Political Correctness - Removing Racist Language from Children's Books (Germany)
7-year-old Timnit Mesghena, of Berlin, is an avid reader. In the evenings, she and her Eritrean-born father Mekonnen often read to each other.
The German ‘neger’ can mean "negro", but it also means "nigger". Because Mesghena came across this word in a children’s book by Otfried Preussler he decided on a one-man campaign and wrote to the publisher. It sparked a national debate.
Public broadcaster ARD’s presenter Denis Scheck put on black make up in a protest against political correctness looking at changing the racist language of classics.
German Family Minister Kristina Schroeder said that when she was reading aloud from the immensely popular Pippi Longstocking books, she too would skip over offensive racial words in order to "protect my child from taking on such expressions".
However Luc Jochimsen, of the Left Party, Die Linke, stated: "I think it is a ridiculous idea... You can't understand things if you leave out the culture of the time”
In the end, Thienemann Verlag announced that it would revise the book and review all its other works of children's fiction to remove offensive terms and plot lines.
Otfried Preussler (1923-2013) wrote 32 children's classics which have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. His best-known stories are based on the character of Robber Hotzenplotz.
No comments:
Post a Comment