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Pippi Longstocking and 6 other supposedly racist children's characters

Rocketman said:
OMFG!


Say it ain't so, Pippi
Books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have long been banned in many schools and libraries over alleged racism. Could Pippi Longstocking be next? According to one theologian, Astrid Lindgren's classic children's novels about the pig-tailed adventurer feature unsavory "colonial racist stereotypes." Pippi joins a long list of surprising children's characters who have been accused of racism. From Babar to the Smurfs, here's a look:

Pippi Longstocking and 6 other supposedly racist children's characters - The Week
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Might as well burn them all...
 
Hatuey said:
That is exactly the point. They don't see Babar as the story of an elephant who was "civilized" by the Europeans and then came back to rule just like Europeans would. Tin Tin? Just another European explorer who gets the benefit of being carried around by Africans. The analysis a child gives to these is so simple that they don't even question why it is that Babar is civilized but elephants raised in Africa are not. The books explain it with "He went to Europe".

Ever, perpetuating the myth that Europeans civilized anyone. That's what these books do. They perpetuate myths and negative attitudes where Europeans are the good guys and everyone else is simply a big dumb-dumb. Ignoring the very real massacres, colonizations, destruction of cultures behind the stories. They're no different than France's bigoted depictions towards Americans. We don't teach those, do we? Of course not. They don't affect us. As long as the depictions are negative towards cultures we don't care about, it's fine.
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In the newer Disney collections they have done great things with their more questionable and risky output. Opening each film with a small segment that puts it into historical and social context and ultimately using those elements that would make many want to ban them to drive discussions about such things as racism, nationalism, and xenophobia. Personally, I can see no better tools for teaching children about these topics, especially when they serve as a vehicle to put them into terms the child can already relate to
 
Hatuey said:
Nope. But it has an "S". Just like apdst. Spurious comparisons are fun! Remember! Goebbels had common sense! If you have common sense! You're Joseph Goebbels! Humor? You're Hitler. You eat noodles? You're Mao! Lol. Seriously yo, quit the nonsensical comparisons. You'll get called on it every time. Because you're a conservative right? ;)
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If you support book burning, then that's for you to deal with mirroring the National Socialists.
 
apdst said:
If you support book burning, then that's for you to deal with mirroring the National Socialists.
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You just used the word "books". You know who else used the word books? Hitler.

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New game. When you use the word "Nazi" in a spurious manner, we're all taking a shot.
 
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Hatuey said:
You just used the word "books". You know who else used the word books? Hitler.
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He even wrote one!

Why do so many conservatives feel they can just slap a swastika on something they don't like and call that analysis?
 
Kobie said:
He even wrote one!

Why do so many conservatives feel they can just slap a swastika on something they don't like and call that analysis?
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Because the Nazis loved complicated analysis of complicated topics? Do anything Nazis hate.
 
Gathomas88 said:
:roll:
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Yeah, that's what you'll find. A post-colonial feminist scholar is nothing out of the ordinary. That's where much of the energy has been over the past 20 years.
 
Fiddytree said:
Yeah, that's what you'll find. A post-colonial feminist scholar is nothing out of the ordinary. That's where much of the energy has been over the past 20 years.
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Fair enough. However, I'm still not exactly sure why anyone would take a theologian's opinion on what is or is not culturally acceptable seriously, let alone one of the "feminist" variety.

The title is nonsensical post-modern word salad in and of itself.
 
Dr. Chuckles said:
criticism and analysis are great things, banning them from access is another step altogether, IMO. In fact, the later tends to make the former more difficult
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Certainly so, but in the examples shown, there had been fewer calls to restrict access than one would have expected. The first link in with Pippi had the scholar suggest that there was much to like from Pippi and that banning wasn't really her intention. Having families aware of the stories, willing to restrict access to their children, sure. That's not out of the ordinary. Tintin in Belguim, however, had calls to remove from school children access, if I recall correctly.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Fair enough. However, I'm still not exactly sure why anyone would take a theologian's opinion on what is or is not culturally acceptable seriously, let alone one of the "feminist" variety.

The title is nonsensical post-modern word salad in and of itself.
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It's pretty useful stuff, really. For instance, we have some fantastic work that analyzed popular literature in the early 20th century France from a gender prospective, connecting the natalist movement's concerns with the wider popular culture.

Politics and culture mix and pieces of evidence of this are books. Not entirely remarkable of a discovery by itself, but what we discover through that lens may be.
 
Fiddytree said:
Certainly so, but in the examples shown, there had been fewer calls to restrict access than one would have expected. The first link in with Pippi had the scholar suggest that there was much to like from Pippi and that banning wasn't really her intention. Having families aware of the stories, willing to restrict access to their children, sure. That's not out of the ordinary. Tintin in Belguim, however, had calls to remove from school children access, if I recall correctly.
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I think it was only one blatantly racist book: "Tin-Tin dans le Congo".
 
HenryChinaski said:
I have seen some children's books that date to 1900 that are racist. There was one series from that time called "Little Black Sambo" That should not be in any library. Just have to use common sense when drawing that line
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Exactly. Blatant racist propaganda is one thing, but the occasional bit of old-timey political incorrectness is something else entirely.

So what if a story that is almost a century old has "colonialist" messages? That's what society valued back then. "White washing" away those elements of the past that a person finds to be unsavory isn't going to change the fact that they happened all the same.

They are a part of our cultural heritage, and helped to lead us to where we are today. They should recognized within that context.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Exactly. Blatant racist propaganda is one thing, but the occasional bit of old-timey political incorrectness is something else entirely.

So what if a story that is almost a century old has "colonialist" messages? That's what society valued back then. "White washing" away those elements of the past that a person finds to be unsavory isn't going to change the fact that they happened all the same.

They are a part of our cultural heritage, and helped to lead us to where we are today. They should recognized within that context.
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I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, far too many parents are idiots who think that Huckleberry Finn is actually encouraging racism. I'd be willing to bet that's because most of them never read the book, they just heard it has that word in it.
 
Also, it's somewhat refreshing to see that we're seven pages deep in the thread and not one person has gone on some diatribe about how liberals and "PC" are destroying America.
 
Gathomas88 said:
Exactly. Blatant racist propaganda is one thing
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... Have you read Tin-Tin dans le Congo?

Angry_King_in_Tintin.JPG


... Kill the miserable white man.

tintin-au-congo.jpg


My friends, today I will speak to you about your nation, Belgium.

tintin_au_congo.jpg


There is politically incorrect racism (blacks like watermelon, whites can't dance, Jews love money - wait - that one is just plain old racism) - then there is stuff like this. My suggestion, analyze these examples on a case by case basis. I would say Babar and Tin-Tin's old stories are definitely racist.

They're European short stories meant to whitewash and make Europeans feel better about the way they helped rape Africa. The Pokemon one is pretty benign. Pippi Longstocking is also far more ambiguous. However, there is little doubt about Babar and Tin-Tin's racist suggestions.
 
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Hatuey said:
... Have you read Tin-Tin dans le Congo?

Angry_King_in_Tintin.JPG


... Kill the miserable white man.

tintin-au-congo.jpg


My friends, today I will speak to you about your nation, Belgium.

tintin_au_congo.jpg


There is politically incorrect racism (blacks like watermelon, whites can't dance, Jews love money - wait - that one is plain on racism) - then there is this.
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To be fair, the offensive thing about the excerpts that you posted is the art style and the chief's speech patterns more than anything else. The classroom scene's fine, as far as I can tell, and there isn't anything intrinsically racist about being carried around on a litter depending on the context.

However, I also agree that "Tin-Tin in the Congo" probably is one of the few books listed that should be taken off shelves in the name of good taste (if not necessarily banned outright). The same is really not true of Pippi's books or Huck Finn.
 
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Gathomas88 said:
To be fair
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This is a pretty good indication that you will be anything but.

the offensive thing about the excerpts that you posted is the art style and the chief's speech patterns more than anything else
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Yeah, the part of blacks being subservient to whites or the part about Africans not having their own culture (see "patrie"), or the part about African savages wanting to kill whites. Yeah, those aren't offensive. Are we talking about them not being offensive to apologists for colonialism or not being offensive to blacks?
 
Gathomas88 said:
To be fair, the offensive thing about the excerpts that you posted is the art style and the chief's speech patterns more than anything else. The classroom scene's fine, as far as I can tell, and there isn't anything intrinsically racist about being carried around on a litter depending on the context.

However, I also agree that "Tin-Tin in the Congo" probably is one of the few books listed that should be taken off shelves in the name of good taste (if not necessarily banned outright). The same is really not true of Pipi's books or Huck Finn.
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What about the meaning surrounding colonialist-politics: whites above colored, whites educate and civilize savage cultures by obliterating the "native" civilization's heritage, and so forth?
 
Hatuey said:
You just used the word "books". You know who else used the word books? Hitler.

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New game. When you use the word "Nazi" in a spurious manner, we're all taking a shot.
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When the GOVERNMENT RUN library bans those books, what do you think happens to them?
 
Kobie said:
He even wrote one!

Why do so many conservatives feel they can just slap a swastika on something they don't like and call that analysis?
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ha, just what a communist symp would say~!!!
 
Fiddytree said:
What about the meaning surrounding colonialist-politics: whites above colored, whites educate and civilize savage cultures by obliterating the "native" civilization's heritage, and so forth?
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Well, how can they be offensive when we can simply stop analyzing the book from an informed perspective? Obviously, you just do not like the drawings. Ignore what they're alluding to.
 
apdst said:
When the GOVERNMENT RUN library bans those books, what do you think happens to them?
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They turn into Nazis? Or is it Maoists now? I forget which fallacy you subscribe to on a regular basis.
 
apdst said:
When the GOVERNMENT RUN library bans those books, what do you think happens to them?
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"Government run." Yes, Obama is issuing edicts from the White House about library books.

Local libraries are at about as podunk a level of government as you can get.
 
Kobie said:
"Government run." Yes, Obama is issuing edicts from the White House about library books.

Local libraries are at about as podunk a level of government as you can get.
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To be fair, the ALA has always been really fundamental about first amendment issues. They will make most hardcore ACLUers look like weekend warriors
 
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