Take Out the N-Word: It's Time to Remove Racism from Children's Books

[sysop]

SPIEGEL reporter Dialika Neufeld has a German mother and a Senegalese father. In an essay, she recalls the discrimination she experienced as a child and argues it is correct for publishers to remove deeply offensive language, such as the N-word, from children's books because it perpetuates racists stereotypes.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-879628.html

[ballymichael2]

Yes, I recall being rather shocked to hear the word "Neger" the first time. "But it doesn't have the same connotations, as in english!" protested my german acquaintance fiercely, when I queried it.

"Hmm". I thought.

I think minor changes to texts are unobjectionable, yes.

[innese]

I am afraid I can't agree with the author's opinions, though I have sympathy with her sentiments and experiences.
All literature has a place in history and needs to be read in context. It should not be altered to suit the sensitivities of the day. The author of this piece clearly took racial slights (yes, I chose that word, they were not racist) to heart. In reality they were just slights and she was sensitive to them. I suspect that being a rare sight in Kiel as a child meant she was a novelty and more likely to attract comment. That is just human nature. I suspect that being of first generation mixed blood she would have become aware of, and affected by, her parent's defensiveness too. Sadly around the Western world, it is people like her who have led the charge and (ironically on racial grounds) been given the moral authority to introduce a retrospective censorship that is not compatible with the freedoms we have otherwise fought hard over many centuries to achieve.
However, it should be noted that not all children of colour are bothered by them. I grew up in the reverse of her situation and being referred to in a local language by a word that can be taken as 'white scum' or 'white b@stard'. It was just a word and I knew it's common use was 'white person'. I accepted that 99% of the people who used the word meant it only as that . . . And here is the thing; that is the same way 'nigger' and 'negro' were originally used. The element of insult was an association that came later. When I was old enough to be the target of the word as an insult, even then I was still able to accept and ignore the regular use of the term by people who did not mean it as a slur. To this day it is still in use.
I have been in the UK long enough to see the word "Paki" be classified as a racist word and it's use can now result in a criminal conviction. As a cricket lover, I grew up referring to the various other cricket-playing nations as Aussies, Kiwis, Pakis, Poms and Windies. Thanks to loutish Poms (when will that word become unacceptable, I wonder) insulting the South Asians who typically run the corner store on many a nasty British housing estate, the word was sullied to the point of it's rejection as an acceptable term when referring to Pakistanis. The cricketing world still uses the other terms . . . for now.
It saddens me that people are raised to be so overly sensitive about race, because in hyper-sensitising children we create the current mess and in attempting to sort that mess to appease people with hurt feelings, we trample on literary and cultural history. But then why be unfair and stop at race? There will be stories, expressions and observations that are extremely hurtful to fat people, to ginger-haired people, etc. Do those need to be removed from the wider world by some some dark censorship body?
I have an electronic book reader and was thrilled to discover that I could download hundreds of free books that are available rights-free due to their age. I didn't fancy "The Art of War", I was bored stiff by "The Divine Comedy" and I would sooner have root canal work than read "Northanger Abbey " . . . so what did I find? Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. What a great read. It had been years since I read the book as a child and it, then, never occurred to me to start calling black people 'nigger' or 'negro'. It was a good story that was made so wonderfully atmospheric and powerful by Twain's Mississippi vernacular. What would Ms Neufeld propose doing with Twain's books . . or the bible . . or the Qu'ran . . or the Torah?
How do contemporary writers ever give their work an authentic historic flavour if they cannot use language in a historical context? Would Tarantino's scripts be as good if they were neutered with bland politically-correct words? Actually perhaps while we are tidying up racial terms, we should just clean up the swear-words too. No?

Read things as they were written and if they are no longer acceptable or compatible with our advancement as a society, then their rejection will come naturally. We don't need racialised, politicised guardians of the words we or our children might read. For those who belong to it, a culture is something to be proud of. When a minority with a questionable claim to it, or with a split loyalty, claim the moral high-ground and brow-beat the indifferent majority and their anxious-to-appease liberal guardians into retrospective change, it is a Phyrric victory in my view.

[j03f0]

I think the political climate of the 1990s the author describes, explains why she experienced racism.

"What has she been reading"?
Don't know, I don't remember Pippi Longstockings father applying for asylum and don't think "The Little Witch" features asylum-seekers...

I guess the right question would be: What has she been taught at home?
I read lots of old books as a child that were completely out of date in terms of e.g. gender roles but also terminology, yet I understood that this was a) FICTION and b) outdated. Why? Because the world around me was different and people's attitudes were different.

It doesn't matter what children read in stories, what counts is what they hear at the dinner table; what they see their parents and teachers say and do.

What's wrong with leaving those terms in? If children are being brought up non-racist they will either know that the terms are wrong and insulting or they will ask their parents: "What is a nigger/negro/indian/whatever?" because they will not have heard the word before and be curious to learn. If the words are 'corrected', they don't have the chance to learn.

[props_cv]

I don't agree with the author.

I mean, I cannot sympathize with the author because I have no immigrant background. But is this the right way to block everything away that we've problems with? And what I think is also not okay, to edit the intellectual property of people that are dead. Is Astrid L. a Nazi because she used the word "Negro"? (I know that wasn't said, but one can easily interpret that.)

A question for the author and other people: "Is it right to call people 'Nazi' because the have bad thoughts against other cultures?" I know this is very controversial and someone maybe think - is the person a Nazi, because its writes this?

In comprehension I understand that people with immigrant background don't always want to fight for their right don't called like that. In my opinion one of the best ways is to educate our children and ourselves for a greater society and don't just erase what we don't like, because this would be the most easiest way.

One thing to add: Please don't listen to/read anything Mrs. Schröter says or write. This woman is so not sophisticated!

[Trojan Horace]

I'm surprised this is even still being discussed... clearly this needs to be addressed. The more worrying question is what are you going to do about the racist language you hear in normal day to day business dealings with people? A bright young German graduate recently in Germany took great pride in announcing to me, as if it were a badge of honour, that he had been accused of "jewing down" a colleague in a business deal and he didn't seem to even understand the offence he was causing. In both the real world and the world of fiction a great deal more could be done to remedy such jaw-dropping racism

[oma-jackson]

Very true! But never could we have imagined how German intellectuals all of a sudden rose , to protect the little word in books for children.
It was compared with the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan or the holy monuments in Mali. The German culture was written to be endangered, census was feared, mind-police detected. Black Germans were called racists, when only they claimed their right to decide, to be called “Black” instead of negro/nigger. The Latin origin “negro” was mentioned as a reason, to print the n-word in children-books. When Black Germans and their relatives stated, that it is a word that hurts, that the discussion is a painful one, they were told by white Germans not to be so sensitive, or it is not true.
Germans lamented, that they would always be held responsible and found guilty for Nazi terror, when it was friendly suggested to eliminate the n-word.

[bumbleboo]

Originally Posted by sysop

SPIEGEL reporter Dialika Neufeld has a German mother and a Senegalese father. In an essay, she recalls the discrimination she experienced as a child and argues it is correct for publishers to remove deeply offensive language, such as the N-word, from children's books because it perpetuates racists stereotypes.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-879628.html

What would she have us say? The word Neger is in the German language and I know no other! Political Correctness has gone to ridiculous extremes in English the word Gay, which was used mean happy and carefree, has been stolen by the homosexual community! How did that happen? What is wrong with the word homosexual? Or is it a case of trying to make the description more comfortable to say?

[bjrnfrdnnd@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by sysop

SPIEGEL reporter Dialika Neufeld has a German mother and a Senegalese father. In an essay, she recalls the discrimination she experienced as a child and argues it is correct for publishers to remove deeply offensive language, such as the N-word, from children's books because it perpetuates racists stereotypes.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-879628.html

Here is what I fail to understand:

In which way does the usage of the n-word in Pippi Longstocking or Jim Knopf perpetuate racist stereotypes? In that context, to my knowledge, they are rather used to evoke exotic pictures; in Jim Knopf it might even be said that it is used in order to counter racist stereotypes, as Jim Knopf is the hero of the book and in no way impersonates any bad racist stereotypes concerning black people.

[umeshbhagwat]

The Holocaust
The anniversary of The Holocaust was celebrated all over the world on 27th January. The Holocaust is one of the tragic chapters of human history.It is perhaps the only instance when an entire race was deemed fit to be exterminated in the name of Aryan superiority! Millions of Jews were massacred,tortured,arrested and raped at the instance of a mad man,while the whole world watched helplessly!
It should be kept in mind that this "tendency" is still alive and kicking in the minds of certain "devils" who dream of world-empire! This was witnessed in Russia,China,Vietnam,Yugoslavia,Iraq and other countries.Unfortunately man has failed to learn anything from the past and is still living in a fool's paradise.
Today the greatest danger to mankind is from the unholy nexus of politicians,big corporations,armaments manufacturers,the messiahs and others who want to establish a new world empire dedicated to the worship of "Mammon" and are willing to go to any lengths to achieve their sinister designs! The power they wield is of an unprecedented nature."One mad hour destroyed what had taken centuries to achieve". Savitri by Sri Aurobindo.
Our fragile ecology is under brutal assault from all quarters-nuclear testing,dumpimg of chemical and industrial waste in our oceans,seas and rivers and underground.Now there is talk of transferring our pollutants to outer space! Can there be a greater imbecility? We are still obsessed with nuclear energy despite the recent tragedies in Chernobyl and Fukushima!

The Holocaust will recur unless there is a paradigm shift in human thinking!The old notions of race,religion,nation,culture,space,distance and time are irrelevant now and have to be discarded!We have to awaken to the grim reality that we have a common heritage and a common future.

Posted by umesh bhagwat at 13:24