HDU call Neil Gaiman racist

[galateus]

In 2008, Neil Gaiman described why he didn't set The Graveyard Book in America: "The great thing about having an English cemetery is I could go back a very, very, very long way. And in America, you go back 250 years (in a cemetery), and then suddenly you’ve got a few dead Indians, and then you don’t have anybody at all, unless you decide to set

Comments

[wasabirobot]

This.

[elledesu]

Yep.

exactly

[woodyfanon]

i used to be obsessed with gaiman since I was 12 years old (and I'm 31 now) because I thought he knew his shit and that was someone I looked up to and now I gotta turn around and say to gaiman 'Bitch please'

[milleniumrex]

Creator says something dumb on the internet, tries to backpedal. Seems more eyeroll-worthy than ragey to me.

[isitnotnifty]

Weird huh.

[j_u_d_a_s]

I don't know what to believe anymore.

[nietzschekeen]

hahahaha ia

[isitnotnifty]

I'm a little confused. Native Americans had different burial practices before Europeans. Wouldn't it make sense that if you wanted to set a book in a graveyard that was really old you wouldn't set it in the Americas? (I'm not saying that his statement wasn't horribly worded and implying large gaps and trivializing people.) I know Native Americans did have burial grounds, mounds, graves, etc. But the practices might not have followed what he wanted to write.

[nietzschekeen]

1) "A few dead Indians" is beyond horribly worded. Also, in my opinion, something being horribly worded and so sounding racist is in fact still racist.

2) He adds later the Vikings to the list of characters he could use, who also were not buried in Graveyards, as is explained in her original post.

[isitnotnifty]

Throw the Vikings in there as people who wouldn't be buried in traditional western ways. (Stick me in a boat and burn me and all my stuff.) I think he was trying to point out that at a certain point you wouldn't have people being buried there. And if you did, there would be one or two Native Americans and perhaps a Viking if they happened to get buried there coincidentally. Sometimes when people say things on the spur of the moment, it comes out in ways they would rather it not. I'm not saying he wasn't being a racist twat, just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. I know sometimes there's a concept in my head that comes out horribly because I can't figure out how to properly word it.

[phaetonschariot]

Yes. Also, he's not American, AFAIK. The problem is basically the horrible wording and trivialising and history fail etc, at least to me.

[eald]

Oh, Neil, and I used to like you so much.