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Originally Posted by khalleron
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Seems like a massive over reaction to me. However, I must admit that I was one of those children who didn't think cartoon characters (in any media) were real people, or that they were even an accurate representation of real people.
I remembear watching Looney Tunes cartoons that had depictions of White, Black and Native American hunters (the first being Elmer Fudd, of course), and I never thought that they were anything but over the top funny. I also didn't think that rabbits and ducks could talk, or that if an anvil dropped on your head it would spring back like an accordian.
When it was time for me to read period literature, I took the racism to be a product of the time at which the piece was authored. I didn't internalize it because my mother raised me to think for myself. Sadly, it has been my experience that a lot of people prefer to have someone else do the thinking for them. I wonder why those people even bother to learn to read since it would seem that their whole world view would have to alter every time they picked up a copy of Lil' Lulu. (Oh yes, Sluggo ... proof positive that all White males are evil bullies.)
I spoke with a young lady at my vet's office day before yesterday. Sweet girl, just adorable. However, somehow it ended up coming out that she thought that France had no cross cultural or race issues. She was completely unaware of French Morocco, the French Foreign Legion, the fact that France has a HUGE Muslim population that is at cross purposes with the secular French government. She was also unaware that most of Africa was part of some European country's colonial empire up until WWII. And, the simple truth is, colonial governments always give rise to derogatory stereotypes and the writings will either reflect those or perpetuate them. Little Black Sambo, written by a woman who lived in colonial India, Sam Clemmons (who's work was really an indictment of racism) who grew up in the slave holding South. Margaret Mitchell, born in Atlanta, Georgia during some of the worst of the Jim Crow years. Interestingly, most people's perception of Blacks from "Gone with the Wind" come from the movie rather than the book. The two really don't have all that much in common other than names of characters.
So, for myself, I think the actions of the NY library system are deplorable. I also happen to think that any time children are exposed to materials that might be "sensitive" (the Bible, for example, full of racism, cruelty, slavery, murder), they should be taught the underlying history of the work so that they can understand it in context. This is, of course, assuming that they are not old enough or do not have the capacity to understand that rabbits don't talk (or live in houses and wear clothing - with all due respect to Beatrix Potter), that the people of the Congo are not monkeys, and that tigers don't turn into butter.
Of course, restricting access to, and not teaching about the history and context of, any artwork or literature leaves people as (well, as my favorite movie character would say) "Aryans from Darrien with braces on their brains").