So I work in a book store... [56k Warning]

[Deleted member]

We just received a lot of these.

First and foremost, I am not racist.

But is this not one of the dumbest things you've seen today? I can understand adding black Barbie dolls, because they simply create a new character. This is different - this is changing the existing characters to ... ugh, I don't even know. Really curious as to what you guys think of this.

 

[snex]

ni**a stole my fairytale?

 

[cF=)]

We portray Jesus completely white in America and I don't see you creating a topic on it.

 

[Crimson King]

The problem is most of the fairy tales are Brothers Grimm, who were German story tellers. Germans are predominantly white, which is why most of the characters are white.

Changing the race just to appeal to minorities seems so tacky to me.

cF=), that's simple. White people used an image of Jesus when colonizing new areas, and to convince the minorities of their position, they used a Jesus similar to their racial backgrounds.

 

[Deleted member]

That's a completely separate discussion because that is still up for debate. According to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_of_Jesus ,

we had some of the greats like Da Vinci portray him as white. It's not because we in America have a white majority.

And you won't see me creating a topic about it because I don't care whether Jesus is brown or white. Let's not derail this thread.

I care about this topic though, because in Toronto there was recently a huge outrage (I made a thread about it) about if there should be "afrocentric" schools in Toronto.

 

[snex]

if the original story makes no mention of race, then its reasonably within artistic interpretation.

now if they make othello a white guy.... THAT will anger me.

 

[Deleted member]

Snex, there isn't much in the way of artistic interpretation of Goldilocks.

 

[McCloud]

It's the same as any other take on an old story.

So they changed race, eh.

The only thing that bothers me about this is she is no longer goldilocks, unless those beads are gold.

 

[Eor]

I don't see why anyone should care about this. It's just an attempt to make minorities feel more welcomed. I don't know why changing the race of it should really matter at all

 

[derek.haines]

While I'm not against minorities in the least bit, and not at all against having media featuring them, these books just scream to me: "You're different, and that's okay." Somehow I just don't think that bringing up the differences between skin colors is the way to promote understanding between the different groups. What we need to be saying is: "Your skin color is different, but that matters so very little that we're not even going to bother bringing it up by making Goldilocks black."

We're not advancing society in the least by flaunting about the fact that we're different.

 

[McCloud]

"Your skin color is different, but that matters so very little that we're not even going to bother bringing it up by making Goldilocks black."

We're not advancing society in the least by flaunting about the fact that we're different.

Sieg Heil.

 

[derek.haines]

It's not a "Hitler" thing at all, just more of a "we're all people, and the color of your skin doesn't matter in the least" kind of a thing. Classification systems for human beings are only counter-productive towards a prejudice-free whole.

 

[Eor]

Ignoring racism doesn't make it go away

 

[cF=)]

The problem is most of the fairy tales are Brothers Grimm, who were German story tellers. Germans are predominantly white, which is why most of the characters are white.

cF=), that's simple. White people used an image of Jesus when colonizing new areas, and to convince the minorities of their position, they used a Jesus similar to their racial backgrounds.

Interesting.

That's a completely separate discussion because that is still up for debate. According to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_of_Jesus ,

we had some of the greats like Da Vinci portray him as white. It's not because we in America have a white majority.

That's not really what I wanted to say. People of a given origin will represent Jesus the way they're used to see the world, in other words, by their own skin colour. It was more along the lines of what snex said about artistic representation than being really picky.

However, when I see the book cover "Rapunzel", I don't understand how they forgot black women don't really have long straight hair or that Goldilocks HAD to have a blond and curly hairstyle. Basically, the only book that's not bothering me much is the black Santa...

 

[GhostAnime]

I don't understand how they forgot black women don't really have long straight hair

er... really?

 

[cF=)]

If you don't go the hairdresser at least, and I'm not sure they were available at castle-time.

 

[Mediocre]

I admit, this seems rather silly to me, simply because I don't think it should matter. If you teach your children to be hyper aware of their skin color, you're not helping solve the problem. They should be able to identify with people of any color.

Still, I have not experienced what it's like to be a black child growing up in a predominently white community, and perhaps some of them need something like this. I don't think the repurposing of old stories to make children more comfortable with their skin color is a bad thing at all.

If you don't go the hairdresser at least, and I'm not sure they were available at castle-time.

I think it depends on the particular person in question.

I'm not sure if the native Africans ever have straight hair, but many blacks in North America do now, mostly because most black people in America aren't entirely black anymore. Over time, there has been significant mixing of the races in America. People tend not to notice it because we describe anyone with a skin color with the least tinge of "blackness" in it as black. Barack Obama, for example.

So I don't think you can really make a blanket statement about "black hair" that makes sense.

 

[cF=)]

Not completely a blanket statement since I don't take this characteristic to define the "black people" group. I'm only talking to the best of my knowledge, no statistics were available on the web. Something's sure however, if you look at the book cover's princess, she appears to me as a completely black women.

 

[derek.haines]

Ignoring racism doesn't make it go away

And acknowledging it doesn't make it okay.

Skin color should be little more than a characteristic of a person, much like hair color, not what defines them. Nobody is going to make a Goldilocks remake for little girls with red hair, freckles, and glasses specifically. If skin color just becomes something that we describe a person by, not how we categorize them I can't see how the world wouldn't be a better place.

It shouldn't have to be a Black Man and a White Woman. It should just be a man and a woman, and if you wanted to get more specific then a dark-haired, dark-skinned man and a blond, fair-skinned woman.

 

[Deleted member]

For me, it's the fact that people seem to think that if the characters are black and have dreadlocks and cornrows (yes, Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk has cornrows), the kids will be more interested because it's more relevant.

What I want to know is why their skin colour matters in the slightest for interest. The stories themselves aren't racist - why is it important to change the skin colour?

Will we see other versions? Like brown or asian?

Say you agree with having white and black versions. When does it become ridiculous? Would you be okay with having all four (white, black, asian, brown) sorted by race in a book store?

Also, Mediocre's avatar is pimp. I got some Watchmen love here.

 

[MojoMan]

If they wanted to prove all races are equal, they should have just left the stories exactly the way they are. by splitting them into two different races, you practically turn it into racism. There are plenty of African Fairy Tales, like Anansi the spider. Do we try and convert them into white? I didn't think so. This is just stressing a little too much that we are equal.

 

[mzink*]

Snex, there isn't much in the way of artistic interpretation of Goldilocks.

Doesn't Goldilocks (Golden Locks) mean blond hair?

 

[Peeze]

I wonder if they changed the porridge to grits.

 

[Grandeza]

Hmm this makes me want to see if my book store has any similar adaptations.

 

[Amide]

There's nothing wrong with making minorities feel more comfortable, especially because few story characters are black. I still find it as incredibly tacky, and it doesn't seem so solve any race problems, doesn't seem to hurt though.

 

[Eriatarka]

It shouldn't be a thing that the people on the covers are black.. I mean, in an ideal world this wouldn't even be noticed, it would just be 'people' on the front cover. But the reason we're noticing is that this is being perceived as an attempt at some kind of political-correctness, rather than an arbitrary choice of color for the people on the cover. (But since Santa et al are all traditionally perceived as white, it is probably the former.)

If there are members of the black community who feel better or happier in some way for seeing those characters being portrayed as black, then it's a good thing and there's no harm done. Unless you object to gestures like this one being so obviously forced.

 

[Eor]

And acknowledging it doesn't make it okay.

Skin color should be little more than a characteristic of a person, much like hair color, not what defines them. Nobody is going to make a Goldilocks remake for little girls with red hair, freckles, and glasses specifically. If skin color just becomes something that we describe a person by, not how we categorize them I can't see how the world wouldn't be a better place.

It shouldn't have to be a Black Man and a White Woman. It should just be a man and a woman, and if you wanted to get more specific then a dark-haired, dark-skinned man and a blond, fair-skinned woman.

Yes, it should. So why are you upset that these characters are black? (I'm assuming that's your position).American black children grow up with every popular fairy tale full of white children, so a company decides to make some characters black. I don't see the problem, it doesn't matter. Goldilocks isn't blond, but she has gold beads in her hair. I admit that's pretty dumb, but eh.

 

[derek.haines]

Yes, it should. So why are you upset that these characters are black? (I'm assuming that's your position).American black children grow up with every popular fairy tale full of white children, so a company decides to make some characters black. I don't see the problem, it doesn't matter. Goldilocks isn't blond, but she has gold beads in her hair. I admit that's pretty dumb, but eh.

I'm not actually upset in the least that the characters are black, I'm just bothered that skin color needs to matter enough to have changed them to being black.

 

[Deleted member]

Yes. The people who find this tacky and incredibly unnecessary are not being racist, they just don't understand the point.

To me, it's beginning to feel like those that continue to bring race into something completely unrelated are the racist ones themselves, in their own backwards way.

 

[WuTangDude]

Yeah, kinda weird, but maybe the book stores and literature publishers are attempting to promote afrocentricity?


As long as the stories not being changed I see no issue in it.

 

[MojoMan]

BTw, doesn't goldilocks usuakky mean golden hair?

 

[DoH]

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your...weave?

 

[Deleted member]

B*tch I can't climb up bees wax!

 

[link6616]

I think that a lot of attempts to remove racism, or any ism actually promote it in some weird way...
Not entirely related but down in Australia there is abstudy. A government allowance for any Aborigonal/Toris straight island student. The requirement is school and aboriginal blood.

Aus study, however requires that your parents earn under X per year etc etc etc.

The reasoning behind this, Aboriginal people need the encourage to stay in school (this answer from an Aboriginal man who talked at our high school when I asked him about this).

I'm all for putting people of differing races into things, ut goldylocks? In modern films and media, I expect to see a variety of races if the setting requires that, however to randomly shove a black person in a fairy tale is a somewhat sad way to be racist.

 

[penguinman]

wow...they really forced it right there.
I am not racist in any way but it really feels like they went out of their way to make them black. this way its just tacky and feels unorthodox with the rest of the cover.
*looks at the goldilocks cover again* wow...