Hang Up the Anger

People seem to have alot of hangups. We spend so much time demanding individuality and then scream when we're not treated like somebody else.

Whites are angry at being passed over by Affirmative Action.
Blacks are angry because they aren't receiving the same benefits as Whites.
Hispanics are angry because their culture is ignored.
Women are angry because they feel inferior to men.
Men are angry because they feel put down by women.

The list could go on forever. Tonight, in my class, a fellow student presented the book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. If you're not familiar with this story, it's about a man who LOVES this overcoat he has. Season after season, the coat becomes more and more ragged. Each season, he turns the overcoat into something brand new. A jacket...a vest....a scarf...a hankerchief....until it's worn down to a button. The theme is that you can always make something out of nothing. It's such a wonderful story and the collage style illustrations are wonderful. True to Taback's Eastern European Jewish background, his characters are round, bright happy folk. The men all have beards and are White. While presenting, this individual made a comment about how one of his criticisms of the book was it's lack of multiculturalism and how the characters looked Amish. Amish??? Has he ever seen an Amish individual??? I held my tongue. But then he referenced the lack of multiculturalism, specifically of Blacks, several times.

I stopped holding my tongue.

I firmly (but politely) pointed out Taback's background and that he was writing from his own culture. I stated that I disagreed with the assesment that the book was bias, but that the author was writing about something that was important to him (his culture), and a theme that was important to his culture (always making something out of nothing).

There are absolutely books out there that contain racial stereotypes or slurs that are inappropriate. I'm not saying that certain literature should be avoided for the message that it sends. But not every book needs to portray a member of every race, sex, gender, mental, and physical ability, to be considered a good piece of literature. There's SO much more to be considered.

Grr. There's such a thing as being overly politically correct. To criticize a book about an Eastern European Jewish man's thriftiness because the pictures only show white men with beards and their round-shaped wives is ridiculous.

So says I.