I would like to make you realize that The Little Black Sambo is extremely racist as it portrays a stereotypical view of the Indian society. This book should not be taught to elementary students

stereotypes, I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis. The measure of a truly great man is the courtesy with which he treats lesser men. An eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind.”--Mahatma Gandhi. This quote by Mahatma Gandhi has always inspired me and I ask you Mrs. Clark, if we keep showing children a negative and small view of this world, helping them make rude remarks, then how is it helping them grow? In Indian culture we fold our hands in namaste, because we believe that no one is above or below, but this book shows that people are below us. I am sure you are aware that this book was written by the wife of a British Doctor and it was written for her two children during the British rule in India. She wrote this book when she lived in India and yet she was extremely ignorant about the people and the culture. Children books are filled with illustrations so that the child can relate to the story just by viewing the pictures. This in turn creates an immensely large impact on their brain thereby planting the seeds of thoughts. Now if we do not water this seed then the plant will not grow and instead start to wither. In the same way, this book is a withering plant because there is no enriched material. This book had racial illustrations such as the entire family looked African instead of Indian and the tigers turning into ‘Ghi’ displayed how ignorant people of India were to believe that statement. Also the clothes that she made them wear were nothing like the clothes that Indians wore, such as the red coat and the blue trousers. Also she made the child look malnourished which just helped people think that people in India were malnourished. The reason that I am concentrating on pictures is that the elementary school kids grasp pictures extremely fast and thus they will think that Indians in general are not fed well as they are, they will also picture Indians to be black and extremely modern.  Another thing that children grasp is the continuous repetition of words and in this story there is the continuous repetition of Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo is wrong, firstly because Indian people are not black and secondly it differentiates them from the rest. These are not the only reasons that I and many others feel that this book should not be in the curriculum. We, the parents, also feel that this book should not be in the curriculum because this book has been revised many times.  The book has been of such offence to Indians that they had to make many copies of the books, revising the illustrations as well as the name because Sambo is a racist word. In 1996, the story was renamed as, The story of Babaji and in 1997 the Japanese version came out known as Chibikuro Sambo”  One in which the boy was dressed in kurta pajama and in the other there was no boy but instead it was replaced by a dog. Mrs. Crane, a well-written children’s book does not require so much ‘revision; Goldilocks’ was not revised seven times like this book. I know that you are a wonderful teacher and that you have taught them brilliantly without doubt yet I feel and believe that this book increases the chances of children being subdued by these thoughts. They will then  start to look at the negative side of life by believing that people who are fitting in with the society are eventually not fit to be in the society. Therefore for all these reasons I believe that this book is harming the child’s brain.            We can make the change and help people not be stereotypical of one another.  People say that we should start young So Mrs. Crane I believe and hope that you find my points valid and I hope that you take this matter into concern because I know that you believe in the welfare and growth of the child’s brain and not the shrinking view of the brain. So please help these children not be stereotypical and we can start by not reading such books to the children that will damage their brain. Also when adding such books to the curriculum, the elementary school teachers should first review the book by themselves and then teach it to the children; considering the pros and cons. I hope that in the future such disgraceful acts will not place.                                                 Works Cited Chandler, Otis. "Mahatma Gandhi Quotes." Mahatma Gandhi Quotes (Author of The Story of My Experiments With Truth). N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Aug. 2012. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4467789.Mahatma_Gandhi>.