Posted on 11/04/2015 11:35:39 AM PST by Enlightened1
Emily Jenkins, whose book A Fine Dessert has drawn criticism for ‘misleading depiction of slavery’, now plans to donate her fee to diversity campaign
The author of a glowingly reviewed picture book says that she has “come to understand that my book, while intended to be inclusive and truthful and hopeful, is racially insensitiveâ€, following criticism over its images of smiling slaves.
A Fine Dessert, published in January, tells how “four families, in four different cities, over four centuriesâ€, make blackberry fool. Starting in Lyme, England, in 1710, Emily Jenkins’s story, and Sophie Blackall’s pictures, go on to depict a slave girl and her mother in 1810 Charleston, preparing and serving a fool for a white family, before licking the bowl themselves, hidden in a cupboard.
It was picked last month as one of the New York Times’s best illustrated books of 2015, with Blackall’s “warm, finely detailed illustrations†praised for how they “capture the sweep of history and the constancy of family loveâ€. Reviewer John Lithgow had previously given the book a positive write-up, highlighting the “bold and somewhat unsettling choice†to “portray a smiling slave woman and her daughterâ€.
But in the months since the book has been published, objections to its depiction of the slave characters have emerged. In August, one librarian pointed to its “misleading depiction of slaveryâ€.
“It’s clear that the creators had noble goals, and a criticism of their work is just that – a criticism of the book (not them),†wrote Elisa Gall, an elementary school librarian from Illinois. “But despite the best of intentions, the result is a narrative in which readers see slavery as unpleasant, but not horrendous.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
That’s because slaves never smiled. And all of them were beaten to death. Everyone knows that.
She is an idiot for apologizing since there is nothing to apologize for.
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Hmmm....I guess Captain Queeg must have been right about those strawberries....
"She is an idiot."
Your comment could have ended there and would have been equally valid.
Leftists being insensitive to leftists and then sitting in the corner wearing a dunce hat as Chinese dissidents did during the Cultural Revolution. I love to see these lunatics eat their own young.
She is an idiot for apologizing since there is nothing to apologize for.
Because everyone knows a slave mother and her daughter would never smile at each other.
Because everyone knows a slave mother and her daughter would never smile at each other.
If slaves weren’t happy, why were they always singing?
http://www.gwu.edu/~folklife/bighouse/images/xv1.jpg
These particular slave quarters look better than the shanty town slums of the 3rd world.
My European ancestors made the crossing on HMS Crown, Michael James, Captain, as indentured servants. Other Americans came as convicts. How long are you allowed to moan and groan over indignities suffered by your ancestors?
Holy cow! “Roots” is racist! People smiled in that all the time! Who woulda thunk it?
On their way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean where they were eaten by sharks.
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