Reading a bunch of Curious George books the kid picked up at the library. The only thing I remember about these from my childhood is that George got into a lot of trouble from being curious. Even as a kid this kind of confused me - these books are saying that being curious and a knowledge seeker and experimenter are bad things? (And we wonder why so few kids go into STEM fields. Maybe they shouldve called him Unsafe George or Careless George instead... ah well, missed opportunities.) What I didnt remember from reading these as a kid was that Georges origin story was that he was living in Africa before he was essentially abducted by the Man with the Yellow Hat, who brought him back to the States as a curiosity to keep in a zoo. No analogy to the slave trade here, nothing to see, move along. In the second book George escapes the zoo, only to end up back in the hands of The Man, who then promptly takes him to a Hollywood studio to pitch a documentary about George. The Man and the studio greenlight person are sitting at a desk, smoking cigars, laughing at all the money theyre both about to make from putting George on display as if he were the next Nanook. George, meanwhile, works as an actor basically for free and is just happy to help his friend. Still no analogy to slavery, stop looking at me like that. The plot of the documentary in the second book - and the plot of pretty much every other book that follows - follows the same formula: Hey everyone, look at the little sub-human dark-skinned African! Hes warned not to try and broaden his knowledge or skills or abilities and to only do what hes told, but he cant help it, and then he gets in trouble as he naively fails in his attempts to navigate Western civilized society. Then hes bailed out by the Slaveowner with the Yellow Hat. The moral of the story is that when your powerful white owner tells you that you shouldnt learn anything or educate yourself, its for your own good! ...okay, what were you thinking when you wrote this, Margaret and H.A. Reycist? And how did this anti-education pro-slavery propaganda end up on PBS Kids of all places?
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 20:34:17 +0000
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