Black character for World Book Day?

[WorldBookDayChoice]

My almost four year old is white with wavy/curly hair. She has a story book whose main character is black with curly hair, and DD has always said this character looks like her. She now wants to dress as this girl for WBD. In practice this will just mean wearing specific coloured clothes and holding the book up, but she's also mentioned making her hair even curlier to match the character's hair.

Basically is this okay? Or disrespectful?

YANBU it's okay
YABU it's not okay

I assume you're taking the piss 🙄

Go for it OP. She's seen past the differences between her and the character to what they have in common, and isn't that what we could all do with a bit more of?

Your suggestion is fine OP. Those warbling about potential offence on this thread are frankly unhinged - I would suggest they are the “racists” if they honestly think black people would be upset at a small child choosing to dress up as a black fictional character SHE ADMIRES for world book day, or that a white child should not choose a black character as their hero. Used to be there were no black characters in kids’ books. It’s great there now is and that’s who your daughter has chosen as her hero. As for curling her hair - definitely, why ever not? People of all ethnic backgrounds have curly hair - its just a benign way for your daughter to present as the character. We should be teaching kids to be colour blind accept all people, not to see people as “other.” There is still real racism affecting people all across the world - this is not it.

Ridiculous to say this is not ok. She wants to curl her hair a bit more, so what? Can a black child not dress as a white character?

See stuff like this confuses me, is it just white children that can’t dress as black characters or are black children not suppose to dress as white characters either?

Namechanged to answer this - I’m an author and a person of colour and I think this is all great, non-offensive and so cute of your DD especially :

DD has always said this character looks like her**

• *It’s lovely when kids can see similarities irrespective of differences in colour.

Needless to say it would be totally different if you were putting fake tan on her or something.

Neither is wrong. Both are fine.

What you may have heard people say is not to wear blackface and (to a lesser extent) afro wigs to dress up as a black person or POC.

My dd went to one book day as Captain Hook.
She wasn't 'identifying as male', or as disabled come to that.

Good choice - Rocket is a great character! :)

That’s not even anywhere near the same though as a child wearing a custom from a book where the character is black.

Just do it without the curly hair?

Exactly. It’s very different which was my point.

Agree

Did she have a hook and pretend her hand was amputated??

To clarify re. the hair, as I said her hair is wavy/curly anyway and she sometimes asks for plaits or bunches in overnight to emphasise the curls, just as she sometimes asks for a ponytail or space buns or whatever hairstyle. So that's what we would be doing - something we already do on occasion anyway and which uses her hair's existing curliness. I wouldn't be getting a wig or anything like that. I just mentioned the hair to make sure I included all the details.

Thanks for all the responses, even those saying don't do it, I appreciate the perspectives. (Apart from the one OTT comment, that is. Calling a not even four year old racist for wanting to dress as a character she likes is preposterous. I was asking about the appropriateness of dressing up, not whether she is racist or not. She clearly isn't, she's three.)

I wouldn’t want to send my child the message that her choice of book character is wrong because of the colour of that characters skin, so I would support your dds choice wholeheartedly. Anyone who has a problem with it needs to take a hard look at themselves, because they are wrong.

Literally no one in real life would comment

If you’re active on social media and post your child (which I appreciate not everyone does want to do ) you might want to tag the author. I love getting tagged in pictures of kids dressed up as my characters :)

Good luck @WorldBookDayChoice and hope you and your daughter enjoy WBD.

3 year old can be racist

Whilst it’s difficult to verbalise explicitly exactly what would be wrong with it

You find it difficult to verbalise because there isn't anything wrong with it

I think it's a lovely example of how our children rarely see skin colour as being relevant. Your DD is inspired by and loves a character from a book ... the colour of that characters skin is of no importance to her. The only people who would have a problem with this are the people who overthink racism and people who want to find a problem with everything.

I'm very pale whit son went as a black football player, didn't even occur to me it wasn't ok. He just loves that player.

There’s no need to curl her hair. That’s the only bit that is likely to be contentious, so I’d sidestep that entirely.

But otherwise, it seems perfectly reasonable, unless the character is themselves an offensive stereotype / their dress is a stereotype / inaccurate etc. In that case, you probably have bigger issues than WBD.

Thanks - why is the hair contentious? Not arguing I just want to know. I think DD would not want to do it without doing her hair (she went as the witch from Room on the Broom last year and took great delight in having the plait with the right bow in it, etc) so it would probably be a no to the whole thing if this is the case.

The character is not offensive, just a normal girl in a story

Ok but she isn't