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[comicstar]

I read Keep Out, Claudia! for the second time last week. When I read it the first time I was eight or nine and I remember reading it and thinking it was a little vague, the way they say "prejudice" instead of racism. Because prejudice is more than just race-related, but the way it is referred to in this book, it's like it's an exact synonym for

Comments

[binglexjells]

It's a race now? :::blinkblink::: I've always known it to be a religion. I've never heard anything different, and I am Jewish. :::blink::: but that angered me a little... as dto most anti-Semitic things, but... I didn't and still don't see why kids taking part in a neighbourhood musical production is so bad? Sure, I could understand if it was an adult-oriented thing, but just because the musical is a Jewish story? [nope... have the tape, still haven't watched it properly. Not a clue what it's about.]

[comicstar]

Most of my friends are Jewish and they consider themselves to be of a common race, but that might just be because of their super orthodox education.

[binglexjells]

Hmm... I take your point, but I've never had an especially orthodox education, nor do I follow my religion particularly closely. [in other words, I visit the synagogue three times a year if that, eat all but pig and certain seafood, and have now left the jewish highschool i was attending in favour of one with no fixed religious views.]

[binglexjells]

I'm pretty sure in the UK version they used the word 'racism' because I remember sitting in the car in a service station car park and asking my mother what it meant. Reading the books now, they seem awfully... uptight, in a way - but then I guess they were written so long ago when kids were a little more sheltered than they are now. Still... it always did strike me as odd.

"Wasn't there an entire book built around the premise that Claudia looks nothing like her family?

Yes, #33, Claudia and the Great Search.

[comicstar]

Oh, I was actually going to ask about that. I thought the UK one might not beat around the bush so much.

[binglexjells]

Now I think about it, it could be the bit where, after Claudia whimpered a bit, Kristy went home all gung-ho to try and fix this with her macho!girl!kickass 'super'power, and asked her... grandmother [I think? It's been a while...] about it, and her grandmother - actually, thinking more, possibly her mother - one of the two, replied with "Racism, honey?" or something. I'll go and dig out the book.

Yup, it's right here. Page 81.

Kristy followed her mother into the living room. When Watson and her grandmother had joined them, she said, "What I'm going to say sounds awful, and I don't have any proof, but I *have* to talk to an adult. It's about the Lowells."

"Go ahead," said Mrs Brewer.

"I think they're, um, racists."

[miss_myu]

the UK one might not beat around the bush so much.

Not necessarily. Yes, words were changed in the UK versions, but they were only typical Americanisms - "Math" to "Maths" and suchlike. I think they were more strict at the start of the series, as I recently read the first few pages of the US Phantom Phone Calls(book 2) on Amazon and even the use of 'seventh grade' was avoided (replaced with the more abstract 'beginning of the school year'). The words were changed, but only when there was a typical British-English equivalent.

Might not be relevant... but...

[mizzils]

Ironicly, I was at work tonight (I am a front desk clerk at a hotel) and one of our guests told me that he was "so glad that there werent' any blacks down here." I live in TN and there are loads of black people around here. But this guy was just so racist!

However, when he saw the black guest in room 125, he shut the hell up pretty quick.

Its kinda weird how he was so "happy" to tell me, but he still knew that it was wrong, cause he wouldnt make any rude comments in front of the other guests.

Though, someone said in that book that people become less and less prejudice with the generations... I think it might have been Nannie. There is some truth to that.

Re: Might not be relevant... but...

[comicstar]

I get that at my work, where I'm a checkout chick. They'll talk about aboriginal people in extremely offensive terms to ther faces even, but strangely, they'll say things about Asian customers, to me, and then, when seeing my chinese manager come along, quickly shut up and look guilty. It seems some races are worthy of a little dignity or... something. Weird.

this icon seems oddly appropriate

[kannaophelia]

I think AMM had to walk a fine line in that while it was describing behaviour and attitudes most fair, balanced people would see as really, really wrong, there is a large chance that the exact same beliefs are espoused by some of the child readers' parents. "Racist" is seen as a harsh word - I mean, it is, and rightly so, but some people who are notably racist would still reject the word as too harsh to describe them. So potentially describing the readers' parents as racist was probably too much of a risk to take.

Re: this icon seems oddly appropriate

[comicstar]

Ohhh! Good point! I didn't even think of that!

[flaxeloquent]

Although I knew about the concept of racism- had learned about Jim Crow laws and such- I learned the words "prejudice" and "racism" from that very book, and I was convinced they were synonyms. I remember some guy at my synagogue tried to chase a bunch of us out of the room by saying "No children!" and I, having just read Keep Out, Claudia!, complained, "He's prejudiced against children! He's racist!"