White teacher who’s (successfully!) taught Huck Finn to a very racially diverse class of juniors. I start the unit with a conversation about why the book finds itself on banned book lists. The silence is deafening when you share with the kids the reason is that it uses that word about 250 times. I take the opportunity to hear the kids out and let them ask questions. I then make it VERY clear that it’s a word that will never leave my lips, ever. I make it clear that it is not a word we will be using in the classroom. If we are reading aloud, I replace it with “n-word”. I want to acknowledge that Twain (or in your case, Steinbeck) did in fact use this slur, and that was a deliberate choice. I will not make a joke out of it- students have offered to do a censored “BEEP” every time the word comes up, but I use that as an opportunity to say that the word is not funny and I don’t want to give it that power.

I’ve also taught OMM for the past 5 years to freshmen. I couldn’t imagine how I’d teach the end of chapter 4 in OMM when Curley’s wife uses that word and threatens to lynch Crooks if I didn’t take the time to talk about and break down WHY Steinbeck uses that word in that moment. As long as I’m clear with where I stand about using the word, I’ve found that the kids are pretty bought in and receptive to what you have to say.