I’ve been reading *Street Gang*, a very comprehensive history of the making of Sesame Street, and I feel like the portrayal of Sesame Street here ignores key parts of the show’s founding and ethos, as well as corrections made early on in reaction to demands from various identity groups.
For starters, the show was intentionally aimed at black children in ghettos. The brownstone and many other elements of the set are intended to reflect areas of NYC that were overwhelmingly minority (Harlem; Bed-Stuy; South Bronx). The popularity of the show, and most of the methods of presentation shroud this: A large majority of the children who loved the show were white, and most of the Muppets (but not all; see below) also coded as white.
Matt Thompson, who originally played Gordon on the show, developed the character of Roosevelt Franklin to directly address this: A wisecracking boy who took to the front of the classroom to teach lessons to his peers. Franklin and the other muppets in his class were similar colors to other Muppets (purple; blue), but their hair and speech patterns coded them as undeniably, and unapologetically, Black. Sometimes the lessons were fairly universal (“if someone hurts your feelings, let them know”; this may be controversial these days), but others would have fit in with Black Power, consciousness-raising lessons of the time, brought to the level of preschoolers: Franklin shows on a map that Africa is much more than jungles (that it is not a country was saved for The Electric Company (jk ;-)).
I fondly remember Roosevelt Franklin, and was surprised to learn from *Street Gang* that he was “cancelled” because of objections from middle-class Blacks that Franklin made them look bad. Looking at the current attempts by Sesame Street to address race, I still don’t understand why they don’t just bring the character back.
[Side note: Chris needs a rewrite on that song:
“I look like caramel!”
“I look like a lion!”
“I look like…a walnut tree. (Sigh)”]
The show certainly was read by the actual people living in poorer, non-white neighborhoods as about them, and in an echo of representational politics today, some demanded the show have them on. Actress Sonia Manzano definitely saw her neighborhood on the show, and got cast as Maria as a result of direct political action from the nascent Hispanic movement (blindsiding the female Black activist who was doing community outreach for the show in Black neighborhoods). The Franklin misstep notwithstanding, the show continued to take time to do things like invite Nina Simone to come on to sing “To Be Young, Gifted And Black”:
So there’s certainly an approach that Sesame Street can take that doesn’t crumble into mealy-mouthed “colorblindness” but also doesn’t try to place a heavy guilt trip on white toddlers; they already did it 50 years ago!
There is certainly a lot to criticize in the area of racial sensitivity education for children. For my part, though, I've been struck much more by the omission of just plain historical facts from K-12 education. I'm in my mid-50's and grew up in the Midwest. We really did learn just about 4 things about American history in this country concerning our black citizens: slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow and the KKK and the Civil Rights Movement with MLK. There was absolutely nothing about Black Wall Street, the Great Migration, red lining, let alone anything current (mass incarceration, voter suppression, etc.). I think I would be more sympathetic to the conservative concerns if they could be really honest about how much of the story has been completely untold.
Another interesting, complicated set of questions.
One note I'd make about the different Sesame Street songs is that they respond to different questions. Broadly speaking I'd categorize those as covering,
"What does it say about each of us that we have different colored skin?" (answer, we're all human together
"How should I feel when I hear things that make me feel badly about the color of my skin?" (answer, own your sense of yourself, and don't let other people define you -- and yes, the same message should apply to white people)
"How is it that that patterns of discrimination are so persistent, and that our experiences in the world can be so influenced by the color of our skin, and the expectations or biases that other people have based on the color of our skin?" (answer: this is going to take a while . . .)
They are all important questions and, yes, the first one is the most comfortable question and answer -- the latter two don't present an easy solution.
I don't think he provides an easy answer, either, and his fallibility and uncertainty is part of the story.
I recommend it, it's a quick read -- about an hour, so there's no reason for me to say too much, but in the linked interview he say,
"When the Congressman [John Lewis] was still with us and we were doing a lot of talks, I would try and sort of highlight what my own journey with a parent was, addressing the history of the Civil Rights movement with my 4-, 5-, 6-year old."
"People need to know that if you’re the guide to help a really young person dig through some of this stuff, you don’t need to lay the whole thing out at once. It really does involve a mindfulness and seeing where they are and what their world looks like, and then trying to make it meet wherever you can. And there are always more opportunities, because there are always questions with smaller kids. Just trust the questions, and it gives you a chance to go deeper the next time."
Part of what has always bothered me about the new woke approach to combatting racism is that it seems to be predicated a racial binary of a black and white America. But that is increasingly less true as time goes on and the US becomes truly multicultural: by 2050 projections are that Whites will be the largest racial plurality in the country, followed by Latinos. At that point the number of Asian citizens will have grown to the point where 12% of the total population will be Asian--the same percentage as blacks. If everyone is taught that their skin color is of critical important the US will not be divided into two tribes but rather a manifold number. And if tribal allegiance is paramount the conflict will not be between a rainbow coalition of minorities versus their white oppressors: it will be Asians versus Hispanics versus blacks versus whites etc.
I look at the explosion of anti-Asian hate crimes over this last summer and have to wonder if it's any coincidence that so many of the perpetrators seem to be African American.
I’ve been reading *Street Gang*, a very comprehensive history of the making of Sesame Street, and I feel like the portrayal of Sesame Street here ignores key parts of the show’s founding and ethos, as well as corrections made early on in reaction to demands from various identity groups.
For starters, the show was intentionally aimed at black children in ghettos. The brownstone and many other elements of the set are intended to reflect areas of NYC that were overwhelmingly minority (Harlem; Bed-Stuy; South Bronx). The popularity of the show, and most of the methods of presentation shroud this: A large majority of the children who loved the show were white, and most of the Muppets (but not all; see below) also coded as white.
Matt Thompson, who originally played Gordon on the show, developed the character of Roosevelt Franklin to directly address this: A wisecracking boy who took to the front of the classroom to teach lessons to his peers. Franklin and the other muppets in his class were similar colors to other Muppets (purple; blue), but their hair and speech patterns coded them as undeniably, and unapologetically, Black. Sometimes the lessons were fairly universal (“if someone hurts your feelings, let them know”; this may be controversial these days), but others would have fit in with Black Power, consciousness-raising lessons of the time, brought to the level of preschoolers: Franklin shows on a map that Africa is much more than jungles (that it is not a country was saved for The Electric Company (jk ;-)).
I fondly remember Roosevelt Franklin, and was surprised to learn from *Street Gang* that he was “cancelled” because of objections from middle-class Blacks that Franklin made them look bad. Looking at the current attempts by Sesame Street to address race, I still don’t understand why they don’t just bring the character back.
[Side note: Chris needs a rewrite on that song:
“I look like caramel!”
“I look like a lion!”
“I look like…a walnut tree. (Sigh)”]
The show certainly was read by the actual people living in poorer, non-white neighborhoods as about them, and in an echo of representational politics today, some demanded the show have them on. Actress Sonia Manzano definitely saw her neighborhood on the show, and got cast as Maria as a result of direct political action from the nascent Hispanic movement (blindsiding the female Black activist who was doing community outreach for the show in Black neighborhoods). The Franklin misstep notwithstanding, the show continued to take time to do things like invite Nina Simone to come on to sing “To Be Young, Gifted And Black”:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I-f3PYJT5mU
So there’s certainly an approach that Sesame Street can take that doesn’t crumble into mealy-mouthed “colorblindness” but also doesn’t try to place a heavy guilt trip on white toddlers; they already did it 50 years ago!
There is certainly a lot to criticize in the area of racial sensitivity education for children. For my part, though, I've been struck much more by the omission of just plain historical facts from K-12 education. I'm in my mid-50's and grew up in the Midwest. We really did learn just about 4 things about American history in this country concerning our black citizens: slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow and the KKK and the Civil Rights Movement with MLK. There was absolutely nothing about Black Wall Street, the Great Migration, red lining, let alone anything current (mass incarceration, voter suppression, etc.). I think I would be more sympathetic to the conservative concerns if they could be really honest about how much of the story has been completely untold.
Another interesting, complicated set of questions.
One note I'd make about the different Sesame Street songs is that they respond to different questions. Broadly speaking I'd categorize those as covering,
"What does it say about each of us that we have different colored skin?" (answer, we're all human together
"How should I feel when I hear things that make me feel badly about the color of my skin?" (answer, own your sense of yourself, and don't let other people define you -- and yes, the same message should apply to white people)
"How is it that that patterns of discrimination are so persistent, and that our experiences in the world can be so influenced by the color of our skin, and the expectations or biases that other people have based on the color of our skin?" (answer: this is going to take a while . . .)
They are all important questions and, yes, the first one is the most comfortable question and answer -- the latter two don't present an easy solution.
Yesterday I just read _Save It For Later_ ( https://www.comicsbeat.com/interview-nate-powell-on-save-it-for-later/), a graphic memoir by the artist of _March_, which is primarily about the question of how to communicate the emotions of the Trump years to children.
I don't think he provides an easy answer, either, and his fallibility and uncertainty is part of the story.
I recommend it, it's a quick read -- about an hour, so there's no reason for me to say too much, but in the linked interview he say,
"When the Congressman [John Lewis] was still with us and we were doing a lot of talks, I would try and sort of highlight what my own journey with a parent was, addressing the history of the Civil Rights movement with my 4-, 5-, 6-year old."
"People need to know that if you’re the guide to help a really young person dig through some of this stuff, you don’t need to lay the whole thing out at once. It really does involve a mindfulness and seeing where they are and what their world looks like, and then trying to make it meet wherever you can. And there are always more opportunities, because there are always questions with smaller kids. Just trust the questions, and it gives you a chance to go deeper the next time."
Part of what has always bothered me about the new woke approach to combatting racism is that it seems to be predicated a racial binary of a black and white America. But that is increasingly less true as time goes on and the US becomes truly multicultural: by 2050 projections are that Whites will be the largest racial plurality in the country, followed by Latinos. At that point the number of Asian citizens will have grown to the point where 12% of the total population will be Asian--the same percentage as blacks. If everyone is taught that their skin color is of critical important the US will not be divided into two tribes but rather a manifold number. And if tribal allegiance is paramount the conflict will not be between a rainbow coalition of minorities versus their white oppressors: it will be Asians versus Hispanics versus blacks versus whites etc.
I look at the explosion of anti-Asian hate crimes over this last summer and have to wonder if it's any coincidence that so many of the perpetrators seem to be African American.