mentality, that segregation would make an individual feel better, really showcases that racial progress has not advanced much further than they had when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written.

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How Racism Affects People, Families and Communities of Color

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How Racism Affects People, Families and Communities of Color

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In Rosa Riley's article for The New York Amsterdam News, she writes about many of the systematic issues in society, all of which are caused directly by racism and prejudiced attitudes. Riley states that all of the racial issues people of color are presented with in the modern age are all leftovers from the "legacy of slavery." Many of these inequities are very similar to institutions erected in the Jim Crow South; like segregated towns and neighborhoods, and schools that are ill-equipped when compared to schools built for a primarily white population. Inequalities between racial communities is often systematic; there is a distinct lack of government intervention very similar to lacking seen during the Reconstruction age, when The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published. In short, not only has racial progress stalled since Reconstruction, so has government intervention in community inequity on a large scale.

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Kendrick Lamar's rap anthem, Alright, is a song laced with social commentary and critique over the faults in race relations in the modern U.S. The song discusses topical issues, like the seemingly endless amount of shootings committed by police officers that have since sparked exposition on police brutality fueled by racism and prejudice. Incidents like these display how, though on the surface, race relations have improved since the times of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, they really have not, and deep seeded issues having to do with race are still incredibly prevalent in today's society. Lamar goes even further and, through mention of "forty acres and a mule" (what freed slaves were promised after being emancipated by Union armies), says that race relations are just as bad as they were during Reconstruction. Music, just as it was used in Black-ish's Juneteenth episode, is again exemplified as a brilliant tool by Lamar, able to blast commentary on social issues, like race relations' lack of progress, in a very popular and effective manner.

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In Christina Greer's article for the The New York Amsterdam News, she writes about a variety of controversial issues. Everything from police brutality, to Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the National Anthem, to President Donald Trump are covered throughout the piece. All of these issues all relate back to the plague of white supremacy that is still present in the United States; another remnant of the legacy of slavery. During the Reconstruction Era, white supremacy ran rampant with group like the KKK and White League emerging like a phoenix from the ashes of slavery and the Civil War. There is, however, one important distinction between the times of old and today; during the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the U.S. government, under the leadership of people like Ulysses S. Grant, fought against white supremacist groups, today, the government does no such thing, at least not on a large scale. This is yet another example of how race relations have stalled since Reconstruction.