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In reply to the discussion: Association removes Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from award [View all]betsuni
(25,380 posts)23. I don't think they're that bad.
I remember "Little House on the Prairie" being the worst about Native Americans, but from then on (as far as I remember) it was the mother who hated them, not anyone else in the family, and in "The Long Winter" it was a native who warned the settlers of the bad weather to come. An embarrassing black face show in a later book. But Laura never seemed nasty about anything. Why not just edit those objectionable parts out in later editions?
I love Betty MacDonald's "The Egg and I" (where the Ma and Pa Kettle movie characters came from), but she hates the tribes of the Olympic Peninsula and is really disgusting about it. Much worse.
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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