Banned Book Reviews #2
Written by jesus_zealot (who is no longer with us)
When I was little, my grandmother would read me Little Black Sambo, by Hellen Bannerman, though one thing eluded my understanding: how do tigers turn into butter? I could never quite wrap my mind around that, but I simply accepted it as fact.
The story, quite honestly, is a good story. Sambo (to save from any unnecessary raising of the eyebrows) gets a new pair of clothes, some tigers take all his belongings and end up turning into butter. Sambo’s mother, Mumbo, then makes pancakes, and Sambo eats 169 “because he was so hungry.”
That is a nice story for young children to read. No real moral implications, no problems with crude humor, a genuinely nice story.
As I got older, my grandmother told me that the same book would be worth money someday. She said the reason was because the book had been discontinued because of “racial comments.” I still didn’t quite understand what she meant. (Surely it had nothing to do with the tigers and butter.) When she told me it was because the boy was called “black,” along with his mother and father, I couldn’t quite make the logic concrete in my head.
I am a white person, and I don’t care if people call me white. My skin is of lighter tone than others – I’m white. I have African-American friends who are not African-American, but black. They aren’t colored – they’re black.
Racism is a nasty issue that people walk around so carefully. People are constantly afraid that they will offend someone; then they will be considered racists. Comments about a person’s color of skin are not racist, though the discrimination of that person is wrong.
I'd give this book either a 3 1/2 or a 4.
The Story of Little Black Sambo (Wee Books for Wee Folk)
