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SELECTING 
INTERRACIAL MATERIAL
FOR SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES

DAVID COHEN

The Council on Interracial Books for Children was organized because of the critical lack of appropriate reading materials giving positive treatment and identity to multi-ethnic groups.  Many of the available materials were not only inadequate but racist in town and content; that is, they contain offensive racial epithets, incidents and concepts-such as those found in the Dr. Dolittle books by Hugh Lofting, and analyzed in the summer edition of the Council news bulletin by Isabelle Suhl.*  Efforts by the publisher to edit out the offensive words are frivolous, since the racist concept of the "white man's burden" remains.  If these books were being selected today, they would not be approved for school and library use because of their distorted and stereotyped treatment of ethnic groups in our country.  In the School Library Bill of Rights of the American Library Association, librarians are committed to the responsibility, among other things:

"To provide materials representative of the many religious, ethnic and cultural groups and their contributions to our American heritage."

Consequently, we are asking librarians and teachers to re-examine all lists that recommend the Story of Dolittle, Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, etc., and if our criticism is found to be valid the Dolittle books

*A complimentary copy of the current quarterly Interracial Books for Children which contains the article "The Real Dr. Dolittle," may be obtained by writing the council at 9 East 40th St., New York City, N.Y. 10016.

[[bottom margin]] David Cohen is Librarian, Plainview (Long Island, N.Y.); Member, Executive Board, The Council on Interracial Books for Children; Chairman, American Association of School Librarians' Committee on Treatment of Minorities in Library Materials.

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