Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name will be removed from a major literary award over how the author of “Little House on the Prairie” depicted minorities in her in books.
The decision to nix her name on the award, changing it from the “Laura Ingalls Wilder Award” to the “Children’s Literature Legacy Award” comes after a unanimous vote by the Association of Library Service to Children’s board. That decision was met with a “standing ovation by the audience in attendance,” the group reported.
“This decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder’s legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness,” the Association for Library Service to Children said in a statement after the vote.
The award is given to “an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children,” according to the organization’s website.
Many on social media were quick to slam the move.
Written by Leah Barkoukis for Town Hall ~ June 25, 2018.
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” …. standing ovation… by the audience in attendence.”
I read that sentance as: ‘The Delphi method’ to “arrive… ?” at a (pre-arranged) concensus.
The cry of “Clean up History” rang loudly through the halls of sameness in the liberal’s quest for a homogeneous literary world devoid of colour and imagination. It pains me to think that we’ve lost our perspective regarding the realities of stereotypes and those that insist that history’s report follow today’s liberality and amoral standard. The lib-turds are willing to erase everything that hints at any shade other than their monochromatic vision of world equity. Cost is no object to avoid political incorrectness or possibly offending any historian or wiki-file bend on correcting the reality of times and boiling out the flavour of the history.
Stereotypes evolved from real-life situations. No one invented them and as unforgiving as they are they reflect reality. Dickens painted poverty in 19th century England as an unbending and cruel taskmaster who’s whip scared the backs of the have-nots and needy. Are we going to sanitise these novels to spare English sensibilities? I suppose the One-Eyed coalition will insist that the Cyclops is merely a misunderstood monocular misfit of tragic circumstances who lost partial vision at the hand of a drunken sailor out for a whoring good time while plotting to fleece them for a golden rug.
Samuel Clemons is next I suppose for his overly stereotypical treatment of the Jim runaway slave in Huckleberry Finn. Indeed for his treatment of Becky Thatcher as the foolish girl in love with the affable rogue Huck.
What’s next? Maybe we should tackle the Bible for the unfair portrayal of the Arab world; certainly for Pharo’s enslavement of Jehova’s chosen people. How about the fact that snakes are so cruelly and unjustly maligned. Why did God pick the apple? Didn’t He like oranges?
Beam me up! There is no intelligent life on this rock!