tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post4443079098129657063..comments2024-01-13T21:31:23.388-05:00Comments on Reading While White: Knowing Better, Doing BetterReading While Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07807138877345669931noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-58571733849043856012018-11-27T16:34:08.863-05:002018-11-27T16:34:08.863-05:00Good points, Elisa. I can understand them cleary. ...Good points, Elisa. I can understand them cleary. Just look at the 1933 King Kong film, for instance: Not only are the indigenous people of Skull Island depicted as grunting savages, but there are also racist comparisons between black people and King Kong: He is abducted from his home island and brought to America in chains, then escapes and subsequently is defeated due to his lust for a white woman.<br />And don't forget the Dragon Ball character Mr. Popo, who was created in Japan but who has an utterly tone-deaf appearance (he resembles a pitch-black genie with bright red lips, and is a servant).<br /><br />Question 1: Are there any species of monkeys or apes that are conspicuously absent from these kinds of books? And are there any primate species that NOBODY could ever associate with black or brown people? For instance, no racists have ever slandered POCs as "squirrels" (yes, I know they aren't primates, but many of them are brown-colored, besides, some are even white-colored).<br /><br />Question 2: Are there any books that feature such anthropomorphic primates (or even other kinds of animals) being profiled by other anthropomorphic animals who are "speciesist"? Such as, for instance, gorilla children who are hurt when their rhinoceros and giraffe classmates assume they are knuckle-walkers and chest-thumpers? That, I suppose, could serve as an eye-opening kind of book, provided it weren't too stereotypical. (See this article: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/03/02/disney_s_zootopia_has_a_message_for_kids_about_racial_profiling.html )<br /><br />And ironically enough, the author of <i>Voices in the Park</i> wrote another gorilla book titled <i>Willy and Hugh</i> with much fewer, if not less racist, undertones: A lonely boy named Willy is walking in a park. He collides with Hugh, a man who could easily have been portrayed in the (very racist) way that Darren Wilson described Michael Brown--his full name is Hugh Jape, as in 'huge ape', and in the first illustration he appears, he's looking angrily at something unseen behind him. But he is portrayed in a far more humane way than Michael Brown was: he wards off a bully menacing Willy (a bully who is shown wearing a cap similar to a police officer's) and is shown to be afraid of spiders. Still, I think Anthony Browne should have done more research on racist stereotypes before illustrating either of those two books in the way that he did.Sam Jonsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06037969317578064759noreply@blogger.com