George:

"To Kill a Mockingbird" has been required reading for at least my two oldest children in the Charlottesville schools. They have read it, they have enjoyed it, and there have been no repercussions. I am not aware of there having been complaints from the African-American parents or students. And nor should there be.

My own personal opinion, which I think is consistent with the opinions of most parents (including African-American ones), is that any attempt to discuss American race relations without acknowledging the existence of racially offensive language is ridiculous. "To Kill a Mockingbird" uses "the N-word" in ways that make some important points --

1. Atticus Finch does not want his children to use that word, because he wants them to see African-Americans as human beings, and he teaches them that such language is disrespectful to someone who is deserving of the respect that any human being is entitled to.

2. Using such language is ultimately demeaning for the user as well.

3. Those who use such language are the same ones who convict and lynch an innocent man.

One of the interesting aspects of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is that Harper Lee does not attempt to put horns on everyone who wrongly convicted Atticus' client; he shows us that it is normal people -- including folks whom we might regard as "good" people -- who participated in, or condoned, or acquiesced in, a wrongful killing and lynching.

When I came to Charlottesville in 1961, I knew people who used the "N" word liberally. They were respectable folks. They went to church. They served on juries. They owned businesses and practiced law. Many of them would not have regarded themselves as racists.

The real problem was that they had not learned the lessons of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Schools didn't carry or teach "To Kill a Mockingbird" then, because it was regarded as too liberal. The book was a mirror, and old-line Southerners didn't like what they saw in that mirror. Liberals and African-Americans, on the other hand, wanted it to be required reading.

Racially offensive language may be a reason for a school system not to use a particular book in teaching where it is gratuitous, and does not contribute meaningfully to an important message in the book.

Racially offensive language is no reason to suppress good literature. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is good literature.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, August 4, 2001).