Trigger warnings put on classic children’s books at Cambridge University
Children’s books with ‘harmful content relating to slavery, colonialism and racism’ will be given ‘trigger warnings’ in a Cambridge University archive.
Classics including Little House On The Prairie are expected to be given the label as Homerton College reviews more than 10,000 books and magazines.
Words, phrases and images deemed ‘harmful’ will be given content warnings at the start of each bit of text in online versions.
Little House On The Prairie is likely to get a warning for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s ‘stereotypical depictions of Native Americans’.
Dr Theodor Seuss Geisel’s books, written under the name Dr Seuss, have been pinpointed for ‘overt blackface’ and cultural insensitivities.
Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies will also be included for its potential to ‘harm readers without warning’ with comments on black people and Irish people.
Meanwhile, Bandit Jim Crow – written by The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz author L Frank Baum – will be marked out for ‘white supremacy’, the Daily Mail reports.
Books by authors like Enid Blyton, JM Barrie and Roald Dahl are also expected to be slapped with warnings after being strongly criticised in the past.
The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, funded by taxpayers, is behind the £80,633 project.
It will make the digital collection ‘less harmful in the context of a canonical literary heritage that is shaped by, and continues, a history of oppression’, the college has said.
Critics have argued the project is unnecessary, naming the move ‘woke-afflicted’.
Children’s author Judy Blume, who wrote Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, said: ‘All books, then, need trigger warnings because in any book there could be something to bother somebody.’
Chris McGovern, of right-wing pressure group the Campaign for Real Education, has claimed ‘the whole point of much of children’s literature is to introduce them to alternative worlds’.
He said: ‘Fairy tales, for example, are saturated with scary characters and that is partly the point of them. Only woke-afflicted adults have such silly notions as trigger warnings.’
But Homerton College staff believe it would be ‘a dereliction of our duty as gatekeepers to allow such casual racism to go unchecked’.
Funding bid documents for the project read: ‘Problems are encountered continually with respect to the history of demeaning terms associated with disability and indigenous cultures, as well as the immigrants who have shaped modern America and Britain.
‘Trigger warnings, with indications of harmful content for intersectional identities, will protect researchers, children, and general readers from offensiveness or hurt that can emerge in otherwise safe search queries or acts of browsing.’
It comes after Enid Blyton’s blue plaque was updated to include criticism of her ‘racist and xenophobic’ views.
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