Levedy

Speaking of twisted story lines, Star Wars had some slavery issues. See the "droids" as a reference to african slavery. C3PO refers to all his owners as master. The Jawas also sell them off on the desert planet Tatooine for money. They also adhere restraining devices on all of them to prevent them from running away. All droids were sold for varying uses such as translaters, field workers and computer labor. A bartender also is quoted as saying, "We don't allow their kind here." refering to the droids entering with Luke Skywalker. Which is strictly a racist comment about slaves/droids. Very interesting..........

Dude - go outside once in a while.

I always liked the story about Little Black Sambo. When I grew up I was told that it was racist. I now can't figure out why. Because he was African? Because he outsmarted the tigers? Because he ate pancakes? What is it that is racist?

Nothing but the illustrations, I guess. When I worked at Borders, there was a corporate mandate to keep the book out of the children's section. We had to file it in the "African-American Fiction" section. I can't figure out if that's better or worse.

You can google Little Black Sambo and see some other illustrations that are pretty sketchy. My edition, though, isn't really that bad.

Here's a good explanation:
http://childrensbooks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.handprintbooks.com/html%5Ffiles/BOSTONGLOBEarticle.html

Wow! Hadn't thought about the voices in a long time. I googled and pulled up a copy of the story. As I was reading silently through it, the voices came back. Dad and I used to switch off as to who would be the Tiger. We both liked using the low, gravely gr-r-r-r-r-r voice. I was Sambo, mostly, because I was better at the higher pitched 'little kid' voice.

Warm fuzzy memories. And I know that the voices in my head aren't real... but they DO have some pretty good ideas! :-)

John, I read the article, and it boils down to the name Sambo being racist. I can understand; I think that I might be miffed if it were called Little White Honky.

However, I think that the article misses the point: it was a children's story that praises creative problem solving and a cool head under pressure. It's the adults that have a problem with the character's name.

The writers of the article never asked a kid what the kid thought. I think it becomes a case of parents overthinking issues for children and making a royal mess out of a simple story. As a kid, I could have cared less if his name was Sambo or Bill. It was still a cool story.

What? Nobody remembers that stuff from Star Wars? Come on. I haven't seen it in years and I still remember that. Its funny stuff I tell you.

I loved that story too and like Jen I understand the whole name issue but wish we could get past it so other children could enjoy the story. I still have the copy John and I read but admit I never read it to Debra. Too bad.

I'll be the black sheep here (pun intended) to say that even if the story itself isn't inherently racist, with today's sensibilities, the name and imagery is. Even though children may not perceive it as such as children, it's adults who created this vision of Sambo to pass onto children...and the image, meaning, and history of Sambo is racist. I think the fact that a number of children grew up reading the story and are not racist (at least overtly) is testiment to the fact that culture has more influence than a children's story on kids' understanding of race.

I have a question though, if we changed the character to a more modern image of a black person, say a pC young girl, and named her Laquisha...is that racist?

Someone beat you to the punch, Shannon. One guy published it as "Sam and the Tigers" and someone else did Little Black Sambo with beautiful, lifelike illustrations. I would buy that edition to read to my kids:

Amazon Link Here

What is the reason for this, exactly?

http://www.pulpvintage.com/pics/items/11000286A.jpg