It’s not outrageous and I’m not offended. It’s pure stupid and it’s ridiculous and helps nobody and protects nobody from any real harm or even pretend racism. It’s just religious dogma and genuflecting.
"Pilkey was forced to issue an apology for his 2010 book 'The Adventures of Ook and Gluk,' over “harmful racial stereotypes” about Asians, who are the latest rock-stars of the race identity political movement targeting white people."
I'm unclear precisely who I'm supposed to be angry at. You didn't specify WHO forced Pilkey to apologize. Was it his wife (if he has one)? A child reading his book? His publisher? An irate parent? The NEA? Someone else?
It's kind of hard to do anything about the nebulous "woke scolds" as long as they are this under-specified, fog-like entity, who are so diffuse to be unable to earn a place as the subject of a sentence, instead being forced to hide out in the dark recesses of the passive voice.
Also, speaking as a white man armed with the greatest apparatus for finding and consuming culture in the history of humanity, the only limitation that I'm feeling with respect to my ability to create or consume culture is the limited attention to give to a rapidly-growing menu of choices. If you feel like you're being hemmed into some kind of cultural reservation, that might be a personal problem as opposed to some kind of grand conspiracy on the part of "Woke-O Haram".
To answer my own question posed to Steve above, it looks like the book was pulled after an external complaint:
"The decision came after Billy Kim, a Korean American father, noticed problematic imagery in his sons' copy of the Pilkey book. He posted a complaint to Change.org, saying the book includes a "'Kung Fu master' wearing what's purported to be a traditional-style Tang coat, dashes for eyes for the Asian characters, and stereotypical Chinese proverbs."
"Pilkey called Kim and his two sons, ages 5 and 7, just a few days after it was posted. He then went on to publicly apologize."[1, 2]
It was a single book. Not an entire series. Nobody has said anywhere that I have seen that Pilkey is being cancelled. The published pulled the book because of its' insensitive content. You are choosing not to see the difference and instead make your own sweeping generalizations to push your own narrative.
Is Pilkey in the clear now? I don't think so. He has produced racist material and although that book has been withdrawn, he produced racist material. Good to see the material go, but Pilkey remains problematic.
It's not Vague Day. Pilkey produced racist and harmful material. He's accepted that. His wider catalogue is probably worth reviewing. And not by Scholastic who participated in the harm. It needs to be an independent review.
So, you're *speculating* that he's produced additional racist material, and his apology for the existing material labeled racist was insincere (otherwise, he would have pulled more of the latent racist material that he created and is still on the shelves), and that his publisher - who has a vested financial interest in not being seen as a publisher of racist material - is not up to the job of vetting what they offer for sale?
You must be a bundle of fun in bookstores and libraries.
Who forced him? Was he going to be fired? Have his whole catalog pulled? Was this his decision or his publishers? Because what I read is that this was his decision. And he came to that conclusion not because of some vague "woke-o-harem bullsnot you and the trash Erick Erickson use to avoid looking in the mirror. It was made after he received complaints from asian readers. Do their feelings not matter? Are you the only one who gets to count? You and the other whites.
One book out of dozens. Author made the decision himself. Very little online pressure added to the decision. Funny how nobody is a bigger victim than an old white man.
It’s not outrageous and I’m not offended. It’s pure stupid and it’s ridiculous and helps nobody and protects nobody from any real harm or even pretend racism. It’s just religious dogma and genuflecting.
"Pilkey was forced to issue an apology for his 2010 book 'The Adventures of Ook and Gluk,' over “harmful racial stereotypes” about Asians, who are the latest rock-stars of the race identity political movement targeting white people."
I'm unclear precisely who I'm supposed to be angry at. You didn't specify WHO forced Pilkey to apologize. Was it his wife (if he has one)? A child reading his book? His publisher? An irate parent? The NEA? Someone else?
It's kind of hard to do anything about the nebulous "woke scolds" as long as they are this under-specified, fog-like entity, who are so diffuse to be unable to earn a place as the subject of a sentence, instead being forced to hide out in the dark recesses of the passive voice.
Also, speaking as a white man armed with the greatest apparatus for finding and consuming culture in the history of humanity, the only limitation that I'm feeling with respect to my ability to create or consume culture is the limited attention to give to a rapidly-growing menu of choices. If you feel like you're being hemmed into some kind of cultural reservation, that might be a personal problem as opposed to some kind of grand conspiracy on the part of "Woke-O Haram".
To answer my own question posed to Steve above, it looks like the book was pulled after an external complaint:
"The decision came after Billy Kim, a Korean American father, noticed problematic imagery in his sons' copy of the Pilkey book. He posted a complaint to Change.org, saying the book includes a "'Kung Fu master' wearing what's purported to be a traditional-style Tang coat, dashes for eyes for the Asian characters, and stereotypical Chinese proverbs."
"Pilkey called Kim and his two sons, ages 5 and 7, just a few days after it was posted. He then went on to publicly apologize."[1, 2]
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/book-captain-underpants-author-pulled-complaints-racist-stereotypes/story?id=76772647
[2] https://www.change.org/p/scholastic-inc-scholastic-needs-to-apologize-for-publishing-a-children-s-book-filled-with-racist-imagery
It was a single book. Not an entire series. Nobody has said anywhere that I have seen that Pilkey is being cancelled. The published pulled the book because of its' insensitive content. You are choosing not to see the difference and instead make your own sweeping generalizations to push your own narrative.
Is Pilkey in the clear now? I don't think so. He has produced racist material and although that book has been withdrawn, he produced racist material. Good to see the material go, but Pilkey remains problematic.
Don't leave us hanging. What other specific material has he produced that's "racist"? What specific titles or works earn him the "problematic" label?
Is it Vague-Day on this blog and I missed the memo?
It's not Vague Day. Pilkey produced racist and harmful material. He's accepted that. His wider catalogue is probably worth reviewing. And not by Scholastic who participated in the harm. It needs to be an independent review.
So, you're *speculating* that he's produced additional racist material, and his apology for the existing material labeled racist was insincere (otherwise, he would have pulled more of the latent racist material that he created and is still on the shelves), and that his publisher - who has a vested financial interest in not being seen as a publisher of racist material - is not up to the job of vetting what they offer for sale?
You must be a bundle of fun in bookstores and libraries.
Who forced him? Was he going to be fired? Have his whole catalog pulled? Was this his decision or his publishers? Because what I read is that this was his decision. And he came to that conclusion not because of some vague "woke-o-harem bullsnot you and the trash Erick Erickson use to avoid looking in the mirror. It was made after he received complaints from asian readers. Do their feelings not matter? Are you the only one who gets to count? You and the other whites.
One book out of dozens. Author made the decision himself. Very little online pressure added to the decision. Funny how nobody is a bigger victim than an old white man.