Racially Insensitive, Dated Encyclopedia EntryInsensible información racista y anticuada de enciclopedia
By: Keith
My neighbor came to my door a few days ago carrying a box full of encyclopedias that belonged to her when she was a girl. She decided that, since I homeschool, I could put them to good use. I don’t really want any more books, but she had that expectant look on her face that said “See how helpful I’m being?” To which all I could respond was “Wow! Thanks for the encyclopedias!” She’s a nice lady, and I appreciate the thought, but now I own a set of 50 year old encyclopedias for which I have no practical use—except as blog fodder! Yipee… (trailing off into silence).
The thing that makes broad ranging encyclopedias problematic is that, with time, the generalized summaries of many of the entries become, or even start off being, irrelevant, dated, or outright wrong. Encyclopedias are a lot like dictionaries. Words gradually either change meanings over the years or die; new words are added every year, and our language, with each generation, changes enough that older people sound stuffy to younger people. Encyclopedias likewise need constant updates to stay relevant. That’s why I decided to read the encyclopedias for myself before I let the boys study them. I’m grateful that I did because I found one entry in particular that is astonishingly dated. It’s the entry about the “Races of Mankind”. I’m going to let you interpret most of it for yourself. However I can’t resist pointing out that it appears the only civilized race is that of the Caucasoid. The white guy is standing in front of a big, modern, Frank Lloyd Wright looking dwelling while the Mongoloid is in front of some 15th century pagoda thing, and the Negroid is in front of a straw hut. If I were a black or Asian guy, I might feel a little insulted by that depiction. The pictures make everybody except whites (a few of whom do not live in mansions) look silly. It’s not a bad thing to live in a straw hut, and plenty of Africans do; but then, to make all things equal, the typical white person house should be a crappy apartment. And I’ve never known a single Asian to live in an upside down ice cream cone.
Okay – here it is: click on it and it’ll get bigger.
Mi vecina vino a mi puerta hace algunos días con una caja llena de libros de enciclopedia que eran de ella cuando era niña. Ella decidió que, como yo educo en el hogar, podría darles buen uso. Yo realmente no quiero más libros, pero ella tenía esa expresión en su cara que decía “¿Puedes ver cómo estoy ayudando?” A lo cual yo respondí “¡Guau! Gracias por la enciclopedia!” Ella es una buena persona, y yo aprecio la intención, pero ahora tengo una colección de libros de hace 50 años por los que no tengo ningún uso práctico – ¡excepto como material para el blog! Urra… (cayendo poco a poco en silencio).
Lo que hace de las enciclopedias de alto rango un problema es que, con el tiempo, los sumarios de entradas de muchos de sus temas se vuelven, o aún son desde el principio, irrelevantes, anticuadas, o completamente incorrectas. Las enciclopedias se parecen mucho a los diccionarios. Las palabras suelen, ya sea, cambiar gradualmente de significado con los años o morir; nuevas palabras son añadidas cada año, y nuestro leguaje, con cada generación, cambia lo suficiente como para hacer que las personas mayores les parezcan alzadas a los jóvenes. De la misma manera las enciclopedias necesitan de constantes revisiones para mantenerse actualizadas. Es por eso que decidí leer la enciclopedia primero antes de dejar que los niños la estudiaran. Me alegra haber hecho esto porque me encontré con un tema en particular extraordinariamente anticuado. Es el tema de “Las razas humanas”. Voy a dejar que tú lo interpretes por ti mismo. Sin embargo no puedo resistir el hacer notar que al parecer la única raza civilizada es la Caucasoide. El tipo blanco está parado frente a una vivienda enorme y moderna, al estilo d Frank Lloyd, mientras que el Mongol está parado frente a algo que se parece a una pagoda del siglo XV, y el Negro está parado frente a una choza de palma. Si yo fuera un hombre negro o de Asia, tal vez me sentiría un poco insultado por esa ilustración. Las pinturas hace que todos, con excepción de los blancos (unos cuantos quienes no viven en mansiones), se vean bobos. No es algo malo el vivir en una choza, y bastantes Africanos lo hace; pero entonces, para hacer las cosas parejas, la vivienda de una persona blanca típica debería ser un departamento malhecho. Y yo nunca he visto a ningún oriental vivir en un cono de nieve alrevesado.
Bueno – aquí lo tienen: haz clic sobre la imagen para verla más grande. Y disculpa que solamente tenga la versión en inglés. Desconozco si esta enciclopedia fue publicada también en español.
Sadly there are some public schools out there that still use these kinds of dated materials to teach their students. Every day I am thankful that we live in a country where we are free to home school our kids.
Bwhahaha! That Negriod lives in a nicer dweling than I do! I thought all Chi-knees lived like that! They don’t? :/
I think I wanna be a disgruntled Caucasoid….
Nice to see a little … progress? in our lives.
I wouldn’t feel insulted as an Asian. Pagodas are feats of engineering and nothing to be ashamed of. Or would you feel uncomfortable if that white dude was next to a cathedral?
I have to admit that you have a point in general but I think we shouldn’t be overly sensitive.
If pagodas and Panda Express are the summit of Chinese culture, then we are a sad nation indeed. I did eat at Panda yesterday, however, and it was delicious.
Wide ranging generalizations are all inaccurate. The same would be true for saying all American’s eat hamburgers and apple pie. Or a generalization for California that it’s a beautiful state and everyone goes surfing and lives in Beverly Hills. Or that everyone in Alabama goes barefoot. The way I view this is just a starting point for young children that people around the world look different and live differently. Then as they age, more detail is added; manners, foods, customs, religions, etc. Same as any other subject. If people are truly going to take offense I suppose the Eskimo could be offended for not being called an Inuit. Or the Indian for not being called Native American. For that matter women could be offended for not being represented at all.
Evo: Like it or not we live in a more socially aware place than what existed 50 years ago. Stereotypes will always be useful descriptors. Hopefully, though, as we evolve, we will try to make those stereotypes less one sided. These pictures clearly show a more “evolved” white person in comparison with his two represented counterparts (one of which is living in a pagoda that hasn’t been in fashion in over 100 years). Why make social statement about races when the entry is supposed to be just about race (where social statements have no place in a scientific description)? You really want kids associating black people with straw huts and Asian people with funny mustaches and ancient clothes? In that case, why not make the white guy dress in some traditional Norwegian clothes? It’s not about being offended or beings strictly PC — it’s about being accurate. These representations aren’t representing equal time frames.
Like it or not, these stereotypes do still pertain to the people in other countries. There are still people that live in straw huts and slaughter goats by the necks to bleed to death before having a ceremony. And yes it only takes a $1.00 a month to eat well, according to “their” standards. There are still Chinese that go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. And yes, there are still American’s that live in the back woods and kill possums for food and want absolutely nothing to do with society. To be completely accurate would take more than two pages of any encyclopedia.
Evo: I think you didn’t catch my point. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia entry about the “races of mankind”, not “How the races of mankind live”. While many africans do live in huts like that (no actual asians live in 7 story conical pagodas though), it’s not relevant or educational in an entry about race. It’s pretty obviously a social statement, and not even a very accurate one at that.
I suppose it’s good for historical viewpoints to show how far we have come or haven’t. Regardless of how outdated the material is, I still think it’s useful. Maybe I’m just looking at the glass half full. ??
Evo: Yeah, I think we’re just looking at this from different perspectives.
Gosh you know I was just thinking and wondering about what these books say about other topics. For instance science subjects because that field is constantly changing. And also too, that one man’s treasure… I’d love to see the books. Too bad I couldn’t borrow them. Well in any case I hope you’re able to put them to good use some way. Other than blog fodder of course.