I could not agree more!   There is much classic children's literature that is sadly being discarded. Sambo of course (We had a Sambo's Restaurant  we ate at when I was a kid it was a chain), Grim's Fairy Tales.  Uncle Remus  and so much more. Many of these tales had secondary and third meaning hid away deep in the stories for adults.  The Wizard of Oz (1903) was about the US election of 1896. The tin man was the steel industry, the scarcrow was the farmer and the cowardly lion was William Jennings Byron.  Oz was the president.  The yellow brick road was the gold industry.  Well you get it.  So too are many other children's stories.  Who will be around to share these stories a generation or two from now if our children are not being told them.  I dare think that instead of being hyped up about offending folks, we need to hero over political correctness as Sambo championed as a hero.  Great read and post my friend.

The phenomenon of *political correct*, *antidiscrimination* etc. we are dealing with in today's (western) worlds is just another level in the D&C game being played. After it has worked out well over decades to divide pretty much everbody and everyone, now the inside of everybody is trying to be devided... or rather split from source completely... Made a post about an old German *nursery rhyme* singing about Coffee, which is politically no longer correct - I sang it anyways ;-) Guess if more would start just not to play along the flutes they play for us, the dance would be over soon and Kids (amongst all others) would not just regain the stories and songs but the nature of being .... being complete... Thanks for this post! Cheers from the Seven Mountains in Germany

Beep! Beep! This humvee will be patrolling by and assisting new veterans, retirees, and military members here on Steem. @shadow3scalpel will help by upvoting posts from a list of members maintained by @chairborne and responding to any questions replied to this comment.

I loved Little Black Sambo as a child as well.  My mother would read it to me at nap time.  The idea of tigers turning to butter was so much fun and expanded my imagination.  I never thought of Sambo as "black." He was just a kid having an adventure.

Having said all of that, there was a lot of racism in those days.  Both my parents were racist as were all of their brothers and sisters.  I wasn't preached to in that regard, but there was an undercurrent that was hard to not feel.  But it wasn't all racism either.  They hated the Oakies and Arkies that fled to dust bowl and migrated west.  It was more of an intolerance of anyone different or from another place.  My Scottish grandfather hated Irish.  White on white.  Go figure!

As "racist" as she was, my mother read Little Black Sambo to me over and over again, oblivious to the idea of promoting a black child hero to her white son.  Obviously, she didn't see any racial overtones.  It was just a good story.

Interestingly enough, my mother steered clear of any Disney stuff.  She said he was a "NAZI-lover," and though she wasn't particularly fond of Jews, she loved freedom and vehemently hated totalitarianism.  Disney, Ford and Edison were all avowed fascists before US intervention in WW2. 

What really ticked my mother off about Disney was that he changed the moral embedded in classic fairy tales.  I'm not sure about Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, a story written in the 1880s, but she used the Three Little Pigs as her example.  In the original story, the first two pigs got eaten by the wolf since they were careless, lazy and sloppy in the construction of their houses.  In the Disney version, their competent brother gave them shelter.  That's a whole different message.

I firmly believe that authors must be very careful when constructing children's stories.  There is always a message.  All writing is propaganda, and if authors simply promote the same programming they were exposed to as children without being conscious of the message they are promoting, they are like those first two pigs: careless, lazy and sloppy.

By the way.  Isn't Mickey Mouse black and Donald Duck white? Aren't those cartoons racist as well?

I learned a joke when I lived in Arkansas that illustrated a couple of society's problems quite nicely, with humor. It is no longer acceptable to tell the joke as I learned it, so let me tell you the sanitized version and you will readily see how absurd it is. Sometimes you have to let the scary, scary words be used to help explain why they are so scary...
The Sheriff called for the coroner to come pick up the body at the crime scene, down at the east end of the bridge over the river at the edge of town.
The coroner arrived saw the deceased. The body had been pulled from the bottom of the river. It was a large, African-American man with chains wrapped all around his arms and legs, clearly drowned.
Before approaching the body, the coroner asked the Sheriff if he had completed his investigation. The Sheriff looked at him, stunned. 
"Investigation? What is there to investigate? That dumb African American obviously stole more chain than he could swim with."
Now, I learned that joke from a southern gentleman. He was born and raised in Arkansas, I was the Yankee transplant. I was a little stunned, even back then. He got an extra laugh out of my politically correct slowness to laugh...
He asked me point blank - did I think he was a racist? 
I did not. I had seen him interact with people of all races with professionalism, courtesy and genuine love for his fellow humans. 
He asked me if I thought the joke was funny. I had to admit I did.
He asked me if I thought he had just made a statement about hating black people, or was his message about police brutality against black people... 
It was an early lesson for me, in just what a crock of shit "politically correct" speech is.

I never read little black Sambo but just about remember Tar baby and I have to agree the lengths parents are going to protect their children these days are extreme its no wonder so many grow up being so weak and whiny about every little thing.