7. The Problem of Laura

Wilder

Influential Media

Documentary, Books, Arts, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 574 Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is our responsibility to the things we loved the most? One answer is to be brutally honest about who and what we love. That’s what we’re doing in this episode. We’re going to take a long, hard look at the worst parts of Laura: the racism, the violence, and xenophobia present in the Little House series. There’s more than you might think. Even Glynnis, a person who thought she knew Laura all the way through, was surprised and sometimes shocked. We also talk about the harm the books have caused and investigate whether the Little House books should still have a place in our classrooms or even on our shelves. Go deeper: On Native American HistoryMni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce WhiteMean Spirit by Linda HoganMore on government operated boarding schools for Native children On Native representation and racism in the Little House books Little squatters on the Osage Diminished Reserve by Frances W. Kaye Lizzie Skurnick on Little House’s “Myth of White Self-Sufficiency” On Black prairie narrativesMore on Doctor George A. TannEra Bell Thompson: A North Dakota Daughter Alternate children’s book recommendations: Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue ParkBirchbark House by Louise ErdrichForever Cousins by Laurel GoodluckMore recommendations from Dr. Debbie Reese See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.3	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.4	This episode contains racist depictions and racial slurs from the Little House books.
0:10.1	Listeners, please be advised.
0:12.9	The name of one of the nation's best-known children's authors is being removed from a major literary award.
0:19.4	In June 2018, the Children's Division of the American Library Association, the group that
0:26.1	gives out coveted children's book awards like the Newberry Medal and the Caldecott Medal,
0:31.6	announced that after much consideration, they were renaming their prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.
0:38.3	The Association for Library Service to Children unanimously voted this weekend to rename the Laura
0:44.3	Ingalls Wilder Award, the Children's Literature Legacy Award, due to negative depictions
0:49.3	of Native Americans and African Americans in Wilder's books.
0:53.3	It would now be called the Children's Literature Legacy Award.
0:58.0	Here was their reasoning.
1:00.3	Although Wilders were called a significant place in the history of children's literature
1:04.1	and continues to be read today, ALSC has had to grapple with the inconsistency
1:09.9	between Wilder's legacy and its core values of inclusiveness, integrity, and respect.
1:16.2	You will probably not be shocked to hear that people were upset and angry, outraged even.
1:23.3	It demonstrated the reach of Laura and Little House.
1:26.6	It wasn't just regular fans who were upset.
1:29.3	People like William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, were very, very angry
1:35.5	and took to Twitter to express that anger.
1:39.4	I find it disturbing that some take modern opinion and obliterate the past.
	...

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