From the age of five (or thereabouts) my father used to read to us on a regular basis, and the stories that most enthused myself and my brother were about Brer Rabbit, and Tom Sawyer.
We grew up with a great respect for these books, and saw nothing insulting in the content or the dialect.
I tried to find copies to read to my own children, and had no trouble with Tom Sawyer, but couldn't get hold of the Brer Rabbit stories at all.
I regard this as a great loss. A wonderful series of beautifully written tales has been removed from the literary scene in the name of political correctness.
What, I wonder, would be the reaction if we objected to any writings that used the word white as a descriptor for our culture? There would be little left of literature, without the works of Dickens, Swift, and many others whose books have been required educational reading for many years. Even Shakespeare would not survive.
Isn't it about time that we stopped seeing insult and denigration where none was intended?