Surprise examples of racism in books (open spoilers)

[DrFidelius]

@Tengu

Nitpick - Ten Little Indians. (Often ‘soldier boys’, or some other substitution, these days.)

Which was the title of the novel for a period after someone realized Ten Little Niggers sounded iffy, and before it was decided Ten Little Indians wasn’t a whole lot better.

It was British. All the wogs were niggers.

(I feel rather uncomfortable typing that.)

[JohnT]

Yesterday, reading a book about the HBO series The Wire (The Wire: Truth Be Told), it threw me to see the Jewish lawyer Maurice Levy described as a shyster.

Now, I know that “shyster” isn’t anti-semitic (it’s just thought to be), but for most of my life, I thought it was and seeing it yesterday to describe a Jewish lawyer… well, it took me aback.

[Oscalo]

I was surprised by some of the stereotypes in Watchmen, like the black kid at the newsstand who says stuff like “jive turkey” and the black psychiatrist’s sex-starved wife.

[Malacandra]

@DrFidelius

It was British. All the wogs were niggers.

(I feel rather uncomfortable typing that.)

Good lord no. Sub-Saharan Africans were niggers. Arabs and Afghanis were wogs.

[Annie-Xmas]

Remember “eeny meany miney mo”? In my youth it was “catch a n****r by the toe.” Later amended to “tiger.”

We also ate little licorice figures orignally called n***** babies, later changed to licorice.

[Malthus]

@CalMeacham

There’s more than a little racism in the Bond books – the “Chigros”, all the blacks in Live and Let Die, the sinister orientals in Dr. No. There’s condescension in The Man with the Golden Gun 9and one of the weirdest things is the idea of Rastafarian gangs in that book. It certainly conflicts with the modern stereotype of laid-back ganja-smoking rastasfarians)

The notion of violent Rastafarian gangs was probably inspired by the history at the time the Bond books were written - Rastafarianism in Jamaca was generally nonviolent, but the 1950s/60s saw a certain number of Rastafarians engaging in violence.

http://www.nomadfx.com/old/rasta1.html

REPATRIATION: Among the few things all Elders agreed on were that Haile Selassie was “divine” (although what that meant was much debated) and that he intended to restore New World Blacks to Africa. Although a mystical interpretation of “repatriation” was advanced, there is no doubt that all early Elders (and most modern ones) expected outward literal return as well. This gave Rastafari an overt political dimension: the Rastafarians all, without exception, wanted to immediately emigrate to Ethiopia. This was a situation with no analogue except Zionism, and was beyond the ability of the Jamaican authorities to deal with. Revolutionaries are one thing, but the Rasta slogan was not “power to the people”, but “let my people go”. As time passed, Rastafarian frustration at this unmet demand became explosive. The situation grew especially tense after 1954, when the government overran a Rastafarian mini-state called the Pinnacle, ruled by Elder Leonard Howell in exactly the style of a traditional West African chief. Howell’s followers migrated to the slums of Kingston, and the movement went from a rural peasant separatist movement to one associated with the ghettoes of the capital. In the late '50s and early '60s, a few Rastas in desparation rejected the non-violent teaching of all authentic Elders and mounted a series of increasingly violent uprisings, culminating in several deadly shoot-outs between Rastas and British troops. With this violence, the existence of Rastafari came to (negative) worldwide notice; more positive publicity was brought by the popularity of Rasta-performed reggae dance music a few years later. The classical period of isolation was at an end.

[Anaamika]

@Annie-Xmas

Remember “eeny meany miney mo”? In my youth it was “catch a n****r by the toe.” Later amended to “tiger.”

There’s a funny line in Barney Miller where they are trying to pick someone for something, and one of the guests suggest “Let’s do Eeny meany miney mo.” And Harris, the one black cop interjects, saying “Can we please just use ‘one potato’”?

Made me laugh. They slipped it in nicely.

[grude]

@Oscalo

I was surprised by some of the stereotypes in Watchmen, like the black kid at the newsstand who says stuff like “jive turkey” and the black psychiatrist’s sex-starved wife.

Stereotype about a sex starved wife? I’m honestly curious.

[MrDibble]

@Oscalo

I was surprised by some of the stereotypes in Watchmen, like the black kid at the newsstand who says stuff like “jive turkey” and the black psychiatrist’s sex-starved wife.

You think a portrayal of a Black man as an overweight, middle-aged impotent professional is a stereotype? The wife wasn’t portrayed as oversexed, just neglected.