Enid Blyton - what changes are/are not OK?

[VictoriaOKeefe]

My example:
Jo-Jo in the Island of Adventure - i think Jo-Jo should have been kept as a black villain but with the "rolling eyes" and "nigra" speech removed. Changing him to a white man sends the dangerous message to children that a member of a marginalised group cannot be a nasty, small-minded jerk (as TPratchett put it). Women are marginalised but i wouldn't pee on my cruel abrasive mother if she was on fire.

What interests me in this thread is that there is a focus on the people reading it who aren't personally affected by it. It's all well and good saying 'this is how we learn' but what are young black kids supposed to learn from it? Or are they not supposed to be reading these books? Why do black parents need to have yet another conversation with their children about historic racist attitudes (which aren't actually solely confined to the history books) just so we can be nostalgic?

Brilliantly put, Celebelly. 👏👏👏

Notice people have swiftly moved to whatabouterry with bringing up the Bible.

And I don't specially want my young children reading books where the heroes are always boys, or a girl who tries to deny the fact that she is a girl, and for whom the greatest compliment is to be told that she is "almost as good as a boy

Actually I agree with this.

I fear for our society. So many of the things people now advocate and support are either straight out Nazis' playbook, or straight out of dystopian fiction that used to horrify us.

Let's not vandalize history and literature. Leave it how it is and where values and ideas have changed, leave it as testament to how they have changed.

Cellybelly, if I'd seen your post before, I'd not have written mine. You hit the nail on the head.

This thread shows how far as a society we still have to go. There are so many fine books out there. Why support these Enid Blyton books? Part of our history some would say. But it is part of a disgraceful history that should find no support in modern Britain.

Oh yes, those who see no problem with the racism that's normalised in the book care not to put themselves in the shoes of those affected by these negative stereotypes. The care not to think for a moment about the effects on the black children. Who cares, they just need to get on with it. They do not have feelings that can be hurt. The fact that these things fuel unconscious bias is neither here nor there for them. The still love the books and want to keep the racism in it alive. They'll just have a little chat with their kids to say how wrong it all is... But the book normalises it, the unconscious bias sets in. The young unaffected reader is told to enjoy the book, Enid is a great writer but at the same time is told she was a racist and the stories are based on racist beliefs.

When I was young, I really enjoyed those books. However, when I realised how racist Enid was and the racism in her books, I have never pick up another one. I sure as hell would never buy one for my son.

Actions speak louder than words and I will use my actions to say no to things that are abhorrent and disgusting.

Well obviously George was trans so that should be changed.

Never fails to amaze me just what self centred bigots there are in the world, are any of the people saying that they shouldn’t be rewritten the parents of black children. Can you have any empathy and understand that to some children reading them would be very harmful and could reinforce or help to develop onconcious bias on others?

How can some people think it is appropriate to obfuscate the matter by talking about the Bible? How does the survival of the Bible justify racism or Enid's racist story books?

Because some people believe in the Bible and abortion, it is okay to support racists and racist story books?

I'm Irish and as a child read many books where Irish people were depicted as peasanty uneducated backward scallywags who believed in banshees and leprechauns etc. It didn't make me feel inferior or insulted. I knew my friends, family and neighbours weren't like that and accepted it as silly stereotyping.

Jo lost five £20 notes in the modern version. I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Cellybelly, if I'd seen your post before, I'd not have written mine. You hit the nail on the head.

Gnashing I'm very glad you posted, and it was excellent.

I was starting to despair.

I find changes annoying, why does Dick have to be Rick, Fanny changed to Franny, and I don’t find Dame Slap changed to Dame Snap even makes sense when all the children are scared being forced to line up and be snapped at instead of slapped! They should just leave it alone and leave it to parents to explain if needbe

@AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley - sounds like you haven't read much Dickens.

Enid Blyton books are and always were, dreadful. I had to read them as a child because I had little choice in the 5os and early 60s. The books were boring and simply reflected the era. The attitudes were those of a time a long time ago, of my parents who were born in the 1920s. Society has changed. No, don't burn the books, keep them as an example of how things were perceived. Don't rewrite them either. The books that are now available to my grandchildren are fabulous, reflecting our society with humour, empathy and reality. Some are a bit anti-establishment, a good thing, and some help children cope with situations like separated parents, racism and school pressures. Above all many are fun. Enid Blyton was a strange woman and not very lovable from some accounts. Children were fed a diet of books deemed appropriate. Such books have little place in our society now, leave them in the attic

@bellinisurge* fair point, actually...I've only read 4.

(No sarcasm intended. I stand corrected)

I have a vague recollection of Mr pink whistle, all about punishment for naughty behaviour dreadful books. Noddy is all about crime and punishment too.
I don't think I really noticed the racism as a child, but the sexism was very obvious, and also the class prejudice ebs characters talk down to the working class and treat them as stupid.
This reminds me of how my very working class ex housemaid gran looked up to certain people in the village for no reason other than they were perseved a higher class.
I wouldn't want Ed changed I think they are interesting for study for students looking at that period of history. But they should not be reprinted for the children's section of book shops.

I have read through this thread and learnt a lot - thank you.

The biggest takeaway for me is that it is pure nostalgia that is making me read these to my children.. hence why were reading all 'older' versions as they're mostly mine. Both DC have a variety of other books but we do tend to read EB as our bedtime story which I will be looking to change (although both mine do really enjoy the stories so will probably persevere with the approach I've been using until we're through the Famous Five)

But thank you for all the thought-provoking posts.

Lilyhate, why do you think you did not notice the racism? Could it be because it was so normalised that it didn't seem strange or shocking? I would be very worried if now you do not notice it or your children don't.

You did not notice it but I bet black people did. You did not notice it because it was the norm to view black people as naturally bad and criminals. To always cast them in a negative light. To view foreigners as naturally suspicious, etc. Surely, the blond, fair girl as the criminal would have been shocking to you. A black baddie? Never.

I do sort of agree withthe PPs who say change nothing.

But that said I always read the Lion the Witch and the Wadrobe with Santa telling Lucy she wouldn't fight in the war as she had a more important job to do, rather than wars are ugly when women fight. For a start it makes no sense! The film amended to "wars are ugly things" but I like my version.

My takeaway from this is that people are prepared to lie by omission and commission to their children and are still patronizing and infantilizing POC by pretending they're doing this for their protection not because they can't face up to their own white guilt. It's two sides of the same 'let's rewrite history' coin, denialism among white supremacists and let's throw a veil over it from white leftwing literati.

Yes, let's tell our children there was no need for the feminist and civil rights movements to have happened because we've made the books from the times and written about the times either not exist or not support the facts. Yes, that'll make everything better.

Gnashingofteeth.
In answer to your question I think I didn't notice the racism because it didn't register with me that anyone in the books was any other race than I was.
I was brought up in a very rural area and everyone around me was white so in my head the characters in the books were too.
In my memory most of the bad characters were German.
As an adult I have not read many of the eb books I only read the faraway tree to my children, and they were the new version but I am sure I would notice the racism now I actually last read famous 5, and secret 7 etc when I was about 10.

So when the race of the baddies were described you had no idea they were not white? Sorry, I find that hard to believe. Black and dark are associated with bad in her stories. I would imagine that would influence how you thought of dark or black people.

I can honestly say that I am constantly surprised by my prejudices. I grew up in a society where white is seen as good, acceptable and best. I am now more aware of how my thinking has been conditioned. I try my best to address my unconscious biasness against women and ethnic minorities. If I denied that I'm affected by unconscious bias, I'd be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

These books gave conditioned self-hatred for the victims of these insidious negative stereotypes and have desensitised those who are privileged in being held up as the best version of human beings.

Things are changing but maybe too slowly, as this thread has shown. Far too many people are happy to continue participating in age old injustices.

I'm amazed at the resilience of ethnic minorities. I really don't know how they deal with the crap they deal with and wake up in the mornings to go through the same bigotry numerous times a day, every day.

MyDirtySecret - your post at 6.21 is absolutely spot on. Strongly worded but not wrong

I am not sure if you are meaning to single me out to accuse me of racism but no when I think back to some books I read when I was 10 I don't remember the racism in them, I remember sexism, classism , anti Welsh prejudice in one and this was enough for me not to read them to my children.
I could have mistaken some of the racism for class prejudice as this was more on my radar.
I have not said I think eb books are ok for todays children I don't think they are, there are many better books available, but as a child I read and had read to me many eb books as that was pretty much all I had. I can remember the children in them looking down on other people and thinking they weren't very nice but at the time I wasn't really sure why.

Ha! Did I accuse you of racism? That says a lot.

Why would you resort to this defensive stance? It is a typical way of shutting down debates and playing the victim.

No, I'm not accusing you of racism. I'm simply saying we all need to be more prepared to put ourselves in the other person's shoes and understand how what we see as acceptable and the bigotry we try to preserve might be all nice and traditional for us but very damaging and dehumanising for others.

I said very clearly that we all have unconscious bias.

Stop acting as if you are the victim of insult here. See how quickly you feel aggrieved but fail to see how others might feel aggrieved by the insults you seek to preserve.

You can remember all sorts from the books but not the obvious racism? We are talking about the Enid Blyton books, right?