June 12, 2011

Playing Indian in Not Me!

Educator Debbie Reese reports on yet another stereotypical image in a children's book:

Nicola Killen's Not Me!I guess Killen and her editors at Egmont don't know that playing Indian in this stereotypical way is not cool. I'm pretty sure that Killen wouldn't have a kid in black face... And even if she did, her editors would reject it outright...

Digging around online, I see that its Subjects categories include Social Issues, and Manners & Etiquette. Pretty ironic, eh? Playing Indian is a social issue! It may seem like harmless fun, and some may characterize it as "honoring" American Indians, but, either way, it isn't harmless and it isn't honorable.
(Excerpted from Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature, 6/12/11.)

Comment:  For more on the subject, see Indian in Worse than Rotten, Ralph and Absolutely True Diary's Variant Covers.

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