"Little House On The Prairie" Is Racist

[+ quoththeraven]

When one writes about the past, presumably one is trying to create as accurate a picture of the time and place as possible. Sanitizing the past to avoid hurting feelings today is, I would argue, more harmful to anyone than the use of words (however distasteful) in the proper context.

 

Look at it this way: if I wrote a story about the Stonewall riots, I would not have the cops refer to the patrons as "members of the LGBTQ community" - the cops called us faggots and dykes and cocksuckers and.... Whether or not we like it, that is part of our shared history, and should not be forgotten, erased, or sanitized.

Except the purpose of that would be to delegitimize those words, whereas there are plenty of people today only too happy to get the goahead to use "ni**er" for its intended purpose.

 

Also elementary and possibly even secondary school kids are still not the right audience for slurs.

[+ quoththeraven]

I may not be the right person to write such a story? Oy. For the record, I am an author and historian. The idea that one must be the right race/gender/whatever to write anything is repugnant to anyone who truly values freedom of expression.

Ugh. The idea that a white man truly understands the experience of people of color is repugnant to anyone who values truth and sincerity.

 

Or that a straight man understands what it's like to be gay.

 

Or that someone mistakes writing about history for either of these.

 

P.S. By story, I meant fiction, not history. And history has to be honest, unlike, say, some Civil War history that aims at justifying the South.

[+ bigjoey]

Ugh. The idea that a white man truly understands the experience of people of color is repugnant to anyone who values truth and sincerity.

 

Or that a straight man understands what it's like to be gay.

 

You paint with too broad a brush. There are many whites who do not understand the experience of people of color BUT there are others who do. I have known two white men who put their lives at risk to march with Dr King in Alabama; they did so because they understood the black experience there and were outraged into action.

 

I have an extended family member I have mentioned before who understood the black experience and was moved to action. Esther Brown:

http://www.famous-trials.com/brownvtopeka/661-meetthebrowns

 

Your screed is insulting to the many whites who understand the experience of people of color and are moved to action to help.

[+ poolboy48220]

There's sympathizing, and then there's really understanding. I'm 6'2" and big. I don't worry about walking around alone at night. I understand, on an intellectual level, that most women (or smaller men) have that fear; I can't say that I've truly FELT that fear every time I go out.

 

There was an article in this morning's paper from a columnist I enjoy, Leonard Pitts, who said it's long overdue that African-Americans stop having to worry about having to explain themselves For barbecuing. For selling bottled water. For napping in a dorm. For mowing a lawn. For smoking.

[tenderloin]

Ugh. The idea that a white man truly understands the experience of people of color is repugnant to anyone who values truth and sincerity.

 

Or that a straight man understands what it's like to be gay.

 

Or that someone mistakes writing about history for either of these.

 

P.S. By story, I meant fiction, not history. And history has to be honest, unlike, say, some Civil War history that aims at justifying the South.

 

So in your twisted world, the only people who can write fiction containing characters of a specific race/ethnicity/religion/sexuality are people of that same race/ethnicity/religion/sexuality? How does a male writer include female characters? What about Kazuo Ishiguro, author of "Remains of the Day" among many others, and winner of countless prizes? How dare a Japanese person dare to write about early 20th century Britain? Say goodbye to most of the world's great literature. The examples are countless. Your assertion is laughable and ridiculous.

[Courage]

So in your twisted world, the only people who can write fiction containing characters of a specific race/ethnicity/religion/sexuality are people of that same race/ethnicity/religion/sexuality? [sNIP] The examples are countless. Your assertion is laughable and ridiculous.

 

(1) They can try. The results vary. Certainly, hiding the "countless" examples behind the *best* examples is overestimating the quality of all examples.

 

(2) Some literature *relies* on the texture of personal experience. Some doesn't. There are great examples of both.

 

(3) A white writer can transliterate dialect flawlessly, research relentlessly, document extensively, and sympathize a whole bunch...but second-hand is second-hand. It works in all directions: black writers' attempts to get into white people's minds can be pretty jarring. To pick an example, Ernest Gaines wrote in the voice of a white college student in a chapter of A Gathering of Old Men...and I didn't think it worked as well as the other voices.

Edited July 12, 2018 by Courage!

[+ poolboy48220]

One of my favorite science fiction authors, John Varley, wrote female characters very convincingly; not just according to me, but according to a female friend, an avid science fiction reader. My friend wrote him asking if he was really a woman writing under a male name (which happened a lot, back in the day, as female s-f writers could be taken as not serious by some readers). He did respond to her saying yes, he was really a guy, he could send a letter of verification from his wife :-)

[alkan]

One of my favorite science fiction authors, John Varley, wrote female characters very convincingly; not just according to me, but according to a female friend, an avid science fiction reader. My friend wrote him asking if he was really a woman writing under a male name (which happened a lot, back in the day, as female s-f writers could be taken as not serious by some readers). He did respond to her saying yes, he was really a guy, he could send a letter of verification from his wife

Yes and in the nineteenth century that concealment of gender was quite usual, George Eliot (who could "write" both male and female characters with the highest level of skill and insight) being the foremost example perhaps. I wonder why Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell chose to use her name with the "Mrs" so firmly attached. And a lot of romantic novelists in the 1950's and 1960's were popularly supposed to be male authors using female names.