When I look back at the books I read as a child, I cannot recall a book that did not have a white main character. I was an avid reader. The characters in the books I read reflected me and that made it easy to escape into a book. I did not realize at the time what an injustice this was in a multitude of ways. Unjust to the many children who did not find themselves represented in books, lowering their self esteem and dulling their passion to read. However, it was unjust to everyone of my generation. The books I read, the only ones available to me, were falsely inflating my perception of rank in society by ignoring a huge percent of our society. Even worse, some of these books reflected the racist and homophobic views of their time. In my innocent years, many white children and I were absorbing all this from our seat of privilege, unwittingly puppets to the majority white book writers of my time. Unconscious bias must have seeped into me and many more of my generation. But the bigger victim here is not me.

The bigger victim is the underrepresented minority. They suffered twofold. They suffered from the underrepresentation of themselves in children’s books and from the prejudice conscious or unconscious passed on to the next white generation. We cannot let this happen to further generations. Our children have to read books featuring the diversity in our society from an early age

Parents tend to read the same books to their children as they read as a child which do not reflect the diverse world around them. That is the default.  I read the Secret Seven, Famous Five, Hardy Boys, The Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, The Borrowers, and loved them all. They all featured white heroes. Successful children book’s authors of the time, such as Roald Dahl, Raymond Briggs, Shirley Hughes, Judy Blume, C.S. Lewis all created white characters for a white target audience. Of course there were children’s books which featured animals as the characters, such as Richard Scarry, Rod Campbell or Eric Hill’s books but many of the animals due to their clothing or settings seemed to mirror a white person’s world. Black characters, let alone heroes or main characters only appeared as side characters (featured negatively). If kids open books and “the images they see [of themselves] are distorted, negative [or] laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society in which they are a part,” wrote Rudine Sims Bishop, a scholar of children’s literature in 1990. “But when they see themselves represented in a positive way, it can have a similarly powerful effect.” (1) This holds truth in respect to books, movies, people in authority and every aspect of life. In my generation, white people were receiving that powerful positive feedback and others left feeling devalued.

But why is this important to white children ? Isn’t it good to promote self confidence and self worth in our children ? Yes of course. But not to the detriment of others. Research states that even at the age of 3, children begin to form racial biases, and by the age of 7, those biases can become fixed. (2).  Children need to be shown positive minority role models in books. Parents must have discussions with their young children about all people and diverse books allow them to do so. Many fear that talking about race may incite bias but this is not the case. In fact a lack of exposure can lead to your child to create false truths. In an article published in Psychology Today Kristina R Olson Ph.D. comments;

‘In a study { by Rebecca Bigler of UT Austin } conducted in 2006 (published in 2008) before Obama was a candidate for president, Bigler and her team asked a group of 5- to 10-year-old children why they thought all 43 presidents to date were White. She offered possible explanations and a whopping 26% of children endorsed the statement that Blacks could not be president because it was presently (in 2006) illegal!'

Snowy day’ by Ezra Jack Keats was published in 1962 in America and was one of the first children’s books to depict an African American main character. It won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1963. Many teachers embraced the book, reading it to their class. According to Deborah Pope, the executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, “There was a teacher [who] wrote in to Ezra, saying, ‘The kids in my class, for the first time, are using brown crayons to draw themselves.’ “…. “These are African-American children. Before this, they drew themselves with pink crayons. But now, they can see themselves.” (5) Ezra Jack Keats’ was inspired by photos of a child in a 1940’s LIFE magazine article. Ezra cut out the clipping and kept it for two decades before using the character as Peter in Snowy Day and the six more books that followed.

Though Keats was not black, he had experienced discrimination. He was Jewish-American and had changed his last name from Katz to Keats more than likely to avoid sounding Jewish. The Snowy Day was not without criticism. Some leaders of the Civil Rights Movement argued Keats should have mentioned race more but according to Pope, Keats had never intended for the book to be an explicit political statement. Keats wrote in an unpublished autobiography “None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background,“…“My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along.” (6)  Well said Mr Keats.

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The Snowy Day was not available to me as a child. My favorite author was Enid Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968). She was a prolific writer, writing over 700 books selling over 600 million copies and her books have been translated into 42 languages. Enid Blyton’s book Noddy has been a long running cartoon as Noddy’s Toyland Adventures and The Secret Seven a popular TV show on the BBC which you can still watch on Amazon Prime TV. I must have read over a hundred of her books, ranging from the short stories my Father would read to me at night when I was small, to young adult books about child detectives and boarding schools which I read eagerly on my own. My favorite was the Faraway Tree series which I credit to my love of creative writing. This series sparked my imagination and still holds wonderful childhood memories. But unfortunately not all of her books were as wonderful. In fact, I can see today that she was spreading her prejudice through books to children.

Enid Blyton died in 1968, and has since become a controversial figure in the United Kingdom. In some of her short stories and in the Noddy series, she featured Golliwogs. She wrote a book called “The Three Golliwogs“ in the original publication in 1944 shockingly naming the three characters, Golly, Woggie and N##ger. ‘Golliwog’ was changed to ‘Gollie’ in the 1960’s to remove the racial slur ‘wog’ and the three Gollies renamed Wiggie, Waggie and Wollie (the version I read). In the book the Gollies were rejected by their child owner as ugly, so they leave the nursery and are depicted as sweet and kind. But in Noddy they are  more mischievous, stealing Noddy’s car and causing mischief around town.

Enid Blyton did not invent the Golliwog; the doll was first invented by another children’s author, American Florence Kate Upton in 1895 in her book, entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls. This book was first published in the UK and may very well have been read to Enid Blyton as a child. The book’s main characters were two Dutch dolls, Peg and Sarah Jane, and the Golliwogg. Peg and Sara Jane are in a toy shop, when they see “a horrid sight, the blackest gnome.”  Over the following 14 years, 12 more books were published. The Golliwogg soon became a well known figure and was featured in many other children’s books and the name Golliwogg changed to Golliwog in the process. Upton did not trademark the Golliwogg and the soft rag doll toy became extremely popular with children. Similar to a teddy, it was considered appropriate for boys and girls. Many parent’s made one for their child and several companies including the German Steiff manufactured their own. (7)

It is not clear as to whether the derogatory term ‘wog’ often used as a slur to people of middle eastern descent stemmed from Upton’s book or from maritime trades where it was used as an acronym for ‘Worthy Oriental Gentleman’. If the latter is true it is a great example of how descriptive words used in a derogatory way quickly become considered racist. John McWhorter of CNN wrote a great article on this subject in 2016, responding to the public outrage directed at Good Morning America anchor Amy Robach who mentioned ‘colored people.’ Though not appropriate in 2016 the term ‘colored people’ was at one time the polite way to refer to black people.

“For most of the 20th century, the polite terms were “colored” and “Negro.” However, in the 1960s, many black leaders came to see those terms as accreted with implications of black people’s horrific treatment under slavery and Jim Crow. As a result, Malcolm X, for example, preferred “black,” and by the time I [ McWhorter] was a conscious person in the early ’70s, black had long erased “colored” and “Negro.” Then, of course, in the late 1980s Jesse Jackson felt that even “black” needed an overhaul, possibly freighted with the negative implications of black as connoting evil or impurity. “African-American” carried, he and many people thought, a more celebratory sense of heritage, a connection to something besides segregated water fountains and lynchings. Since then “African-American” has been considered the proper term. (8) Since 2016 the term ‘people of color’ or acronym POC has become popular in some circles. But this validity of POC is discussed in Codeswitch’s episode Is it time to say R.I.P to POC? (9) The evolution of words for minorities may keep evolving because words keep getting morphed into racial slurs by their usage. Recently the word master bedroom came into scrutiny and it has been suggested to use Primary bedroom instead. Words keep changing. 

It is clear that by 1962 the word ‘wog’ had clearly been used as a derogatory term, Sir David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962) had a famous scene with the line, “You filthy little wogs” referring to characters of Eastern descent. Yet James Robertson & Sons, a popular British manufacturer of jams and preserves, continued using the children’s book character Golliwog as its trademark. Since the early 1900’s the company had been extending the reach of the Golliwog. Now children could see it not only in books but on their breakfast table. The children were encouraged to collect coupons to mail in for brooches (also called pins or badges) of Gollies. In 1939 the brooch series was discontinued because the metal was needed for the war effort, but by 1946 the Golly returned. It took until  2001, for the Golly collectables to be replaced by more children’s book characters – Roald Dahl in 2001 and in 2014 by Paddington.

I can remember my Grandma collecting the tokens on Robertson Jam jars and my brother owning a soft toy version she made for him. In my innocent eyes, it was a much loved toy and the Gollies portrayed in books were mischievous fun characters, but as an adult I look back from a different perspective. 

In 2019 the Royal Mint (UK equivalent of US mint) refused to put Enid Blyton on a commemorative 50p coin. This caused a lot of debate in the UK (10).   Similarly, in 2018 the Royal Mint refused to acknowledge Roald Dahl on a coin. Whilst Roald Dahl and his characters are hugely popular with children, he held anti-Semitic views – once telling the New Statesman: “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” (11) Undoubtedly, Enid Blyton’s work brings back nostalgia for me- my much loved Father reading her words to me as a child, my cherished Grandma knitting a toy for my brother. But we live in a different world now, one which for the most part acknowledges differences as a good thing and gradually provides a different narrative to read to our children. We now have a choice.

While these controversies were happening in the UK similar debates were happening in America with the beloved Dr Seuss books. A study Research on Diversity in Youth Literature by researchers Katie Ishizuka and Ramon Stephens found that only two percent of the human characters in Seuss’ books were people of color. And all but two of those 45 characters, they say, were “depicted through racist caricatures.“ (13)

But what should we do with these books of the past? We should not excuse them or erase them. Enid Blyton grew up in a different era, the era of Jim Crow, the Black and White Minstrel Show was popular and Golliwogs were already a household name and much loved children’s toy. Enid Blyton’s writing reflected many of the racial issues that blacks faced in post wartime Britain just like Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn addressed racial issues during the antebellum (slave era) in the USA. Enid Blyton’s books are without a doubt racist viewed from today’s perspective and certainly do not belong as they were intended in the hands (or ears) of a small child. They should not be read to your young child just because you enjoyed them as a child. The devil is in the default, the default is reading your children the same or similar books. When it is today's perspective that counts and today’s perception of history. 

Just like today’s children no longer read the same textbooks as in 1944, we should not read the same children’s books to our children.  Without giving them a careful check for how they are relevant in today’s world. The next generation’s ears need to hear the narrative which they deserve; a narrative which reflects today’s society, multiple diverse characters, not just one type.  

Older children need to be aware of these books to discuss and evaluate them. They should be made aware of past books and their flaws. Start discussions- should cultural norms excuse biased language or actions? How are stereotypical representations harmful? Can an author make up for their past mistakes? If so how? Should their prose be rewritten? Only discussion not avoidance will neutralize differences. The narrative of repeating the same type of children’s books needs to stop and a new path of narrative needs to be encouraged. Parents need to encourage diversity in books so authors of diversity can be promoted and stop the same narrative happening again. 

We still have a long way to go. But there are some people trying to get the right books into all hands – Barber books is a non profit organization providing books to barber shops in lower income. (14) and 1000 Black girl books – part of the Grass Root Foundation (15) And of course there is the local library but to go there a child needs to have a supportive available parent or guardian to enroll them and take them regularly. 

Adults can help by being ‘reading role models’ – reading books in front of their children shows them that books are important. Children wish to emulate adults, if adults read it becomes important for the children to read. Bear in mind reading on a Kindle to a child means the adult is on electronics. There is nothing wrong with reading on an electronic device or listening to audiobooks, just be sure to share your love of books with your child. Discuss what you are reading or show them on your device. Read together or listen together and make audio books part of your school commute or road trips. Ask your child questions about what they are reading in school. Consider a family book club. 

The books children choose need to spark their enthusiasm. Yes they need to be learning about the history of slavery, the civil rights movement, immigration, the LGBTQ community and the overall struggle of minorities. But they also need to read fiction and they need to be having fun while they read.

In June 1997, the first Harry Potter was released to the public in the UK and a year later in the US. The series has sparked the imagination of children around the world many of whom were not previously avid readers. Nearly half a billion copies have been sold and the series has been translated into 67 languages. A study commissioned by Scholastic, Yankelovich, a market research firm, reported that 51 percent of the 500 kids aged 5 to 17 polled said they did not read books for fun before they started reading the series. A little over three-quarters of them said Harry Potter had made them interested in reading other books. Even more impressive when you think that these books are over 700 pages long (15)

The Potter series got so many kids to read but like many books of its time – it also was written with no place for minorities in the starring cast; a few sidelines for Lee Jordan, Cho Chang, the Patel sisters and Dean Thomas but that was all. The Percy Jackson series and the Hunger Games all have the same issue. Fantastic to get children reading but would have been so much better had the characters reflected society. And then of course sadly the Harry Potter legacy has recently been tarnished by the comments JK Rowling has made about the LGBTQ community. If any book series invokes a nostalgic magical feeling it is Harry Potter. I wasn’t a child when it was published so I waited to read it with my children. For two years we read every night together, my son, daughter (and cat) could not wait to read. I would not want to deny a family of this magical time. But by the time you are reading Harry Potter you hopefully have already given your child a wonderful variety of books. 

I first heard the phrase, The devil is in the detail,  was on a podcast about a supreme court hearing on Is Google a monopoly? (17) Google was being challenged because it paid Apple and many android devices, a huge amount annually to use Google as its default for its search engine. Generally people do not alter their assigned default, they carry on without changing the route set for them by someone else. Many do not even look for alternatives or think about the possibilities.  Books are not defaults – but our brains are trained to defer to a default maybe because we have nostalgia for the books we read. Maybe because somehow we absorb the books we read and the one narrative (the white narrative) and now we cannot see another path. Publishers are reluctant to publish children’s books from not white authors as they do not sell as well. We as parents need to change the default. We need to ensure that our young children are exposed to books reflecting our society, not the default. Start here with well researched books for all.

By Laura McCracken October 2020

Sources: 

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01664.x

2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065240706800042

3. https://www.newsweek.com/even-babies-discriminate-nurtureshock-excerpt-79233

4. http://(https://www.npr.org/2012/01/28/145052896/the-snowy-day-breaking-color-barriers-quietly).

5. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-snowy-day-enduring-illustration-diversity

6. nicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf

7. https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/#:~:text=The%20Golliwog%20was%20created%20during,a%20banjo%20on%20page%2045.

8. httpshttps://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/22/opinions/colored-people-and-abc-anchors-apology-mcwhorter/index.html

9. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918418825/is-it-time-to-say-r-i-p-to-p-o-c

10. ://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/enid-blyton-royal-mint-racist-books-famous-five-noddy-roald-dahl-a9080846.html

11. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/06/royal-mint-roald-dahl-coin-antisemitic-views

12. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/26/695966537/classic-books-are-full-of-problems-why-cant-we-put-them-down