From: bjgolden at students.wisc.edu <bjgolden>
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 15:52:52 -0600

First, I'd like to introduce myself as an African American of mature age.
        I remember not only Sam, but other books of that era and later that were confusing to me in the images of Blacks that they presented. I knew that we were more than grinning entertainers. I have gone on to actively search out and find literature for my own children that does not make them flinch and squirm with embarrassment, whether about themselves, or other racial/cultural groups.
        There are others of color who did not recover from their initial negative brush with so?lled 'children's' literature. Once when doing a booktalk with a group of African American moms I asked them about their favorite childhood books. They had none. And, unfortuneately they had not introduced their own children to literature becuase of the belief that things had not changed. Some of us are not privileged to yearn for the innocence of the past. For some of us, that innocence was at our expense.
        If we are to use books, whether they be childrens or adults, to learn about Others whom we have no intimate experience of- don't we owe it to ourselves to be wary of the stories we are told, the images we are shown, and ultimately, the beliefs we internalize? As a mother and an educator, I think so.
Received on Sun 03 Nov 1996 03:52:52 PM CST