Ah! Here's another edition!
Oct. 29th, 2009 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Judging by the reviews I'm guessing this is the exact same words Helen Bannerman used, but different illustrations. Well, even before recently her words were tied to many different sets of pictures, something people don't often realize today.
Here's one review that I'm looking at right now:
First of all I think that racism is learned. I found nothing wrong with this story and in fact it was one of my favorites as a kid. Many a time you would find us playing tigers running around a tree and melting into butter. To me, it is a story about a little black boy who has two parents who love him very much and give him gifts. The tigers try to eat him, he gives them his clothes and then, while they're fighting, he gets them back. I loved how the tigers turned to butter and Sambo got to eat 169 pancakes! Wow, a huge stack of pancakes loaded with freshly melted butter. I know my kids would love that. I asked my kids 12 and 10 what they thought of the story. Did they think it was mean to black people. We all agreed that it was a good story and could be written with any race and still be good. As for their names-since we haven't studied the history of how hated dark skinned people across the world have been in such depth, they don't mean a thing to us. Why wait 100 years to read the story just because some people can't get over the past? I hope you'll read the book and enjoy it with your children-that's what it was written for-and when you're done go make some pancakes together:)
Her kids are TEN and TWELVE. When on earth did she intend to teach them about racism? Do they know anything about the world around them? (Oh wait - it's all in the past. GOT it. Of course, it still sounds like they're ignorant of any form of recent history....)
Here's one review that I'm looking at right now:
First of all I think that racism is learned. I found nothing wrong with this story and in fact it was one of my favorites as a kid. Many a time you would find us playing tigers running around a tree and melting into butter. To me, it is a story about a little black boy who has two parents who love him very much and give him gifts. The tigers try to eat him, he gives them his clothes and then, while they're fighting, he gets them back. I loved how the tigers turned to butter and Sambo got to eat 169 pancakes! Wow, a huge stack of pancakes loaded with freshly melted butter. I know my kids would love that. I asked my kids 12 and 10 what they thought of the story. Did they think it was mean to black people. We all agreed that it was a good story and could be written with any race and still be good. As for their names-since we haven't studied the history of how hated dark skinned people across the world have been in such depth, they don't mean a thing to us. Why wait 100 years to read the story just because some people can't get over the past? I hope you'll read the book and enjoy it with your children-that's what it was written for-and when you're done go make some pancakes together:)
Her kids are TEN and TWELVE. When on earth did she intend to teach them about racism? Do they know anything about the world around them? (Oh wait - it's all in the past. GOT it. Of course, it still sounds like they're ignorant of any form of recent history....)
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-30 02:38 am (UTC)i sat in on a class last week called "class and education". there was a discussion going on, where students were taking about middle- and working-class interchangeably - as if they were the same thing. when called on it, one girl actually said "i don't know if i'm just more compassionate than other people, but i really just don't SEE race and class - teehee!!"
B.A.R.F.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-30 03:32 am (UTC)Oh, isn't it just!
one girl actually said "i don't know if i'm just more compassionate than other people, but i really just don't SEE race and class - teehee!!"
Wow, she's so... modest.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-03 03:54 am (UTC)Leaving aside the red-herring question of dermal pigmentation, it's true that being born into the upper class generally does give one access to an education, whether or not one chooses to avail oneself of it. And it is certainly true that familiarity with the scientific method is considered essential to a proper education. The whole concept of 'race' is utterly unscientific, "not even wrong", as was conclusively demonstrated half a century ago.
The fact that one knows this doesn't make one unable to distinguish relative skin-tones, nor to discern class-markers in behavior and appearance. It doesn't make one more compassionate than other people, either. It only makes one less ignorant.
Yeah, being white and upperclass, or middle-class at least, the girl has probably never been subjected to routine scarcity and systematic oppression, nor lived among those who have been, and doesn't realize the differences that makes. That's what she doesn't SEE; she erroneously imagines that people who have, still think and feel and live pretty-much the same way she does.
Well, is that so awful? It's naive, yes, but naivete is a function of youth (and so is inappropriate giggling.) Surely there are enough people out there who DO see race and class, and intend to war about it to the bitter end, that this idealistic little chickie can be excused for the time being.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-09 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-30 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-03 03:16 am (UTC)However, I have a very hard time remembering all the 'race'-related media tropes, and knowing which one is meant to apply in what plot-point. The whole thing is so utterly surreal, it's hard to take any of it seriously.