Before you get all bent out of shape, let me explain. You know that book I wrote and illustrated… the one for children… the one right over there in my sidebar with a link where you can buy it and my other books? Yes, the one called; ‘I Like Monkeys’… with the picture of the monkey on the cover… yes, that’s the one.
For a long time now, my mom, who actually sells as many of my books to people as I do because she still lives where I grew up and still knows all the people who watched me grow up and now they all have grandkids and great grandkids and people are buying my monkey book because it is an awesome gift for kids of any age… hint hint…
But the thing is… and this isn’t a good thing, even though I think it is really being blown out of all proportion… but my mom thinks there is one picture in the book that could possibly be construed as racist.
I think she is wrong.
Just to clarify, my mom does not actually think that I am a racist… I mean, she knows dang well that I am not a racist… she just thinks that this one picture could, possibly, maybe, be viewed that way in the context of some historical stereotypes by some people.
Here is the picture in question…
The text that goes with the picture is as follows; “My daddy looks like a monkey.” It is spoken by a little boy.
Now just to explain how that came about, the book is based on the fact that for years I have been randomly saying to little kids; “I like monkeys.” I just throw it in to conversations because I like to see how kids respond. Those responses over years of doing this are what the book is based on. I do occasionally say; “I like monkeys,” to adults, and their reactions are usually fairly disappointing.
My mom wants to know why the monkey is darker than the other monkeys in the book.
I keep telling her that I used a gorilla because I thought it made the daddy look older and more like a dad… and the fact is that gorillas, in real life, are darker than a lot of other monkeys. This is just the way nature makes them. Picking a gorilla was an artistic choice on my part. I wasn’t trying to slip in any kind hidden message. If I want to create controversy and anger a large group of people I will publish my story about the little wizard named Gad who creates the whole universe and get religious fanatics and fundamentalists mad at me.
Anyway, I have given into pressure from my mom… not because I think she is right, but because she says she won’t sell any more of the books to her friends if I don’t… and here is the new picture…
Maybe she has a valid point. Maybe there are people out there just looking for any chance to accuse someone of some kind of bigotry. Maybe it is better to be safe than sorry. But once again it seems like this is more of a reflection on the viewer than it is on me because I know damn well I didn’t put any kind of negative thought into the picture. I just wanted a cute, huggable daddy gorilla for kids to enjoy. In fact, when I first did the original picture and my older daughter, Jessica, who is also my tech expert and publicist, said the gorilla looked a little too scary, I changed his eyebrows a little and made the smile more friendly. Maybe this is no different than that, but it feels different.
Let me know what you think, will you?
Oh, and also, if you have bought one of these books already, you now have a collector’s item…
Pouring My Art Out 
I can see why some who are particularly sensitive might find the original picture racist, but wouldn’t the rest of the book tell them that it’s not meant that way at all? Is there anything to be said for “context”?
Not to Berkeley liberals, it turns out.
Could you not just have lightened the color on the gorilla to get the same effect? Your new “daddy” looks like a big kid, maybe a bit of a nerd whereas the gorilla looked older.
well now you tell me
Not racist in my view, but agree with your daughter the gorilla is a little scary.
ha… that is the happier one
I don’t know, but this whole “is this racist?” controversy could bring a lot of PR and sell a lot of books.
So you are saying play up the whole ‘I might be a racist’ thing…
Hahahaha! Mischievous wit!
yeah… that guy…
I live in Memphis, racism is 70/80 percent black and everyone is on high alert for anything that is remotely considered racist. We are working on it but we have a long way to go. Anything that is in anyway related to primates is suspect (yes, humans are included in that). Sad but true fact of life. As the others said, you’ll always offend someone no matter what you do, when you want to sell stuff the trick is to deliberately offend as few folks as possible if you can avoid it and if you care. On the other hand people have become famous in both good and bad ways by sticking to their guns on controversial issues soooo I’d say it’s a judgment call that you have to make.
well I guess I already made it…
Yep, likely… and you’ve got mail
ok… I will check
The light skin and blue eyes? I think you’re maligning Swedes. Please desist.
well everybody maligns them… and it is still okay to do so…
Well, I don’t know, Art. I think the original picture looks more like a daddy, while the new picture looks more like a big brother. Actually, I think the face in the original picture resembles a bison more than a monkey, because of the nose.
I personally don’t think you should let anyone malign your work and try to convince you to change your pictures. No matter what you do, someone is going to be upset. Heck, just using the word monkey can be considered racist, if someone is hell-bent on thinking that way. Maybe you should have used frogs or something.
Oh, wait, that could cause a different group of people to become upset. See? There’s no winning this one. Most kids are just going to see monkeys, nothing else.
sniff… I was very proud of my gorilla nose… I looked at real gorilla pictures to get it right… and what do you have against bison anyway… are you a bisonist? HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love bison (I live in Buffalo, NY!). Maybe that’s why it looked like a bison to me. I’m sure it’s a very nice gorilla nose – to be honest, I never looked at a gorilla all that closely.
go stare closely into a gorilla’s eyes… we will wait…
ok. Ignore anything you might hear on the news later.
I always do
I agree, he looks more like a big brother than a dad. What are you trying to do now? Is this book about incest? See? People are so…….hard to please sometimes. On the other hand, I now own a signed collectors piece!!
That is the way to look at it…
See, I never even thought about that angle. I was thinking more like a big brother to play with.
Oh, wait, that’s not much better, is it?
probably not
And on this note, I’ll add: indeed the title could be inflammatory enough.
I guess we just see what we decide to see.
Shame on us.
no shame… just a game… come up with a name… and achieve immortal fame…
come on… give it a try…