How to point out the racism and sexism prevalent in books to children

5 simple ways

This article has been inspired by the article ‘10 Quick Ways to Analyse Children’s Books for Racism and Sexism’ from The Council on Interracial Books for Children.

These quick pointers have been developed for you to understand racism and sexism prevalent in books and then to initiate a discussion with your child pointing out the instances from books as and when they occur. It is never too early or too late to initiate a discussion on racism and sexism, and what better way than to point out casual occurrences of sexism and racism in books?

Point out the Stereotypes

Point out the lack of:
◦ Girls or women in leadership and action roles. For example: as pilots, police, managers, doctors, scientists, engineers, lawyers and heads of state
◦ Girls/Women who actively make decisions without consulting or depending on a man/boy
◦ People from minority communities (Black, Asian, Ethic Minority) as positive influences
◦ Boys/Men who cry
◦ Positive characters with dark skin tones

Point out the prevalence of:
◦ Men/Boys who explain difficult situations/problems to women/girls
◦ Wicked step-mothers and princesses that need to be rescued
◦ Girls with dolls and boys with trucks

Point out the subtle bias

Point out the prevalence of:
◦ White men as heroes who solve all the problems
◦ Simply accepting the status-quo for poverty/oppression
◦ Reducing women/girls to their looks
◦ Using a girl’s looks to depict her personality – beautiful therefore good, ugly therefore bad

Point out the lack of:
◦ Reasons provided for a person’s poverty/oppression
◦ Actively promoting resistance against oppression/poverty
◦ Raising questions against oppression/poverty

Point out the loaded words

Loaded words have insulting overtones. Some of the loaded words are associated with certain religions, races, and castes. Examples of loaded words: fat, miserly, lazy, backward, primitive, savage, wily, sly.

Point out the accepted, prevalent, and aspirational norms

Point out the prevalence of:
◦ Accepted standards of beauty based on the majority – girls with golden hair and blue eyes or girls who are tall with straight hair
◦ The colour ‘white’ projecting cleanliness, virtue, purity, and beauty in the story and the colour ‘black’ depicting dirt, ugliness, and threat with the narrative reinforcing this association

Point out the lack of:
◦ Aspirational minority characters whose appearances do not conform to the prevalent beauty standards

Point out the action of heroes

Point out the lack of:
◦ Aspirational minority characters whose appearances do not conform to the prevalent beauty standards

Point out the prevalence of:
◦ Non-white characters being shown as heroes only when they do something that benefits white/upper-caste people. Ask the question –whose interests is the hero really serving?

Do:

• Discuss race and skin colour with children
• Encourage questions
• Discuss injustices of the past
• Offer hope for the future

Groggy Eyes Children’s Books

5th August 2020