TRENTON, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Two New Jersey lawmakers say it's time to put 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' on the shelf permanently.
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The Mark Twain novel follows Huckleberry Finn, a young white boy, and runaway slave Jim, as they make their way along the Mississippi River in the antebellum south.
The book contains more than 200 uses of the N-word.
"Its depiction of racist attitudes can cause students to feel upset, marginalized, or humiliated and can create an uncomfortable atmosphere in the classroom," wrote Assembly members Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Mercer) and Jamal Holley (D-Union).
Peter Roos, executive director of the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, says the novel deserves a deeper look.
"To look at Huckleberry Finn the way most people do, is to kind of surface exam it," Roos told NJ.com.
Huckleberry Finn was written shortly after the end of slavery and Roos says it exposed Jim Crow laws.
"This is one of the earliest pieces of American literature to take a stand against racism and he does that by really showing Jim as a human being ... a fellow traveler with equal rights and he depicts Huck's growth," Roos said. "That's how the book should be taught."
Reynolds-Jackson disagreed.
"When you look at how the book puts one group down and raises another up, in the climate we live in right now, it's very, very cruel," the assemblywoman said.
NJ.com reports, the resolution was prompted by social media posts from a student in Hopewell Township in which racial slurs and lynching were referenced.
"Students might think it's OK to say these things, when its actually not," Reynolds-Jackson said.
The non-binding resolution would ask schools to voluntarily stop teaching the novel, but it would have to pass the state Senate and Assembly before being signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.
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