"Little House On The Prairie" Is Racist

[+ Avalon]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44604844

 

I had no idea. I've never read the books. I didn't watch the show when it first aired but years later I've watched all the episodes.

[+ azdr0710]

This news came out a couple weeks ago. PCness run amok.

[thickornotatall]

I read all the books way back in elementary school....I never associated any of her works with racism....I also read Eddie and Gardenia series /B Is For Betsy and Billy....I hope they are clean!

 

http://images.paperbackswap.com/l/72/7772/167772.jpg

[+ Avalon]

This news came out a couple weeks ago. PCness run amok.

 

I just heard about it on the radio this morning.

[+ Avalon]

I read all the books way back in elementary school....I never associated any of her works with racism....I also read Eddie and Gardenia series /B Is For Betsy and Billy....I hope they are clean!

 

http://images.paperbackswap.com/l/72/7772/167772.jpg

 

Not familiar with them.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Haywood

 

I learned to read with the Dick and Jane books.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Jane

[+ azdr0710]

not to mention Mark Twain.....

 

(but I fear this thread will end up in that hellhole Politics forum pretty soon)

Edited July 5, 2018 by azdr0710

[caliguy]

not to mention Mark Twain.....

 

(but I fear this thread will end up in that hellhole Politics forum pretty soon)

Haha. I'm such a puss today. I removed my comment for some reason. Yes. Mark Twain is a better example because his books have actually been banned over it.

[+ azdr0710]

Haha. I'm such a puss today. I removed my comment for some reason. Yes. Mark Twain is a better example because his books have actually been banned over it.

 

I deleted your quote....we're safe again!

[+ Avalon]

In high school we had to read "Huck Finn" but one entire class period was devoted to the "N" word. The time and place the book was written, that Twain was against slavery. That we shouldn't use it etc.. I didn't use the "N" word nor did I know anyone who did. I went to a small country high school. There was only one black family.

[tenderloin]

Banning literature because we are more sensitive and use more "enlightened" words today is a profoundly stupid thing to do. By reading such works, uncensored, we learn more about the times in which they were written (and the people who wrote them). It is particularly shameful that this act is being perpetrated by the Library Association.

 

We should remember that Martin Luther King, amazing guy that he was, was also homophobic. When do we start to scrub him out of history (sarcasm intended)?

[+ Avalon]

Banning literature because we are more sensitive and use more "enlightened" words today is a profoundly stupid thing to do. By reading such works, uncensored, we learn more about the times in which they were written (and the people who wrote them). It is particularly shameful that this act is being perpetrated by the Library Association.

 

We should remember that Martin Luther King, amazing guy that he was, was also homophobic. When do we start to scrub him out of history (sarcasm intended)?

 

The take on MLK and gays seems to be mixed

 

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/16/what-did-mlk-think-about-gay-people/

[TruHart1]

Banning literature because we are more sensitive and use more "enlightened" words today is a profoundly stupid thing to do. By reading such works, uncensored, we learn more about the times in which they were written (and the people who wrote them). It is particularly shameful that this act is being perpetrated by the Library Association...

Check out the 1953 Ray Bradbury classic novel: Fahrenheit 451

 

TruHart1

[tenderloin]

The take on MLK and gays seems to be mixed

 

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/16/what-did-mlk-think-about-gay-people/

Agreed. My point is that we can take MLK's words out of context and make him look like a bigot. Fetch me the tar and feathers....

[+ quoththeraven]

This news came out a couple weeks ago. PCness run amok.

Oh please. It's a compendium of settler ideology.

 

You're perfectly entitled not to be bothered, but it's certainly reasonable for a Native person to view it as an endorsement of theft and genocide. And if settler views of Natives weren't racist, what would you call them?

[+ quoththeraven]

Haha. I'm such a puss today. I removed my comment for some reason. Yes. Mark Twain is a better example because his books have actually been banned over it.

Huckleberry Finn shouldn't be taught in school because that normalizes the use of the term ni**er, but it's not clear to what extent it normalizes racism and to what extent it describes or critiques it, whereas where Little House stands is clear.

[+ quoththeraven]

Check out the 1953 Ray Bradbury classic novel: Fahrenheit 451

 

TruHart1

No one is calling for Little House to be banned. And the issue is the name of an award meant to reward inclusiveness in children's literature.

 

How would you like it if as a gay man you were nominated for an award named after noted homophobe and author Orson Scott Card?

[tenderloin]

so let's pretend that no one in the 1800's used the N word. yeah, that will make it better and give kids an accurate picture of culture back then....

[tenderloin]

No one is calling for Little House to be banned. And the issue is the name of an award meant to reward inclusiveness in children's literature.

 

How would you like it if as a gay man you were nominated for an award named after noted homophobe and author Orson Scott Card?

If we start scrubbing from history everyone whose statements or writings are not aligned with current-day thinking, there aren't going to be many people left.

[+ Keith30309]

Huckleberry Finn shouldn't be taught in school because that normalizes the use of the term ni**er, but it's not clear to what extent it normalizes racism and to what extent it describes or critiques it, whereas where Little House stands is clear.

Really? This has me scratching my head...

 

I’d have guessed that the normalization of racial epithets has very little to do with the study of literature. I always thought of it as being more closely correlated with the LACK of education.

[+ Avalon]

If we start scrubbing from history everyone whose statements or writings are not aligned with current-day thinking, there aren't going to be many people left.

 

Good point! The norms of right and wrong, good and bad are evolving. We can't always use modern norms to judge the past. We know that slavery is morally wrong but I've never heard Caesar being condemned for owning slaves. Time and place are important.

[+ quoththeraven]

Really? This has me scratching my head...

 

I’d have guessed that the normalization of racial epithets has very little to do with the study of literature. I always thought of it as being more closely correlated with the LACK of education.

Some teachers treat it sensitively. Some teachers have black students read the parts that use racial epithets for the class.

 

You do understand why that's traumatic and inappropriate?

[+ quoththeraven]

If we start scrubbing from history everyone whose statements or writings are not aligned with current-day thinking, there aren't going to be many people left.

It was the name of a fucking award.

 

Gosh, you guys are Chicken Little snowflakes.

[+ purplekow]

It was the name of a fucking award.

 

Gosh, you guys are Chicken Little snowflakes.

 

So again what has changed that requires the name change? Has the quality of her storytelling changed?

I think the the snowflakes are the ones that cannot accept that times change and that everything that has come before has value in that it has allowed things to come to this point. I am not sure why Ms. Wilder's name was attached to the award, but I doubt it is because she was insensitive to racial inequities but rather she was selected because she wrote stories which reflected her experiences at the time and that these stories were compelling and entertaining. I would suggest that it would reflect better to erase all the eponymous awards and call it a day. Today Laura Ingalls Wilder, tomorrow F Scott Fitzgerald, Beatrix Potter and William Shakespeare.

[+ quoththeraven]

So again what has changed that requires the name change? Has the quality of her storytelling changed?

I think the the snowflakes are the ones that cannot accept that times change and that everything that has come before has value in that it has allowed things to come to this point. I am not sure why Ms. Wilder's name was attached to the award, but I doubt it is because she was insensitive to racial inequities but rather she was selected because she wrote stories which reflected her experiences at the time and that these stories were compelling and entertaining. I would suggest that it would reflect better to erase all the eponymous awards and call it a day. Today Laura Ingalls Wilder, tomorrow F Scott Fitzgerald, Beatrix Potter and William Shakespeare.

I disagree with your analysis, but your suggestion is a good one.

 

Instead of clinging to outdated books calling Black people darkies and repeating the only good Indian is a dead Indian, let's have schools teach books like Octavia Butler's Kindred, in which a Black woman and her white husband are sent back in time to before the Civil War where she repeatedly rescues the white slaveowner's son who is her ancestor.

[+ Avalon]

I disagree with your analysis, but your suggestion is a good one.

 

Instead of clinging to outdated books calling Black people darkies and repeating the only good Indian is a dead Indian, let's have schools teach books like Octavia Butler's Kindred, in which a Black woman and her white husband are sent back in time to before the Civil War where she repeatedly rescues the white slaveowner's son who is her ancestor.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(novel)

 

We need the classics. I've thought the best educational system would be the Great Books.

 

I will not give up Dante even though some today do not like some of the choices he made when placing people in the Inferno.