...I was secretly imagining that all librarians had a little sheet similar to this one as they pluck books from the shelves...

"1959? It's outta here!"

Of course I know why the sheet exists... ever since the civil rights movement began and women started burning bras, there has been a distinct and unfortunately self-conscious effort to balance the racial/gender "gap" - whether it be in the workplace or as depicted in books.

I happen to have two or three of those horrible indian books about scalphunters, rapers, and childkillers which were popular around the turn of the last century - as savage indians were already hard to comeby in most parts and were sold to folks in urban areas like the pulp and serial novels which would replace them three decades later. They are not to be feared though - as they illustrate the prejudices and fears of the settlers and their offspring, prejudices based upon much existing history of conflict.

The wartime use of the word "Jap" or my favorite "Kraut" in books and magazines is similarly educational and I believe all these racial biases are educational for children of a certain age.

I have no problem with new books showing the positive and re-visiting the past with a new perspective. But I find that litmus tests such as this one, are very counter-productive and create an equally unrealistic portrayal of life, which can leave children with no useful tools.

I think that I will coin a phrase and call it "pie-in-the-sky syndrome".

By being caucasoid-phobic and male-phobic these new litmus tests make authors leap through hoops to portray a world which only exists in fantasyland.

Standards for success: do people of color have to exhibit white behavior in order to succeed?

What exactly is white behavior? What is black behavior?

This one really threw me. I still can't figure it out. [stereotyping] Holding a job? Staying faithful to your wife? Staying out of prison? [/stereotyping] The presence of this line shows me the fundamental prejudice of the author of this litmus test - and should be equally evident to any honest educator.

This university also presents this bit of evidence that it is the university which really judges people on race, profession, age and health!

Note none of these discuss personalities of these individuals but merely material statistics such as race, age and profession. Of course they want to force people to choose based upon these shallow things and catch their prejudices, but if I were a student - I would refuse to participate in such a cock-eyed sham.

I really am concerned about the thousands of kids which are being taught this reverse-prejudiced stance. I fear their chances for success will be severely hampered because they don't want to "act like whitey." (whatever that is)- because their university and teachers told them that was real bad!

They will likely segregate themselves - as current census statistics demonstrate. They will stifle their interaction and integration and will not want to emulate "white" heroes? "Note the heroes: Are they admired for the same qualities as white and male heroes or heroines?"

Since when is heroic behavior racially identifiable? Is saving someones life a "white" thing? I am nonplussed on this one too.

My sincere fear is that for every page like this I stumble upon there are countless others in other schools which go unnoticed.

I agree, sexism of past books was pretty bad - but it is really FUNNY bad and throwing out those books only erases the evidence and culture and history of a certain period. We cannot erase the past.

If I were teaching kids - I would crack out an old text from 1955 and then grab a modern book and compare the roles of today:

"The women of today seldom have the luxury of staying home and baking cakes for daddy. And daddy equally may be as good a chef as mommy and today may even bake her a cake, when he has the time. See how things were different then. In the 1950's a family could easier be supported on one income. Now, however both parents usually work. Mommy may still like to bake daddy a cake - but today they are more likely to by the cake from a bakery or the market."

The old books need not be feared and discarded - they show valuable lessons and were very keyed to moral values of a certain period. Much of their moral lessons - like Aesops fables - are timeless. The 1959 Chevrolet in the driveway of Mark and Janets home, may have little relation to the SUV in the driveway of Rob and Kristin's but that is not really the point of the story that matters.

Honesty
Integrity
Kindness
Sharing
Friendship
...and Love

These are the most important things to reinforce in a child. If they have these things deeply rooted than their:

identity
self-worth

will be ironclad. These kids will not need books which try to separate one group of humanity from another with a set of unrealistic storys and characters. In my opinion this will do far more harm than good. It is almost as if the teachers are setting their students up for segregation and failure - because of their marked prejudices.

I agree about Arthur - animal characters based on personality handles race by avoiding it as an issue altogether. Of course, the folks at EIU probably don't like Arthur either. Carl Barks did that to great success with the Animal characters ducks, dogs, etc.

Thanks Mary Anne...if political opposites can see commonground on these things - I know there is hope for the future.

Your reading-time friend ;-)

SDAI-Tech1