White Privilege in Children's Literature

Because children’s literature has only come into prominence in the last hundred years or so, it mirrors the world as it was viewed throughout those decades. Diversity and moral integration, though making significant headway in through the twentieth century, had yet to integrate itself into the books we give our children to read. Books touch cords in readers’ lives and therefore develop staying power. These books can’t be removed from society any more than they can be removed from readers’ hearts.

Now that society is becoming more aware of the invasive proliferation of discrimination and prejudice, and its constancy in children’s literature, experts can analyze past books, including the most beloved titles, to determine how they underscore white privilege. In Kay Thompson’s Eloise, for example, Eloise declares that the Plaza Hotel (her home) has “ever a lot of things going on down there… Altogether I have been to 56 affairs including Halloween” (Thompson, 1955). While this may seem like a completely innocuous statement, the accompanying illustration shows several presumably white people (there is not a person of color in the entire book) wearing ethnic garb—turbans, hajibs and saris—as Halloween costumes. This intimates that these ethnicities are nothing more than entertainment or novelties and denies them the respect and dignity they deserve.

Thompson, Kay/ Knight, Hilary (ILT)/ Peters, Bernadette (NRT). (2015). Eloise. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Counting Rhyme: Ten Little Indians, illustrated by T. Isawa and S. Hijikata, is a product of the late 1960s and may well have taken its stereotypical illustrations from the popular Western movies and television shows. All ten Native Americans are wearing buckskin, headdresses, moccasins and feathers. Several teepees are depicted, all place in the desert. One town is mentioned, but from the rhyme, it is evident that it is not the Native American’s home (Tadasu & Hijikata, 1968):

Tadasu, I., & Hijikata, S. (1968). Counting rhyme ; ten little Indians. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

This is a subtle indicator that Native American living arrangements are sub-par and inferior to standard white society living arrangements.

Although these characters are created to be cute and playful, a careful analysis reveals their facial characteristics to be slightly menacing. Their eyes have an upward slant at the outer corners and their eyebrows furrow inward. This could subversively indicate a stereotypical mindset that Native Americans are savage.

While these images may depict the 1960s perspectives of Native Americans, readers and experts alike can now recognize how minimizing these stereotypes are. Certainly, some Native American tribes wore such clothes and lived in teepees outside of American towns, but many more did not, and continuously do not, fit neatly into these typecasts.