Re: The Little Engine that Could (was Re: Scorned Feminists)

[Marilynne Smith <mrsmith -at- CTS -dot- COM>]

At 06:01 PM 3/18/96 GMT, Nancy Hayes wrote:
>Mourning what Polictical Correctness has done to children's stories.

>The thread on the little engine that could reminds me of another
>children's story that is lost forever to Political Correctness.  Does
>anyone on the group remember "Little Black Sambo"?  Does anyone remember
>the pancake house chain of restaurants based on the story?  I found this
>story in an antique store and it's going for thirty dollars. Nothing like
>banning something to increase its value.

>Of course I could be
>remembering wrong, but I have no idea what the PC nuts found
>objectionable in that story.  Sambo was the =protagonist= at least in the
>version I remember.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think they felt that little black Sambo was portrayed as a stereotype
black, running around in his little loin cloth, being foolish about tigers,
and thinking only about food.  Something like that.  Maybe someone else
remembers.

I loved the story and so did my children.  (We're whtie.)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>The language and the attitudes that make up the language are changing,
>but whatever happened to understanding the cultural history surrounding a
>work of art and =then= appreciating it for what it is; not trying to
>balderdize (is that the term I want for sanitizing stories?) everything
>past hope of recovery.

>Nancy Lynn Hayes (nancyh -at- pmafire -dot- inel -dot- gov)                Carpe Diem
>                                                        Seize the Day!


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Marilynne Smith
mrsmith -at- cts -dot- com
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