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I Confess, I Never Saw That Show Or Read Those Books, So No Jokes About It. Sorry
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Once again, the question: Do we reconsider the past through the lens of present-day sensibilities? But now, the twist: What if the concerns were raised 66 years ago? That's the interesting angle to the news that the Association for Library Service to Children is stripping Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from her eponymous award because the "Little House on the Prairie" author's depictions of Native Americans and African Americans in her books can be considered racist. And, let's face it, if someone was complaining about racism in 1952, everyone can pretty much agree that it has to be racist. Back in '52, a reader complained to Wilder's publisher about the lines, “there were no people. Only Indians lived there," which imply that Native Americans weren't people. In 1953 (20 years after publication, by the way), the word "people" was changed to "settlers." But there was a lot more, like the repeated line “The only good Indian is a dead Indian," and much more, including a blackface scene. And a year later, the library group named an award after her. Now, 65 years after that, they're taking her name off the award. Should she have been honored in the first place? Conversely, do the racist comments in the book merely reflect the way people thought in the 1800s, and if so, should they be in a children's book? (Washington Post)
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