Or to be more accurate, a couple of spin off characters by the author. BBC reports.
A Captain Underpants spin-off book has been taken off sale and children’s author Dav Pilkey has apologised for its “harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery”.
The book, titled The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, was first published in 2010.
In a statement, Pilkey said it was meant to “showcase diversity, equality, and non-violent conflict-resolution”.
But he said he now realised it was “wrong and harmful” to Asian people.
Heh, more like he’s been shanghaied and beaten up by the twitter mob.
“I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism is harmful to everyone,” the US author wrote in a statement on YouTube.
At this point you can be forgiven for wondering what is so racist about “kung-fu” cavemen.
[…]The book is a graphic novel supposedly written by the two fictional friends who feature in the Captain Underpants books, and follows “cave boys” called Ook and Gluk.
Pilkey said they “save the world using kung fu and the principles found in Chinese philosophy”. It had an initial worldwide print run of a million copies.
[…]Scholastic said it had halted publication of the book in question on 22 March with Pilkey’s “full support”.
“Together, we recognise that this book perpetuates passive racism,” the company said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake.”
Let’s assume Scholastic and Pilkey are right and the two kung fu cavemen Ook and Gluk are racist stereotypes. Guess what else this means should be pulled from the shelves? Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, every “Kung Fu” movie including Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon”, every one of the Matrix movies (they’re especially racist as they have a white dude doing kung fu), the whole “Kung Fu” series starring David Carradine (who wasn’t even Chinese). And that’s just off the top of my head.
And of course any actual Asian reading this will be shaking their head and saying what is wrong with you round-eyes?
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