Pippi Longstoccking: Racist?

[author_by_night]

I've been hearing that a lot lately... anyone know the reasoning?

Comments

[auvergne.livejournal.com]

I bet she is (or the books are--she's fictional, I guess). Racism is racism. That doesn't mean that if you like the books, there's something wrong with you. My mother, who has one of the most sophisticated racism-detectors ever given to a human being, loved this one book as a child. It's a French book about this little boy, Macoco ("My coconut"), who lives in Africa. His mother is tall. His father is dark. One day a white man flies down in a wonderful machine and takes Macoco on all sorts of adventures.

Um, yeah... thank god for European colonizers, right? But so she liked the story as a kid. Kids are dumb.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah... thank god for European colonizers, right? But so she liked the story as a kid. Kids are dumb.

Well, kids see a story about a nice man who takes the boy on an adventure. But because we know about imperialism, we know there were likely raccial overtones in that story.

[auvergne.livejournal.com]

I know, that's my point. It's a racist story, but still appealing to kids, who don't know better; why fault them?

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

You're right - we shouldn't fault them.