The following comment came in from reader Shanti over the weekend, on Laura Welser’s post of May 6, 2009: “Should Little House Be Banned?“
this is a late comment – I came here by way of a Google search on racism in the Little House books. I grew up on these books, but just re-read them in preparation for giving the books to my niece for her 7th birthday. (Her mom is my step-sister and has never read the books.) I was convinced I was going to give them to her, but now I’m not so sure.
My issues are not as deeply with the portrayal of Native Americans, because Pa in particular always provides a thoughtful, reasoned response to Ma’s dislike. They concern me, but my larger issue is with the songs about “darkies,” or those sung in an obviously parody of Southern black language and the minstrel show later in the series. There is no balancing argument as there is about Native Americans. If it were my own child, I’d use it as a learning opportunity, but giving it to someone else’s child, even my sister’s child, makes me pause to consider.
I suspect that I will send two birthday gifts – the first book separately with a note for her mom to read it herself and decide if she wants her daughter to read the rest of the series.
I admit, while firmly convinced that Laura’s portrayal of Native Americans is not destructively racist, I don’t know quite what to think about the “darkies” of Little Town on the Prairie. My daughter hasn’t gotten to this book yet — we’ve been derailed by a summer reading contest where her progress is measured by the book rather than by the page, so single long chapter books are being passed over in favor of dozens of short ones. But Shanti’s comment has gotten me thinking that maybe I ought to prepare my daughter for this portrayal.
But if I’m going to prepare her, what should I say? This is where I get stuck. Until now, whenever I’ve been faced with educating my daughter on various aspects of How The World Is, no matter how much hemming and hawing I do or how cleverly I try to craft words in my head, ultimately I’ve decided to do and say nothing until she does. Kids don’t know that injustice exists until it affects them or it’s pointed out to them. Kids who are different from her — the overweight kid in fourth grade, her African-American classmate, the two kids in her school on permanent crutches — are simply part of her life. If she asks questions, I answer. But basically she doesn’t notice or compare or judge. It’s simply How Things Are.
But she’s only six. There is going to be a time where she hears or sees something that doesn’t square with this ideal. And that’s when we’ll have a discussion. I’m willing to wait.
Plus, I should admit something. I was painfully aware of racism as a child. (That’s not the admission.) But the way I recognized it was through epithets. And as a child, to me, “darky” was not an epithet I recognized at all — never mind recognized as derogatory. I didn’t think of “darky” as being tantamount to “black man.” And I certainly didn’t equate it with the epithets I did hear in my daily life, which would have been derivations of Negro. Maybe that was naive of me, but children are naive. I just accepted the “darky” role as something Pa impersonated, the way I accepted him impersonating a bullfrog or mad dog or a “common tater on the ax.” It was nothing more and nothing less than play.
Of course the truth was a different story, but I keep asking myself this question: why provide an explanation for the ugliness of a truth if the ugliness isn’t apparent to begin with?
I don’t know. What do you all think?
The “darky” comments went right over my head as a kid – I had no idea what it meant. It wasn’t until rereading them as a young adult that I even had a clue what that meant. If a child noticed the term and asked, then honesty is the best policy. It was a socially acceptable term when the book was published, now it’s not. Sometimes I think our world has become too politically correct. I’m not justifying the darky comment, but erasing all traces of racism from our past isn’t going to help us overcome it in the future.
I just read that part in “LTOTP” last night. I haven’t read the books since I was in grade school…I had no recollection of the “darkies.” I was shocked reading it now, but then it must have not had an impact on me at all.
My how the world has changed.
I think that if the child is old enough to understand the content of the book, and if it is being read aloud, then an explanation needs to be made along the lines of it being something that is now inappropriate to say. If she is reading it to herself and doesn’t question it, let it slide. That may seem contradictory but I believe in the saying “do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.” Now, with older children who have a good understanding of content, context and genre, then by all means, explain the meaning, the intent and the inappropriateness.
Don’t be too naive because your child will run into racist slang and insults as soon as he or she enters school. It is one of the most common problems I deal with as a principal…no matter what socio-economic level the school has been.
At my upper echelon school a little girl came in off the playground quite upset because she was convinced we had spray painted the “n” word on the blacktop. I went out to see what she was talking about. There on our spray painted world map was “Niger”. It became a geography lesson but not until after she told the whole second grade about the “n” word.
Dr. Laura, oh my gosh! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You’re right about the slang and insults, now that I think about it. Her school is half Mexican-American and I think she has been exposed to at least some of that; I can recall at least one conversation where a generally derogatory comment was made. We told her why it was wrong and that was that. I appreciate your school perspective.
I must have completely missed the “darky” stuff when I was a child, too, because I was floored when I came across it again as an adult. But I wouldn’t ever presume that all kids would have the same blissfully naive experience that I did.
I work in children’s books where we’re always wracking our brains over this kind of stuff. I think that Garth Williams illustration is pretty dismaying, especially considering it was done in the early 1950s.
Is that illustration even in the newer books anymore? (The editons that still use the Garth Williams art, that is?) I only have my old 1970s paperbacks, so I have no idea. If it’s still there, and if it were up to me, I’d just take it out. What it signifies now is so vastly different from what LIW intended for that scene.
I do think LTOTP could use some kind of brief contextual note in the back of the book, both for kids who are old enough to have questions, as well as for parents who are struggling to explain the historical context.
Historical context is everything, and reading LIW’s books with this in mind is essential. Things like the minstrel show and Ma’s comments about indians make the stories more authentic, and give the reader a better understanding of the attitudes that really existed in that time and place. I like Wendy’s idea–a brief contextual note in LTOTP would be a beneficial addition.
I do cringe a bit when I read the minstrel show part of the book now, but didn’t even bat an eye as a child. People, I think, are generally more sensitized to such things these days.
Growing up in the 1950s-60s, I read the LH books – and the Lois Lenski books – for what they were even then, a glimpse into a time long ago. Later as a librarian and teacher, I tried to convey this attitude about the writing, context and setting to my teaching staff and to children readers. The Native American issues became a regular question more in the 1990s. The “darkies” was not questioned mainly because LTonP was rarely read in class or aloud.
Getting back to LHotP, when Laura sees Dr. Tan for the first time, her observation is in wonder and admiration. (Read the “Fever ‘N’ Ague” chapter – “Laura had never see a black man before and she could not take her eyes off Dr. Tan. He was so very black. She would have been afraid of him if she had not liked him so much.”)
The term “darky” and the “n” word was used by my grandparents, not in a derogatory sense – it’s just what was said then.
Another note: Most of the minstrel shows in the mid- to late- 1800s were done in “black face”, when traveling black minstrels were not in the region. Stephen Foster’s music was written and performed for these shows. Many of his songs we would never hear today because they often use the word “darky”. Even some that we do hear have had some of the words changed to suit the current times (Camptown Races, Old Folks Back Home, etc.).
All of this is not justification…it is understanding our American History and the growing up process. You will know what to tell your daughter when the time comes. Be thankful that she asks questions and thinks about what she is reading.
[...] So how’s a concerned parent to handle it? Well, in her post, the author tentatively ventures that maybe it’s best to ignore it:…. I figured I’d chime in with my thoughts over here and kick the trackback to the blog entry.
I’d venture to say that the classmates mentioned here – the classmates different from the poster’s apparently majority child – are having an entirely different experience and their experience is part of that school’s (and her child’s) collective experience and it’s worth exploring critically even at six. [...]
Several of the replies state the term darky was acceptable then and was not used in a derogatory way. The terms was acceptable for white people maybe, but never for blacks. It was used at a time when black were chattel. Once they were freed, it was still used during a time where black men and women were addressed as boy and girl. To classify the terms and the attitudes that go along with them as anything else but racism and prejudice is simply not true.
Many people don’t realise that a lot of black artists also perfomed in blackface in the 19th century and well into the twentieth. In the 19th century it was more acceptable than appearing with their real ‘black’ skin! Black and white performers both emulated and parodied each other. The cakewalk, for instance, mocked white behaviour, only to then be parodied by whites. I am ashamed to say that as late as 1978 the BBC aired The Black and White Minstrel Show in the UK but this kind of thing wasn’t on my radar when I was first reading LIW in the 70s. I was more caught up in the identity of the ‘Darky’ performers and whether or not Pa had shaved off his beard!
I don’t know how I’d approach it with a child now but I do know we can’t sanitise or ignore history and that is increasingly what I see Laura’s books as – a depiction of a time and place. You could potentially attack them from so many angles – feminism, racism, child labour. Dickens was often less than complimentary about Jews but nobody talks of banning or editing his books.
I’m sure your daughter will be like her Mum and read intelligently and question these things for herself when the time is right.
As a Black child (and now adult) I love(d) LHotP. As a child the racism went right over my head. I’ve always loved history, all kinds of history, so I was aware of racism in the past. Now that I’m 36, and reading the books again the racism bothers me. Ma in particular. I’m reading Little Town now and had totally forgot about the ‘darkies’. The racism doesn’t take away my love for the books. It does however annoy me. Should they be banned? No! This is our history.