Watch the below lecture or Read:
Nel, Philip. “Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: Exploring Dr. Seuss’s Racial Imagination.” Children’s Literature, vol. 42, 2014, p. 71-98. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/chl.2014.0019.
Performance of Children’s Literature
CASD 1717 – Fall 2022
Performance of Children’s Literature
CASD 1717 – Fall 2022
12 thoughts on “Minstrelsy today?”
I agree with Nel’s argument that structual racism is embedded children’s literature. In additon, I agree with his statemnet about not completly elimating problematic and racists children’s books and not only teaching the “revised” versions of books. That these books, should be taught in context because just because racist texts/images are gone doesn’t mean racial ideologies are gone. If these books were gone, we can’t address these issues. I really appreciate Nel making a point about how teaching racism and not teaching racism is both painful towards children. I love how he acknowldges that even though its neccessary to teach racism to children, it is still traumatic for them.
It was interesting to see how so many classical children’s book have racist texts and characters. I did not know that characters with the white gloves are taken/inspired by minstrel shows. I feel like we don’t realize how many “older” books, animated films, and cartoons were racist and had problematic and racist depictions of characters. Even some of Disney’s films perpetuate racist stereotypes and are still being watched by children today (ex: Siamese cats from the Lady and the Trump).
I agree with Nel’s argument”what we learn as children shapes our world views”. He spoke about some historical events that happened in the USA. It’s true racism is embedded in children’s literature. As kids we still trying to figure who we are and reading books these will have a big impact without knowing. A point he made that was really interesting to me was that he said without editing books but instead to teach them the ways books reinforce racism. He also mentioned a lot of things that I never new about. He said “Both shielding children from and exposing children to racist texts are bad choices,but failing to confront racism is far more dangerous than ignoring it”. Which I find so true. We should not ignore what is surrounding us about racism. I have watched animated movies and as a young girl I used to question what is happening. It’s shocking really how these animations have racism characters and words. I am glad I watched Nel’s argument I have learned a lot from it.
What really stuck out to me in this video was seeing the amount of racist content in children’s literature that I did not know was there previously. After watching the video I am now wondering about other content that I have watched or read that was racist in ways that I didn’t know.
What sticked out to me in Nels Argument is that books that are intended for little children can have a deeper and darker meaning. Also he says ”racism is embedded into our culture” this shows racism is hidden in plain site. he then says that one of places that racism hides is in book for young people and what we learn as children shapes our world views. i agree with him that when we are small we are still trying to figure out who we are and what we believe and if we are constantly reading books about one race being superior than the other, that will stay with the kids their whole life.
I think this source provided a really interesting perspective on the concept of racism in children’s literature. The idea of racism has been around for years unfortunately, but I found it shocking that Dr.Seuss created his books and the Cat particularly, under the influence of minstrelsy. I have only heard of blackface in recent years and it was moreso over social media where white people would quite literally paint themselves black and perform degrading and harmful behaviors in racist efforts. The way literature is written, the color and design choices behind animated characters or those printed in books, the clothing attire characters are dressed in, and the language (dialect and mannerisms that characters are assigned to when speaking) all strongly influence the racial and cultural knowledge children grow up with. I agree with Nel that because racial caricature was so widely accepted, developing these characters for common Children’s literature did not seem alarming at the time and was the way different events such as Wars and Revolutions were illustrated.
I agree that racism is embedded in our cultures. In our society, many systems such as even the criminal justice system was created to protect one group of people, and to serve against others. I found it extremely memorable when Nel said that “we need diversity amongst genres.” This is extremely true. In order to combat racism, and allow society to grow, we need to implement diversity in every field, whether its literature, the workplace, schools, etc. Also children grow up, reading different children books, and if they are exposed to more diversity in their readings and how everyone is equal and can work together, this will enable them to hopefully learn to be acceptive of everyone no matter what there skin color is.
I agree with Nel’s point that racism is embedded in our culture. It was a big part of media in the olden days. It was so very casual. But aside from that it is also involved in religion as well. Christianity was used as a way to colonize countries. The one thing that sticks out to me would be his point about how teaching racism and not teaching it are both painful. I don’t know if I agree with this. I would love to live in a world where racism just didn’t exist. And I feel like making kids aware of all the differences between us is what poisons their brains. It makes everything binary and can be traumatizing for children of color. But I understand that making them aware of that is what can help them become better people. Showing them how racism is what fails us from moving forward as a society and teaching them that their differences are what make them special, as way to empower them. So I guess I would agree with Nel.
Nel’s argument was very concise, there’s definitely so much racism and odd messages in children’s literature that I learned about recently, and comparing it to when I was younger I never understood the deeper meaning of such messages. I honestly really appreciate his use of Dr Seuss as an example, because Dr Seuss had quite problematic history, especially with his known books, and how they contain a lot of racist imagery, where kids would not know of.
I agree with Nels’s point of view about how racism is embedded in culture. Neal stated, “ we need diversity amongst genres” I agree that when we have people from different races and cultures, etc the community is diverse. we will understand that everyone is the same and are equal. The differences between is shouldn’t be a reason for a conflict.
What sticks out to me is his idea that racism is so imbedded into our society that it can be right in front of our eyes, however we still don’t see it. Racist ideas or bias is embedded into children as soon as they are able to communicate and absorb the world around them. Shows or books that we think are innocence may have deeper meanings behind them which we fail to initially see. I do agree with his points as well as the idea that what children absorb during their childhood plays a large factor into who they eventually will become.
Something that stood out to me was when he said, “All white people benefit from white supremacy.” I never thought about it like that, and I do agree. I never realized that a lot of bias are based off of racism.
I agree with Nels. Racism is entangled within our society so the books and movies that come out of our society will show just that and not always in direct ways but rather subtle jokes, and portrays of black characters, etc. He stated that ” Racist images persist in the cultures of childhood often in ways we don’t notice on a conscious level”. Many of us seen blantly racists images and things before but there’s some that don’t even hit us unless we dig deeper into that image which is such a problem because this can effect our ways of thinking and making us racist without even being aware.