Was Enid Blyton Racist?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9870065/Town-torn-over-celebrations-of-Enid-Blytons-racist-work.html

Many of her books depict an idyllic vision of rural England, those days before mass immigration, when our very culture was changed forever.

Providing certain things do not cause any physical harm or disadvantage to certain groups, either because of the colour of their skin, religion or sexuality, should certain children's stories be banned or altered to fit in with today's political correctness thinking?

It was said that the very bad Golliwogs were replaced with White Goblins, then is this not also racist against whites?

The golliwog owner of the Toytown garage was replaced by a ‘Mr Sparks’.

/// Golliwog appears as a total villain only in the notorious Here Comes Noddy Again, where a golly asks the hero with a bell on his hat to give him a lift into the dark dark wood - and then steals his car. ///

But then that could have been anybody.

[mccfluff]

there were an awful lot of criminals back then, the famous five and secret 7 were forever catching them :-)

[FredPuli43]

But if there was only black bloke in Toytown, he'd be the bloke who'd mug people or nick a car. Stands to reason, doesn't it? And if there were several they'd spend their time stabbing one another . Just look at London and remove your rose-tinted spectacles. That's the lesson I've learned from others on this site.

[Zeuhl]

Enid Blyton lived and worked in a very different culture to today; most people had never experienced foreign countries and had never met or spoken with a black or asian person other perhaps than the people who ran the local Chinese Laundry.

As such, foreigners were an easy target to choose as 'baddies'

Nowadays, most people have travelled and dealt with fellow Brits with overseas genealogy so are far more inclusive attitude that clashes with those old simplistic stereotypes.

There is a choice; either update the books to reflect how they would be if Ms Blyton was writing them now

Or leave them as increasingly peculiar and inaccessible museum pieces

[weecalf]

Thought you ment blaydon races there for a moment

[anotheoldgit]

triggerhippy

/// Times and attitudes change AOG. ///

And not always for the best I'm afraid trigger.

[LazyGun]

She wrote in a different time. Do not know enough about her to know if she was herself especially racist or sexist or whatever.

Times change, what is culturally acceptable changes with the times. Not sure that it was immigration specifically that changed those attitudes though :)

Her works should stand as they are - fiction based in a much different time.

[anotheoldgit]

/// Although it could be argued that the golliwog was not originally intended as a representation of a black person, anti-racists fastened on to the character as a key symbol of racism and sought to ban it, which gave it a status and significance it did not originally have ///

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/jul/03/books.race

[Old_Geezer]

I tend to agree. Looking back the things that bother society now were not those that caused offence at the time. It is the mind of today's readers that sees things that were not meant. If we cause a fuss over such things, expect our generation to be seen as awful by the next, and so on and so forth ad infinitum. (Well for a long time anyway.)

[FredPuli43]

Exactly zeulh. These books are intended for children, not social historians. IF the message in them is that black people are inherently bad, and it's quite a big 'if' in Blyton's case, then the books have to be adjusted to stop that message being accepted by children.

aog is right, in that the mere fact that the villain is black should not matter now. He could equally well be a white villain in today's mixed society. And the policeman,and other characters could be black too, come to that.

[Zeuhl]

selective quoting aog

from the same article:

"However, there is no doubt that the golly came to prominence in an age that was racist and that he was all too easily implicated in racist discourses, both in name and image."

[FredPuli43]

Incidentally, haven't other books been adjusted, edited, to suit modern times? I'm thinking of Peter Rabbit, in particular. In the original story, the disobedient Peter is punished by his father cutting a switch and thrashing him with it. I feel certain that this bit of the text has been removed.

[Zeuhl]

Could be Fred

Publishers and the Estates of dead authors want to sell books (and other merchandise)

As such they are more sensitive to the taste of their current audience than to the niceties of preserving museum pieces - that happens anyway by academics

[anotheoldgit]

LazyGun

/// Times change, what is culturally acceptable changes with the times. Not sure that it was immigration specifically that changed those attitudes though :) ///

I don't know how old you are LazyGun but I can remember the days pre Mass-Immigration.

And I know that in those days we could do and say most things that are now illegal or very much frowned upon, but then in those far off distant days we only had ourselves to bother about, and there were no laws to protect those offended against, it was just a case of "give as good as you get", and that seemed to work fine. :0)

[emmie]

a totally different time and culture, so no i wouldn't think so.

[Zeuhl]

/in those far off distant days we only had ourselves to bother about, and there were no laws to protect those offended against/

So that world seems to have been

a) isolated and narrow minded
b) without legal protection for people who were abused or bullied

No wonder we swept it away

[LazyGun]

@AoG I think I might be of a different generation :)

I think we all have to recognise that cultures change with the times though, sometimes for very good reasons, and that opposing that change simply because it is different, or because it forces us to think differently is not sufficient reason in itself to resist the change, or repine for the good old days.

Too often, the past is imperfectly remembered - the good things highlighted, the bad glossed over. And when it comes to making judgements about individuals, demonising or pre-judging them based upon a stereotypical view of their race is simply wrong, and offensive.

I do not subscribe to the idea that we should airbrush what is now deemed offensive literature or movies out though.They were of their time, and should be left that way for posterity - unless, as fred remarked, they offer a message of inherent evil or what-have-you.

[bazwillrun]

No !
simple really, no need for all the long winded in her day etc etc etc excuses

but then the left would love to change history (in this case books) to suit their dystopian view wouldnt they

[Zeuhl]

LG

That's true

I don't think these aspects of her work necessarily make Enid Blyton a 'bad person' - she was of her time

Though by the accounts of her own children she does appear to have been rather detached and insensitive.

That doesn't alter the fact that if she were around today to write (or edit the old stuff) she would no doubt be doing it differently to reflect the Values of today's audience.

[Zeuhl]

baz

how is editing the books for today's readers 'changing history'?

the original forms will still exist. no one is suggesting they are all burned; (that's a right wing tactic isn't it? lol)

People really should engage a brain before flinging out their tired old clichés and ill thought through slogans