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Little House On The Controversy: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Name Removed From Book Award
NPR ^ | June 25, 20181:27 PM ET | Kat Chow

Posted on 06/26/2018 8:40:59 AM PDT by Red Badger

A division of the American Library Association voted unanimously Saturday to strip Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a major children's literature award over concerns about how the author referred to Native Americans and blacks.

The Association for Library Service to Children says the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award will now be known as the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

Wilder, who wrote the Little House book series, was the first recipient of the award, which was established in 1954 and intended to honor books published in the U.S. that have had a big impact on children's literature.

The Little House series was based on Wilder's own life and told the story of the Ingalls family as it moved around the Great Plains in the 19th century. While many of the Little House books became widely read, critics said her work included many stereotypical and reductive depictions of Native Americans and people of color.

In 1935's Little House on the Prairie, for example, Wilder described one setting as a place where "there were no people. Only Indians lived there." That description was changed in later editions of the book. And multiple characters in the Little House series intone that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian."

The ALSC had been considering whether it should strip Wilder's name from the award since February and announced at the time that the author's legacy "may no longer be consistent with the intention of the award named for her."

"The decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder's legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC's core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness," the ALSC said in a brief statement following the vote. Previously, the organization had noted the "anti-Native and anti-Black sentiments" in Wilder's writing.

However, some Wilder scholars say the author's work shouldn't be downplayed. Instead, they say, it should be scrutinized — and taken as an opportunity to inform children of the context surrounding it.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association released a statement defending Wilder's work, saying that while her writing included "the perspectives of racism that were representative of her time and place," it also made "positive contributions to children's literature":

"We believe it is not beneficial to the body of literature to sweep away her name as though the perspectives in her books never existed. Those perspectives are teaching moments to show generations to come how the past was and how we, as a society, must move forward with a more inclusive and diverse perspective."

Debbie Reese, a scholar and the founder of American Indians In Children's Literature, tweeted that the vote to change the award's name was a "significant and historic moment" but still only a step. "There are many more, ahead of us. The backlash to the change is already evident."

The author Jacqueline Woodson, known for award-winning books including Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn, will be the first honoree of the newly named Children's Literature Legacy Award.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ala; alsc; blacklisted; bookbanning; censorship; lauraingalls; lauraingallswilder; littlehouse; prairie; wilder
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To: Gene Eric
They even ruined Itchy and Scratchy:
Itchy and Scratchy in Porch Pals

This is, I think, mirroring the Tom and Jerry cartoons of the early 80s where they became buddies because cats attacking mice (and losing badly) is too cruel for kids to handle. And the cartoons pretty much were like the video above.

41 posted on 06/26/2018 9:35:33 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Russians couldnt have done a better job destroying sacred American institutions than Democrats have)
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To: junta

When librarians started to support the book burners by pulling literature like Huckleberry Finn off their shelves, they brought their own devaluation upon themselves.


42 posted on 06/26/2018 9:36:50 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Russians couldnt have done a better job destroying sacred American institutions than Democrats have)
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To: Red Badger

Rename it for Lesléa Newman (Heather Has Two Mommies).


43 posted on 06/26/2018 9:39:17 AM PDT by IndispensableDestiny
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To: pepsi_junkie

And then they tried to ruin it by introducing Poochie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvAjX5ACPo


44 posted on 06/26/2018 9:40:30 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: IndispensableDestiny

Kylie Jenner has two mommies, too.


45 posted on 06/26/2018 9:44:06 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: alexander_busek

Yes, I know. But our leftist revolutionaries would probably call it ‘peaceful’ revolution. Never mind the rivers of blood of slaughtered Christian conservatives and other unwanted privileged classes.


46 posted on 06/26/2018 9:47:00 AM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
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To: Red Badger

No doubt the commie-dems will do their best to have Ayn Rand erased eventually.


47 posted on 06/26/2018 9:47:41 AM PDT by wally_bert (This is the message phone company. I see youÂ’re using our unit, now how about paying for it?)
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To: dfwgator
Exactly!

In an unrelated note that I have no idea why it comes to mind, when my daughter was growing up she was obsessed for a while with Scooby Doo. I told her about Scrappy Doo and she didn't believe me because there are NO episodes with Scrappy ever shown in reruns, none. It's like they killed him and dumped his body in a vat of ink dissolver then burned all the tapes.

48 posted on 06/26/2018 9:51:55 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Russians couldnt have done a better job destroying sacred American institutions than Democrats have)
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To: wally_bert

Of course..................


49 posted on 06/26/2018 9:53:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger

Leftards are so leftarded


50 posted on 06/26/2018 10:00:07 AM PDT by vpintheak (Freedom is not equality; and equality is not freedom!)
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To: Red Badger

Seen any Little Rascals or Our Gang on TV lately?


51 posted on 06/26/2018 10:54:11 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: crusty old prospector

Nope, and no Amos & Andy either................


52 posted on 06/26/2018 10:55:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: Red Badger

Stupid and cowardly.


53 posted on 06/26/2018 11:32:34 AM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: JBW1949

Anthem...excellent book!


54 posted on 06/26/2018 12:21:33 PM PDT by TXBlair (We will not forget Benghazi.)
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To: pepsi_junkie

100 percent agree


55 posted on 06/26/2018 12:33:52 PM PDT by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: Red Badger

Remove EVERY reference to slavery, plantations, and EVERY trigger word ever imagined from history.


56 posted on 06/26/2018 2:11:35 PM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: Red Badger

They want her to come back from the grave and rewrite the stories?

Stupid libtard snowflakes. Burn the books, baby!


57 posted on 06/26/2018 4:41:32 PM PDT by hattend
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To: All

Watched “Unforgiven” last night. 1960 with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. Interesting to note the portrayed attitudes of the settlers towards the local Indians. At least twice they were referred to (uncut in the film) as “Red Ni@@ers.”
Audrey Hepburn was an Indian baby that had been rescued from a massacre and raised by a white family as one of their own. Very few people knew about it, not even her brothers, and she even thought she was white. When the locals found out that she was Indian, even though she had grown up among them, they had no compassion and demanded that she be sent back to the tribe. Burt Lancaster’s character refused, but it fractured long standing family alliances.


58 posted on 06/27/2018 2:08:14 PM PDT by pajama pundit (Why are "liberal progressives" so hateful and intolerent?)
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