Culture Librarians drop Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from award, citing concerns about racial stereotypes

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...r-award-renamed-racial-stereotypes/731651002/

The Association for Library Service to Children has dropped the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder from its award for children's writers and illustrators, citing "expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC's core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness" in her writing.

The award now will be known as the Children's Literature Legacy Award, the association's board announced Saturday during the American Library Association annual convention.

Wilder, born in 1867 outside Pepin, Wisconsin, is the author of the immensely popular Little House series of novels, which begin with Little House in the Big Woods, published in 1932 and set in Wisconsin.

Eight more books followed. The Association for Library Service to Children launched its lifetime achievement award in 1954 by giving it to Wilder and naming it after her.

Wilder spent two years of her childhood in Iowa, when her family moved to Burr Oak in 1876 to operate the Masters Hotel in the tiny community that served as a stopping-off place for settlers heading west. The hotel has been restored and is now part of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum.

By the fifth of the nine books in her series, her family had moved near De Smet, South Dakota, about 75 miles northwest of Sioux Falls. She spent much of the remaining volumes in that area.

Past winners of the award include some of the best-known names in children’s books: Katherine Paterson, Tomie dePaola, Eric Carle, Virginia Hamilton, Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss and Beverly Cleary. Under its new name, the award was given this year to Jacqueline Woodson.

According to the association's task force that pondered the change:

We acknowledge that Wilder’s books not only hold a significant place in the history of children’s literature and continue to be read today, but that they have been and continue to be deeply meaningful to many readers on a personal level. We also acknowledge that they have been deeply painful to many readers and have been across decades alongside their popularity.

Both of these things are true. Neither the option to rename the award nor the option to sunset the award and establish a new award demands that anyone change their personal relationship with or feelings about Wilder’s books.

The task force points to "cultural attitudes toward Indigenous people and people of color" in Wilder's stories.

While passages within Wilder's work reflect many attitudes of the era, the section of literature most often cited in this debate is from the 1935 story Going West, about a pioneering family.

In the book, Pa explains the land his family is seeking: “There were no people. Only Indians lived there.”

In 1953, Wilder changed the passage to say, "There were no settlers there. Only Indians lived there." The change has not appeased many critics.

The library group has made its decision, but the debate will continue on Twitter.

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

If it hasn't happened already, it's just a matter of time until people get mad at a villain in a game, movie or book being a racist.

Like, I full well expect to read at some point in the future that a big politically influential group will decide to ban "The Great Dictator" since "Hynkel" is an anti-semite.

It's amazing how people miss the point of the characters in stories. Obviously they have to have flaws and personalities that bother people. That's what makes them a strong character.

“Her works reflect dated cultural attitudes toward Indigenous people and people of color that contradict modern acceptance, celebration, and understanding of diverse communities.”

What the fuck. You can't apply modern views to work from the past. Especially ones that take place in the 1800's. I'm sick of people applying modern views on classic literature. Of course they're going to be outdated and won't be as "acceptable" as things are now. This makes no sense. And if people keep doing this we'll end up losing great literature.
And holy shit, nice job getting bothered at children's novels.

 

[GethN7]

This is the sort of faggotry that makes me want to throw things and chimp out hard.

Standards will NEVER BE THE SAME in the past as they were in the future, that's how life works, and you can't change history by trying to deny that. Trying to only ensures your generation remains as ignorant and close-minded as theirs was at BEST.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

What the fuck. You can't apply modern views to work from the past. Especially ones that take place in the 1800's. I'm sick of people applying modern views on classic literature. Of course they're going to be outdated and won't be as "acceptable" as things are now. This makes no sense.

Presentism is considered a fallacy for a reason.

Standards will NEVER BE THE SAME in the past as they were in the future, that's how life works, and you can't change history by trying to deny that. Trying to only ensures your generation remains as ignorant and close-minded as theirs was at BEST.

What enrages me about this is that (the motivation aside) it's the exact same MO that is used by fascists and historical revisionists.
One side tries to sweep bad aspects of their history under the rug cause it doesn't hold up to modern moral standards and instead of learning about -y'know- history and how we got to where we are now, they decide to just memory hole what happened in the past.
On the other side, you have people that try to sweep bad aspects of their history under the rug, so they can pretend it never happened and thus don't have to take "responsibility*" for it.

Both are fucked up and the effect is the same: Trying to keep people ignorant of the past.
I know it's out of context, but the quote "Those who don't know about history are doomed to repeat it" still stands.

We need these old works just to remind us that things weren't always the way they are now. Even a book like Huckleberry Finn, where the word "Nigger" is used casually is important since it's a stepping stone from segregation, slavery and oppression to what we have now.

________________________________
That being said, "responsibility" in that context isn't the same as "guilt" for obvious reasons. As far as I am concerned. It's more the concept of not allowing (say) the victims of crimes against humanity to be forgotten.
When you eradicate everything that reminds people of (say) slavery in the US, you spit in the face of everyone that suffered under that system.

 

[Fareal]

The saddest thing about the calls for books to be removed from school reading lists etc is the underlying assumption that children will only read books if they are forced to.

 

[Dysnomia]

The saddest thing about the calls for books to be removed from school reading lists etc is the underlying assumption that children will only read books if they are forced to.

A good example of why this isn't true is Harry Potter. But it's totally Satanic! We have to ban it before little Billy starts sacrificing goats to Dumbledore.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

These people should try the Flashman books. They’d shit themselves.

 

[Commander Keen]

I'm not too concerned about what happens to "children's literature" awards. Like with anything, most of it is garbage and the classics will stand on their own merit without need of an incestuous group of busybodies telling people what they should feel or if something is "good". It's why The Chronicals of Narnia is still widely read, it's why Huck Finn is still widely read, you name a "classic" book and there has probably been an effort to suppress it by one group or another.

Fahrenheit 454 isn't a real concern just yet. You might feel that we are headed in that direction, but I dunno. Maybe after I'm long dead.

 

[frozenrunner]

The saddest thing about the calls for books to be removed from school reading lists etc is the underlying assumption that children will only read books if they are forced to.

But that's where we are now, at least on the college level. I heard from an English professor recently that the biggest difference with students between now and ten years ago is that you can't trust they read at all besides what they're assigned in class. They can read, they just never do unless they have to. Frighteningly, that goes even for humanities majors.

 

[Zaryiu]

Ah librarians. Much like entertainment journalists (and infact journalists as a whole) and general media people they have found themselves in a world where their chosen career has become quietly obsolete due to the fact that technology now allows any fucktard to bypass them entirely when looking for cheap/free books, and there exist platforms where other fucktards can do the same shit they do with ease either for free (because its their hobby) or for advertising/sponsorship shekels

Now ordinarily I would feel sympathy for such people who dedicated their lives to a career path only for it to become worthless, much like how I have sympathy for the last marionette puppeteers who find that children these days are playing candy crush, or the last factory workers who see the robots come for their jobs....but not in this case

Because for reasons I can only guess at, probably due to being connected to the same circlejerking cliques as the woke twitter writers and bloggers, Librarians seem to have largely decided that instead of fading away with dignity and leaving their legacy to their higher tech successors, or proving that there still exists a valuable role for their careers even in todays world, they will latch onto the most pathetic and blatant "PLZ WE SO WOKE GUIZ!!! LOOK AT US WHINE ABOUT MUH RAYSISM AND MUH SEXISM!!!! PLZ VALIDATE OUR EXISTANCE ALL YOU WAMMEN AND MINORITIES!!!!" bandwagons imaginable in a desperate bid to replace their fading customer base with all the non white/male/straight demographics who they assume will not be able to access the same websites and technology that FFFUCKING WHITE MAAAAAALES have on hand.

So frankly I will revel in their miserable decline to complete unemployment and giggle at every desperate last grasp for attention and validation

Well the people at the public library here are decent folks so i assume there does decent people as librarian out there just that they focus on their work instead of whining