Racist Terms in Children's Books Divide Germans

GErman Family Minister, Christina Schröder

A Bild am Sonntag newspaper survey made public on sunday showed that Germans are divided over whether it is right to use words like “negro” or “gypsy” in children’s book classics.     

Those questioned by the Emnid Institute, which conducted the survey of 500 people who are 14 or over on behalf of the newspaper, were split 50 percent in favor of removing the controversial words to 48 percent against.
                                                                                                           
East-West differences were substantial, while 52 percent of Germans in the western part of the country want words like nigger to be removed out of children’s books, 37 percent of those  in the eastern region interviewed are against the moved.  

The survey showed that educated pople were more against changing the texts than theless educated. Some 85 percent of those without formal training wanted the texts changed compared to 37 percent who had completed higher education.                                                             

The discussion as to whether the texts should be changed began after Family Minister Kristina Schröder told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that when she reads stories like “Pippi Longstocking” to her children she substitutes words like Neger, which is derogatoy to black people. 

My investigations showed that those derogatory words have been replaced since 2009 with the work “Negro King” being replaced with “South Sea King.”

The publisher of “The Little Witches” (Die kleine Hexe) plans to remove the word negress from the story. Otfried Preußler, the author, recently gave up his resistance to changing the word.