Author Topic: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Name Taken Off Book Award  (Read 645 times)

Offline Jem

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Re: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Name Taken Off Book Award
« on: June 25, 2018, 11:23:35 am »
I agree with pretty much everyone else that banning books is not the way to address past social problems. We cannot learn from past mistakes or inappropriate attitudes if we pretend they didn't happen.

I was actually talking about this concept in a broader sense this past weekend when discussing the kid/tween shows "Jessie" and "Andi Mack." Without going into too much detail, "Jessie" is in theory a great show in which a wealthy couple hires a nanny (Jessie) for their brood of kids, some biological and some adopted from India, Africa, and Latin America. While I think the show has some good qualities, I have always been disturbed by the stereotyping of the kids. For example, the boy from India speaks with a heavy accent and is book-smart but very socially awkward. It always came across as subtly racist in a way I am positive the producers did not intend.

Contrast that with "Andi Mack" which follows Andi who learns that the person she though was her mother is actually her grandmother, and the person she thought was her estranged sister is actually her mother. The cast is diverse - Andi's grandmother is Chinese and her grandfather is White, Andi's mother Bex is part Chinese and part White, and Andi's father is White. Andi's friends are White, Black, Jewish, Hispanic, one is gay.....but they address issues faced by all people on the show as mere portions of who the characters are. So for example, there are episodes in which Cyrus, who is Jewish, is realizing that he is gay. Once this is established, it is just a part of his character - not the defining part of his character, if that makes sense. And Andi is not "that girl who is part Chinese" but instead "Andi - she's a little quirky, she's a great friend, she's smart and talented."

Anyway, I got off topic, but my point is that I think we need to recognize and learn from past attitudes that are no longer "okay" rather than I guess pretend that such attitudes never existed. And I also think it is important to place things into context - I think few people believe Laura Ingalls Wilder to be a horrible and racist person, even though through the prism of today's attitudes she may seem that way at times. She didn't know better then. We do know better now. So I think talking about this makes sense, rather than pretending it never was a thing.
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