Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power.
"Black people are different colors," Vivian Church points out on page four of Colors Around Me her marvelously blunt children's book. Then, page after page, Church and illustrator Sherman Beck celebrate the unique shades of African-American skin, mostly by encouraging kids to point out how much each other's flesh resembles things like roast turkey.
Colors Around Me
Author: Vivian Church, illustrated by Sherman Beck
Date: 1971
Publisher: Afro¬-Am Publishing Company, Chicago
Discovered at: Olathe Goodwill
Representative Quote: "Stewart is brown like a copper penny."
Most of the book follows that roast-turkey pattern: a kid's head on each page, then a statement likening that kid's complexion to some item--usually food-- and then a helpful illustration of that item for the kids who haven't seen a roast turkey.
Or a ripe pear.
Didn't Cezanne do several famous Kenny still lifes?
In an introduction for grown-ups, Church explains that this food-is-flesh exercise was inspired by her work with five and six year olds in Chicago. She writes, "The analogies of color, often suggested by the children, are associated with concrete symbols that are not only pleasant to the child, but universally pleasant."
What boy wouldn't find it pleasant to hear this?
You know, there's a thin line between suggesting a pleasant analogy and playing the dozens.
Renee does just fine.
Robby, though . . .
Want to guarantee a boy has self-esteem problems? Start calling him "Cinnamon Rolls."
Imagine an elementary school classroom. Imagine the kids dreaming up pleasant analogies inspired by each other's pigmentation. Now, imagine a white boy saying this.
Yeah, that's the look Michael would have to give him, isn't it?
No word on whether Church ever taught Richie Spice.
Shocking Detail:
Written at a time of raised consciousness and new definitions, Colors Around Me proclaims "Black people are called Afro-Americans" and explains the origins of the term.
But this was still the '70s.
Also, there's something off with this school's desserts.
Highlight:
At one time, truths that seem obvious now needed to be stated bluntly.
In 1971, encouraging pride in black skin wasn't just a noble endeavor -- it was radical. Today it's still tricky, and it's not as if test-driven teachers have time to show kids School Daze or something.
Still, I'm happy to report that by 1989 the message had made it all the way out to your Crap Archivist, a Kansas kid white as jive turkey. Thanks, hip hop!
"People think they dis my personBy stating I'm darkly pack.
I know this
So I point at Q-Tip
And he states 'Black is black.'"
[The Crap Archivist highly recommends De La Soul's The Grind Date.]
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Endearing piece and a novel way of delving into a difficult topic.
This was 20 years before Crayola introduced skin-tone colors. As the article says, no more MLK done in pure black with bright red lips.
Now to lay my pure vanilla ice cream head to bed.
I think they should up the difficulty and make kids rhyme their skin tone. "Jack's light tan like a Solo named Han."
Reminds of one of my favorite little moments in Huck Finn, when Huck says that his dad's skin (I think I'm getting this correct) "Wasn't white like other people's white. It was a white to make your skin crawl; a fish-belly white." Horrifying.
I'm sure that the writers of "Colors Around Me" would be overjoyed that I just compared their book's take on race to Huck Finn.
yeah, i'm with the "this is nice but it IS crap" crowd. i like that alan's taking on something that's not "easy" like preachers or repuglicans. But don't you dare stop taking them on either!
What a revolutionary idea for its time! I wonder, though, can it work outside the food realm? Pete is beige like a WASP MILF's bedroom. Huh, whaddaya know, it does.
I hate to say it but I think it's crappy. Just because the book means well doesn't mean it ISN'T crap, and all I can imagine as I look at these pages is little kids crying because they got called buttered biscuits or something. I work with kids a little older than this and trust me, this exercise would get ugly really fast. and that's when everybdoy is being polite. Imagine if you had a mean little fucker in there?
I vote crap . . . . but the nicest crap ever covered here. Do you think any kid wants to be told he's pink like bubblegum? It was good to see the CA go easy on it though.
Sorry, Alan, I don't think this one's Crap. For its time, and maybe even for now, it's a legit way of getting the point across to young children. Not to mention that the last page is downright touching.
Okay, some of the analogies are odd, but I've always been proud to be the color of a medium-rare veal chop.
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