SAMBO'S BACK (IN JAPAN)
guess who's back?
I have to say - whatever slim gains get made in improving Afro-Asian relations in the U.S., leave it up to Japan to salt the game. If it's not Japanese hip-hop kids dressing up in literal blackface (I've heard this is a minute fraction of the overall hip-hop audience in Japan but even still), it's apparently Japanese adults getting all nostalgic for the days of reading the book: Little Black Sambo. (Someone please cue up KMD right about now).
The L.A. Times came out with a story of how Little Black Sambo is now a best-seller in Japan. Some pull quotes worth noting:
- "Zuiunsha [the Japanese publisher who put the book back out] reportedly has sold 95,000 copies in two months since bringing out "Chibikuro Sambo." Despite being a child's read at a thin 16 pages, "Sambo" sits among the top five adult fiction bestsellers at major Tokyo book chains.
"But Mori [a psychologist] said most Japanese were surprised to learn that "Little Black Sambo" had racist overtones. "It never occurred to us," he said. "It was just a story." Intrigued by the controversy, Mori conducted academic experiments involving readers that he said showed the Japanese take nothing racist away from reading "Little Black Sambo." He offered a group of kindergarteners and another of senior citizens a look at two versions of the story: one with the Dobias' drawings, another with the central character drawn as a black Labrador puppy. The test groups found both illustrated versions equally amusing."
[Um...that doesn't actually seem very conclusive.]
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