Laura…

Ingalls…

Wilder…

You may have heard of her. She is the prestigious author of the Little House on the Prairie books. She was also apparently a woman who was taught that Native Americans were savages and referred to them as wild animals in some of her works (so I’ve been told as I have somehow not read any of them).

I am not here to argue over whether or not her books should be banned or whether or not I agree with Harper Collins Book’s decision to edit her bias/racism from her writing a decade or 2 back, I just hate to see false reports being circulated online.

Yes, a semi-well-known book award was named after her, and YES it has now been renamed due to societal pressure.

These are the correct facts.

Unfortunately foxnews jumped the gun and reported that her name was being stripped from the award due to it’s stereotypical depictions of women. I read the article and was dumbfounded, until I did what I always do and checked around.

Here’s the deal, stereotypes suck. I hate em, most of us do. But they do exist because of a collective behavior in certain people and that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Regardless, I don’t trust many news sources anymore. They’re all so divided. There are too many confirmed cases of exaggerated reporting from conservative sources like fox all the way to the liberal side (I’m looking at YOU Washington Post). Thankfully there are numerous papers and reports on both sides that eventually come to some kind of actual factual truth. It sucks that we now have to read everything in order to find snippets of truth in the bullshit, but I’d rather do that than distrust everything and refuse to read at all. haha

So, in actuality Wilder’s name was stripped from the award due to her unfair descriptions of Native Americans. She did not consider them people and likened them to wild animals. That’s a lot worse than just writing about women being stereotypical women in a time when women weren’t often allowed to stray from the norm.

I am not a fan of censorship but also understand that doesn’t mean people should be running around insulting everyone all the time. It’s not being politically correct, it’s called decency…manners…not being a butthead. I also accept that awards are often just congratulatory honors that don’t matter nearly as much as the writing itself and/or the readers.

Changing the name of an award based on the needs of readers doesn’t really bother me. The books are still available, the author’s work and her life are still preserved aspects of history.

I am concerned at outrage driven by incorrect reports…

exaggerators in non-fiction writing…

and media that thrives off of negative news…