Let's talk about Little Black Sambo

[conuly]

I know, you're wondering why on earth I want to talk about that and what purpose it could possibly serve, but I promise I have a point. Plus? You get to snark on rude little Amazon commenters, and that's always fun.

Now, for those of you who have heard the name, and maybe seen a picture of one of the illustrations, but have never read it (that was me until recently) you can go read it now. There are no illustrations attached, but that's probably just as well.

All done? Well, here's the thing. I read that and - the offensive names (and illustrations_ notwithstanding, it's actually kinda a cute story. (Of course, I'm not black, so take that for what it's worth. Interestingly, I've read that in the author's dialect of the time Black Ssmbo would've been understood to be Indian, which explains the tigers and the ghee.) I mean, the kid is bullied by tigers, but... I'd give all my stuff to tigers too if it worked.

But it's been tied down with offensive names and ugly (and offensive) illustrations and so much racist baggage that people who have never been within 20 feet of the book recognize it as "offensive racist stuff". And there's really only so much "judge within the time period it was written" you can really do before you decide not to buy a book for your kids.

Funnily enough, its reputation as being racist might have saved it. Why? Because people who liked the story (but not the implications) have taken the trouble to rewrite it. I know of two versions that appear to be simple swaps where they updated the illustrations and changed the names, and one version, Sam and the Tigers, that's totally altered and expanded. Oh, and one version where, judging from the cover (haven't read it) the protagonist is white. We avoid racism, folks, by eliminating race altogether!

I really like Sam and the Tigers. There's a lot of new detail - apparently everybody in Sam's town is named Sam, which leads to a few amusing conversations, and we get to hear his parents talk about how he's a big kid and can pick out his own clothes, and the pancakes are striped just like the tigers at the end. And it includes a forward by the illustrator saying that as a kid, he never saw the racism in the book (and that he didn't think it was intended by the author, though it's sure there now), it was simply the only book he had ever seen that showed a kid who looked like him. (And that's a sad thing to think, isn't it? The situation is better now, though white people (hi!) are still overrepresented in picture books.)

So far so good. People update old stories all the time. They've been doing it about as long as people have been telling stories, which may even predate language itself for all I know! If you search Amazon for "Cinderella" you'll find various traditional versions, and versions of similar stories from other cultures, and a lot of modern versions - Cinderella as a cowgirl! Cinderella with the genders swapped! Cinderella in a city! Cinderella as a fractured fairy tale! Cinderella where she does everything herself! And no complaints there. Why should there be?

But here... oh, geez.

For the original version of Little Black Sambo there are comments that it's SO not racist and how could ANYbody EVER think that unless they were TAUGHT to see racism EVERYWHERE? (Captain, I feel that they feel a little defensive.)

Apparently, "whatever is considered "bad" in this book is the manufacture of over-sensitive adults" and "EVERYONE has had an unflattering portrayal at sometime". Ye gods. Can you guys, like, NOT insult everybody who has a view of this book opposing your own? If somebody is offended, try to figure out why before you snipe at them. That's not being PC, that's being polite.

But it gets worse when we go to the reviews of the other books. Let's see....

Sam and the Tigers

I thought I would gag. This takes the cake! It is appalling to me, a student of literature, that we must deny people the right to read a story that yes, was racist. But it was of its time and it is a truly charming story.

Because only the original can be a truly charming story. And nobody, ever, has been denied the right to read the original. It's in the gosh-darned public domain! Google it!

My grandmother read the original book to me a decade and a half ago, when I was 5. I loved it and didn't have the slightest inclination that it was unacceptable. Some wide-eyed psychologist, however, thought so, which is why it's been banned.

Yes, of course. People never come to their own conclusions, it's all the fault of that conspiracy of wide-eyed psychologists. Uh-huh. (The US, to my knowledge, does not ban books either. It's not in print, which is a far different thing.)

Recently, I bought this book for my three year old daughter. After reading it once I was very disappointed and vowed to send it back. The story is great and the illustrations are wonderful. Unfortunately, the book is full of bad grammar. The author states that he wanted to preserve the way stories were told in the Old South. There is never a good reason to perpetuate bad grammar especially in children's books.

Irrelevant, but I had to put it down. You know why I don't like this comment.

The Story of Little Babaji

Political correctness has gone completely mad in this world, and this is a great example. This is the politcally correct version of the wonderful children's book, "Little Black Sambo". I am dismayed that there are people who feel that books should be changed when they offend. If a book offends you, you don't rewrite it to suit your views, you just don't read it or share it with your children. There are so many books in this world which can cause offense. Are we going to rewrite them all?

Why *not* rewrite them all? Why *not* have more choices, more variety, more voices instead of less and less of everything? Ye GODS man! (This is the version where the ONLY thing they did is change the names and illustrations, incidentally. The original book went through, what, 20 different sets of pictures?)

So yes, this was all an excuse to mostly snark at people who apparently have never heard of the concept of "privilege". A weird thing, but that's the only explanation for that last review I can think of.

Comments

[ancarett]

"Sam and the Tigers" is an awesome book! When I was little, I was taken out to a pancake restaurant called Sambo's, complete with illustrations from the original book. I was, at three, obviously intrigued -- my mother, who was working on her M.Ed., told me the story and put it in a bit of context. I remember that she brought home a book from the library about growing up in India, after that. A couple of years later, I asked her a bit more directly about the racism in there -- was Little Black Sambo supposed to be about blacks in America, too? She did fill me in more and I was pretty sad at finding out that a favourite old story was also promoting a lot of racism.

Anyway, when my two girls were in preschool, out came "Sam and the Tigers" and my mom bought that for the girls one visit here. It's so much more clever, fun and fantastic a story! We passed it on to some other kids a few years back -- something I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing with the original book.

[beezelbubbles.livejournal.com]

My mom read Little Black Sambo to me when I was a kid, and one called Liza Lou and the Swamp Haunt. I found my copy of Liza Lou a couple of months ago and was kind of shocked. She's referred to as a pickaninny, and that's pretty much where I stopped reading. My mom is one of those people who argues that Sambo isn't a racist story. "He's not black! He's Indian, so it doesn't even count!" WTF? But I'm not racist, as far as I now, so maybe a couple of kids' books from another time didn't really affect (effect? I'm having a moemnt...) me all that much. Doesn't mean I really would rather not read them to my daughter.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Having just reread it, I don't see the racism either--without illustrations, all we know is that Sambo has a mother who's skilled at needlework, cares a lot about her little boy and is a good cook. He also has a father who goes off to work and thinks about his family when he's away from them.

Sambo himself is clever enough to talk tigers not only out of eating him but into fighting each other to butter.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

The HTML version (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17824/17824-h/17824-h.htm) includes illustrations too. I'd never read it before today; having read it, I can see why people say it's offensive, but it's also very much of its time. It goes along with things like golliwogs - I think it's important that people know that "Sambo" and "golliwog" are offensive terms now, but I think it's also important to remember that the original writer was writing it with India in mind rather than Africa. It's about British cultural imperialism and its view of the Empire at that time, specifically India; I don't think it has a lot to do with African black people at all. I'm not saying it's not offensive, because it patently is (as are golliwogs), but it's not exactly fair to use it as an example of a book denigrating black people and condoning slavery, because it's just...that's not whom it's about. It belongs with A Passage To India, A Little Princess and Kipling's works, not Uncle Tom's Cabin.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing a t-shirt with Sambo on it when I was in Yokohama two years ago. I wish I could say I was surprised. But I really wasn't.

I gave up on Japan getting a clue in regards to stuff like that a long time ago.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I admit I grew up White and Privileged and with an old copy of "Little Black Sambo" that I rather liked as a story.

It did take me a long time to see that it was racist, because of course I'd never heard of blackface, etc, etc. I think in some ways I still only half "get it".

I was thrilled when "The Story of Little Babaji" came out, because it was a non-offensive and more accurate (ie, Indians are Indian) version of the story I had loved.

There is, of course, a fine line when it comes to changing historical literature. I still recall reading a children's novel called "The Day They Came to Arrest the Book" in which the PTA tried to get "Huckleberry Finn" banned from the classroom for use of the word "nigger". Oh boy.

Out of curiosity, have you seen the changes made to "The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle"? How do you feel about that one? I'm torn, personally-- I think they did a brilliant edit, but I worry that it's the start of a distressing trend.

I wonder if I dare address a topic like this over at bookaddiction or if it's too heavy...?

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

btw, I did decide to bring this up in bookaddiction and gave the link to this post for reference. I hope you don't mind. If you do, let me know, and I'll come up with my own words :)