Was the cat in the hat black? : the hidden racism of children's literature, and the need for diverse books

Description

Racism is resilient, duplicitous, and endlessly adaptable, so it is no surprise that America is again in a period of civil rights activism. A significant reason racism endures is because it is structural: it's embedded in culture and in institutions. One of the places that racism hides-and thus perhaps the best place to oppose it-is books for young people. Was the Cat in the Hat Black? presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's literature tempestuous relationship with both implicit and explicit forms of racism. The book fearlessly examines topics both vivid-such as The Cat in the Hat's roots in blackface minstrelsy-and more opaque, like how the children's book industry can perpetuate structural racism via whitewashed covers even while making efforts to increase diversity. Rooted in research yet written with a lively, crackling touch, Nel delves into years of literary criticism and recent sociological data in order to show a better way forward. Though much of what is proposed here could be endlessly argued, the knowledge that what we learn in childhood imparts both subtle and explicit lessons about whose lives matter is not debatable. The text concludes with a short and stark proposal of actions everyone-reader, author, publisher, scholar, citizen- can take to fight the biases and prejudices that infect children's literature. While Was the Cat in the Hat Black? does not assume it has all the answers to such a deeply systemic problem, its audacity should stimulate discussion and activism. Content: Cover Was the Cat in the Hat Black? Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Race, Racism, and the Cultures of Childhood 1. The Strange Career of the Cat in the Hat or, Dr. Seuss's Racial Imagination 2. How to Read Uncomfortably: Racism, Affect, and Classic Children's Books 3. Whiteness, Nostalgia, and Fantastic Flying Books: William Joyce's Racial Erasures vs. Hurricane Katrina 4. Don't Judge a Book by Its Color: The Destructive Fantasy of Whitewashing (and Vice-​Versa) 5. Childhoods "Outside the Boundaries of Imagination": Genre Is the New Jim Crow Conclusion: A Manifesto for Anti-​Racist Children's LiteratureNotes Bibliography Index