Pippi Longstocking is now deemed racist

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/09/pippi-longstocking-books-racism

Quote :

Astrid Lindgren's much-loved books about Pippi Longstocking, she of the red hair, incredible strength and impossible lies, have been described as racist by a German theologian.

Dr Eske Wollrad, a feminist theologian from Germany's Federal Association of Evangelical Women, has claimed that Lindgren's classic children's novels "have colonial racist stereotypes". In Pippi in the South Seas, "the black children throw themselves into the sand in front of the white children in the book," she told German paper the Local. "When reading the book to my nephew, who is black, I simply left that passage out."

Wollrad neglected to mention that Pippi goes on to mock white children for their obsession with school. "If you come across a white child crying you can be pretty sure that the school has either gone up in flames, or that a half-term holiday has broken out, or that the teacher has forgotten to set homework for the children in pluttification," she says.

Just as idiotic as the retro-active ban on "Tintin in Africa", imho. If not more so.

No German should dare lecture others on racism. And nine times out of 10 feminist is a synonym for mentally ill.

The words "feminist theologian" did make me giggle.

http://www.thewrap.com/amazon-prime-slaps-tom-and-jerry-with-racism-warning/

Amazon Prime is warning viewers of "racial prejudices" in Tom & Jerry cartoons.

Didn't Warners cut the black maid?

According to the article, the DVD set holds an introduction by Whoopi Goldberg and she explains why they've kept Mammy Two Shoes.

Quote :

“The Tom and Jerry episodes included in this collection comes to us from a time when racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in the name of entertainment,” Goldberg said. “These prejudices were wrong then and they're wrong today.”

"Removing Mammy Two Shoes would be the same as pretending she never existed,” Goldberg explains in her onscreen warning. “The same is true for the other images and jokes that we wouldn't normally include in a mainstream cartoon today.”

A lot better than cutting it altogether.

Goldberg's words sum up well how I feel about this. What is the point of this censorship?

Another instance of this nonsense: the sudden fascination with H.P. Lovecraft's supposed racism. Even if he was indeed a racist, that is not the reason why people read him to this day. Or why he influenced several generations of horror writers.

I agree with Ms Wollrad on the evils of racial stereotyping, even if she is a sauerkraut-munching, goose-stepping Hun.

CJB wrote:

I agree with Ms Wollrad on the evils of racial stereotyping, even if she is a sauerkraut-munching, goose-stepping Hun.

The issue here is not racial stereotyping, but the censoring/editing of art which is decades old, only to conform to modern sensibilities.

Sabine, I accuse you of not understanding Jewish humour. You are a racist.

How about The Merchant of Venice, that still OK? Or must we replace Shylock with an evil Saladin loan shark now???

Erica Ambler wrote:

Sabine, I accuse you of not understanding Jewish humour. You are a racist.

One of the many burdens I carry!

Campbell4 wrote:

How about The Merchant of Venice, that still OK? Or must we replace Shylock with an evil Saladin loan shark now???

Replace Shylock with Idris Elba.

Idris Elba could play Othello for sure.

Who wants to guess why?

Because his real name was Moor, he used to live in Venice and has at least one envier?