How to Talk About Racism In Classic Children's Books

If you went to last year's YSS preconference at the WLA fall conference, you had a chance to start or continue your thinking about classic children's books that display hurtful racial stereotypes.  But many of us weren't there.

The blog No Time for Flashcards recently had an excellent article by Bethany Edwards of Biracial Bookworms giving concrete tips on how to deal with these classics. As Bethany writes, "Sometimes good people, people you love, aren’t always right. The same is true for classic children’s books. Today, I want to give you a framework to have critical and courageous conversations about racism in classic children’s books.

First and foremost, racist, sexist, homophobic books should not be banned. Censorship is not the answer. Most of the classic children’s books written 50 years ago fall into one of these aforementioned categories."

The post is thoughtful, link heavy and very helpful. Read more here.