Ten Little Whitepeople
I'd like to recommend two satires by Beverly Slapin and Annie Esposito of Oyate.org: Ten Little Whitepeople and Basic Skills Caucasian Americans Workbook. Both books turn inside out the "objective" white POV that dominates so many children's books about Native North Americans.
From the "About the Author / Illustrator":Beverly Slapin, the author who delighted many young readers with Growing Up Caucasian, I Live in a Condo, and What's Up, Little White Girl?, has always been fascinated with and delighted by white people. A teacher whose love of white culture led her to intensive Caucasian studies, which she eagerly shares with her young students, Slapin writes: "What would America have been without the Caucasians themselves, with their magnificent shopping malls, their colorful polyesters, their factories, landfills, and parking lots, their soap operas, and their history?"
Annie Esposito is a serious collector of Caucasian art and artifacts, including rugs, baskets, CDs, and Tupperware. Her sensitive and dramatic ethnic illustrations have earned her wide acclaim, including recognition by the Museum of the American Caucasian, the Society of Illustrators of Caucasians, and the Association of Whitepeople Hobbyists...
10 Little Whitepeople is note-perfect, right down to the authentic Caucasian-American border motifs.* The rhymes themselves are all distortions and caricatures of the more unsavory aspects of white culture--nothing that's truly incorrect, at least not within the broad parameters of children's rhymes, yet taken together they form a highly biased and pejorative sample. "9 little Whitepeople / trying to lose weight / 1 went too far / and then there were eight." My father, who is Lakota, started laughing from the moment he caught sight of the cover, and kept laughing right on through past the end.
Basic Skills: Caucasian Americans Workbook builds upon the theme of 10 Little Whitepeople, displaying endless variations on what can be twisted to serve an outsider's point-of-view. Caucasian-American words are persistently put in quotation marks, even after their umpteenth appearance; pronunciation guides are arbitrary and disruptive; random sentences end in exclamation-points-of-excitement!; details of "sacred rituals" (usually just everyday activities) are hopelessly muddled; everything, no matter how contemporary, is discussed in the long-ago past tense; Caucasian Americans are presented as one monolithic culture even as the text gives lip service to their diversity; the narrative identity shifts between exclusivity ("the people who once roamed our land") and inclusivity ("learn about our shared heritage"), but always taking the stance that best serves non-Caucasian American interests; narrative tone see-saws wildly between breathless wonder at the sacred beauty of Caucasian American rituals, and abject (but carefully non-judgemental) horror about things "that no one ever thought to object to."
To round it off, every section ends with "educational" activities: word search grids (with bonus pejorative terms unlisted in the key); inappropriate imaginative exercises ("Make up a story about an influential Caucasian American leader!"); and leading questions about the text ("What were 'couch potatoes'? Compare and contrast 'schools' and 'prisons'"). My personal favorite is when young readers are instructed to "design a road sign." They are instructed to select from one of the provided highway-sign silhouettes, to put a "moral exhortation" of their choice on it, color it in, and then describe its significance to the Caucasian-Americans. For those of us who know about road signs, it's clear that this exercise has nothing to do with learning about them. Instead, this exercise is about teaching kids that other people's cultures are random and whimsical, and exist to be their playgrounds.
Through it all, the authors congratulate themselves on their insight and sensitivity when dealing with these beatiful, beautiful people that they admire so much. Personally, I love the bit when they thank Bob Smith, "a young white man who is earnestly working to preserve his heritage. We are grateful to have spoken with him, and feel that the few words he has had to say have helped to legitimize our work."
Yeah, I bet you do. Truly, I meant it when I said that the authors were note-perfect in their satire.
If you're trying to learn to recognize white POV and the problems associated with it--especially if you're North American, and thus have encountered the kind of "objective" and "educational" book that Slapin and Esposito are criticizing here--these two volumes are highly recommended. Or if you just need a bit of catharsis from the persistent Othering of Native cultures by Europeans: these are good for that, too.
* $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
From the "About the Author / Illustrator":Beverly Slapin, the author who delighted many young readers with Growing Up Caucasian, I Live in a Condo, and What's Up, Little White Girl?, has always been fascinated with and delighted by white people. A teacher whose love of white culture led her to intensive Caucasian studies, which she eagerly shares with her young students, Slapin writes: "What would America have been without the Caucasians themselves, with their magnificent shopping malls, their colorful polyesters, their factories, landfills, and parking lots, their soap operas, and their history?"
Annie Esposito is a serious collector of Caucasian art and artifacts, including rugs, baskets, CDs, and Tupperware. Her sensitive and dramatic ethnic illustrations have earned her wide acclaim, including recognition by the Museum of the American Caucasian, the Society of Illustrators of Caucasians, and the Association of Whitepeople Hobbyists...
10 Little Whitepeople is note-perfect, right down to the authentic Caucasian-American border motifs.* The rhymes themselves are all distortions and caricatures of the more unsavory aspects of white culture--nothing that's truly incorrect, at least not within the broad parameters of children's rhymes, yet taken together they form a highly biased and pejorative sample. "9 little Whitepeople / trying to lose weight / 1 went too far / and then there were eight." My father, who is Lakota, started laughing from the moment he caught sight of the cover, and kept laughing right on through past the end.
Basic Skills: Caucasian Americans Workbook builds upon the theme of 10 Little Whitepeople, displaying endless variations on what can be twisted to serve an outsider's point-of-view. Caucasian-American words are persistently put in quotation marks, even after their umpteenth appearance; pronunciation guides are arbitrary and disruptive; random sentences end in exclamation-points-of-excitement!; details of "sacred rituals" (usually just everyday activities) are hopelessly muddled; everything, no matter how contemporary, is discussed in the long-ago past tense; Caucasian Americans are presented as one monolithic culture even as the text gives lip service to their diversity; the narrative identity shifts between exclusivity ("the people who once roamed our land") and inclusivity ("learn about our shared heritage"), but always taking the stance that best serves non-Caucasian American interests; narrative tone see-saws wildly between breathless wonder at the sacred beauty of Caucasian American rituals, and abject (but carefully non-judgemental) horror about things "that no one ever thought to object to."
To round it off, every section ends with "educational" activities: word search grids (with bonus pejorative terms unlisted in the key); inappropriate imaginative exercises ("Make up a story about an influential Caucasian American leader!"); and leading questions about the text ("What were 'couch potatoes'? Compare and contrast 'schools' and 'prisons'"). My personal favorite is when young readers are instructed to "design a road sign." They are instructed to select from one of the provided highway-sign silhouettes, to put a "moral exhortation" of their choice on it, color it in, and then describe its significance to the Caucasian-Americans. For those of us who know about road signs, it's clear that this exercise has nothing to do with learning about them. Instead, this exercise is about teaching kids that other people's cultures are random and whimsical, and exist to be their playgrounds.
Through it all, the authors congratulate themselves on their insight and sensitivity when dealing with these beatiful, beautiful people that they admire so much. Personally, I love the bit when they thank Bob Smith, "a young white man who is earnestly working to preserve his heritage. We are grateful to have spoken with him, and feel that the few words he has had to say have helped to legitimize our work."
Yeah, I bet you do. Truly, I meant it when I said that the authors were note-perfect in their satire.
If you're trying to learn to recognize white POV and the problems associated with it--especially if you're North American, and thus have encountered the kind of "objective" and "educational" book that Slapin and Esposito are criticizing here--these two volumes are highly recommended. Or if you just need a bit of catharsis from the persistent Othering of Native cultures by Europeans: these are good for that, too.
* $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$