Posted on 06/25/2018 11:51:04 AM PDT by Ennis85
The US Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has removed Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from one of its awards over racist views and language.
The association had received complaints for years over the Little House on the Prairie author's "anti-Native and anti-Black sentiments in her work".
The ALSC board voted unanimously on Saturday to remove Wilder's name from the children's literature award.
The medal will be renamed as the Children's Literature Legacy award.
The ALSC, a division of the American Library Association, said Wilder's novels and "expressions of stereotypical attitudes" were "inconsistent with ALSC's core values".
Wilder's children's novels about pioneer life in the American West have been criticised for language that dehumanises indigenous peoples and people of colour.
Notably, one of the opening chapters of the Little House books described a land with "no people. Only Indians lived there".
In 1953, the Harper's publishing company decided to change "people" to "settlers", according to the Washington Post.
But the novels continues to raise concerns due to storylines featuring racist stereotypes and attitudes typical of white Americans of Wilder's era.
"The only good Indian is a dead Indian," one character says. At other points in the series, African-American characters are called "darkies".
Some fans of the novels say they offer an important historical perspective and should be used as teaching tools for children.
The letter from the ALSC board noted the "complexity" of this issue and "the emotion surrounding it".
"We acknowledge that Wilder's books not only hold a significant place in the history of children's literature and continue to be read today," the board's recommendation reads.
"We also acknowledge that they have been deeply painful to many readers."
But the novels continues to raise concerns due to storylines featuring racist stereotypes and attitudes typical of white Americans of Wilder's
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Ma and Pa Ingalls will be whipped in the town square.
The Erase and Replace Agenda includes the past.
Buy it while you can, that’s what.
I already have it.
1984
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
“”We also acknowledge that they have been deeply painful to many readers.””
To SNOWFLAKES, you mean.
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