Racism in the Newberies, part 2

[osprey_archer]

The 1920s were a pretty terrible time in American race relations (then again, when isn’t a terrible time in American race relations?), so it should come as no surprise that this is reflected in many of the early Newbery Medal winners. The winners between 1922 (when the award was founded) and, oh, the 1960s or 70s are all a bit read-at-your-own-risk - and this doesn’t mean that the later books are completely racism free, just that they’re less likely to have “Whoa, was that a completely unnecessarily racist stereotype that you just threw in our faces for literally no reason?” moments.

Of course, not all the earlier books have these moments. (Often they avoid them by being entirely about white people.)

At any rate, I’ve compiled a list of the books that struck me as really the most egregious. Please note that this does not mean that all the other Newbery Medal books are pure and clean, just that these are the ones that made me cringe. (Please also note that I couldn’t get The Story of Mankind or Daniel Boone, so who knows what they’ve got going on.)

- The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle
- Smoky, the Cowhorse
- Hitty, Her First Hundred Years (which is unfortunate, because it’s otherwise an interesting book, following the adventures of a doll through American history.)
- Secret of the Andes (let me repeat: Incan conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy of good, but still. Incan conspiracy.)

Possibly I’m being unfair to Secret of the Andes: I found it dull and thought its “Yay blind obedience” message offensive for its own sake, so I’m not inclined to cut it any slack. Laura Adams Armer’s Waterless Mountain or Elizabeth Lewis’s Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (or, hell, even Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins) - all also books by white people about people of color - might be just as problematic; they’re just not as badly written.

Comments

[island-of-reil.livejournal.com]

The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle - my memories of that book are vague but ISTR that it was comparable to the most egregious Tintin books.

/I fail at grammar tonight

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Having never read Tintin I can't compare, but it's pretty bad. I read it years ago and even then, I knew that there was something skiffy about it.

[island-of-reil.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more of illustrations than text. Admittedly such caricatures were pretty common once upon a time.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Huh, I know I read Secret of the Andes as a kid, but remember literally nothing except (vividly) what the cover looked like.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It is a cool cover (assuming we saw the book with the same cover). Lots of mountains!