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In reply to the discussion: Association removes Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from award [View all]madaboutharry
(40,201 posts)1. Your link is bad.
This is not a new issue with literature. The original Nancy Drew books were grossly racist and anti Semitic. Gone With The Wind is a racist screed. William Shakespeare gave us Shylock. Charles Dickens gave us Fagen. The list of racist stereotypes of Blacks in literature is a thousand miles long. Asian women cringe at the way they have been portrayed in literature, usually as sex workers, Geishas, and concubines.
It is a dilemma.
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I agree with you. Just like Mark Twain. They wrote as things were at the time.
sinkingfeeling
Jun 2018
#4
I don't have an issue with this. "Products of their time" shouldn't be held up as examples for the
WhiskeyGrinder
Jun 2018
#16
The naming of a top ALA award after her was also a product of its time, and times have changed
fishwax
Jun 2018
#18
Dismantling institutional oppression means looking at our heroes critically, as well as our enemies.
WhiskeyGrinder
Jun 2018
#19
There's also the part where the organization that issues the award started having a discussion
WhiskeyGrinder
Jun 2018
#39
Nothing is lost by renaming this award to more clearly and explicitly include all young readers.
WhiskeyGrinder
Jun 2018
#40
Hell, I bet most of the people complaining the loudest had no idea the award existed.
sweetloukillbot
Jun 2018
#48