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Hi all,
I’m looking for appropriate tv shows and kid movies for my son, almost 3. We’ve blown through all the local library’s Sesame Street videos, and now I find myself casting around desperately for age-appropriate stuff that (a) has prominent characters of color, and (b) doesn’t have ethnic and gender stereotypes, and (c) ideally, has some educational value and is not completely “junk” tv.
We don’t have cable, but I’m willing to change that if it gives us access to more programming that would fit the bill. We also netflix, so movie recommendations are also welcome.
thanks so much.
My kids really, really like Little Bill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Bill_(TV_series)
The only problem is it makes me cry to hear Gregory Hines’ voiceovers as the the dad. But, if it weren’t for this show my kids probably would never have had the chance to appreciate Gregory Hines.
What about the Little Bill series (which are hard to find) and Gullah Gullah Island?
Yo Gabba Gabba is another fun one. I love their guest characters.
The Electric Company (the new one, although the old one rocks)
Go Diego, Go and Dora were favorites. You can find those entirely in Spanish if you look.
My son, 3, adores Mister Rogers. We record the reruns.
Although he’s white, he does have recurring characters who are African-American, like Mayor Maggie, and frequently has guests who are persons of color, like Yo-Yo Ma, Ella Jenkins, the cast of Stomp, Wynton Marsalis, and gymnast Chaney Umphrey.
When Mister Rogers goes to the clinic to get his flu shot, his nurse and his doctor are African-American women. My son LOVES this episode and loves to tell his doctor he’s ready for his “influenza immunization.”
It doesn’t come on regularly on ETV so we have it set to record (usually on a Sunday morning). The website has the schedule. Mister Rogers covers emotions, sharing, learning, creativity, art, music, science, social skills, the environment, divorce. I just wish there were more episodes on DVD (just three 2-episode DVDs). Some of it looks a little dated, but it did run up to 2001.
Also, check out Ni Hao Kai Lan. You can stream some episodes from nickjr, which is also a nice way to see some Dora, Diego, and one of my favorites, Backyardigans. Although the Backyardigans characters are not human per say, they have some implied race. The creator is an african american woman, and the shows are fun enough I dont mind listening to them while we drive either!
I was annoyed by the NPR’s Here and Now segment with Kip Fulbeck and Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng (Pres. Obama’s half-sister). Even Fulbeck admitted that things had changed since he and Dr. Soetoro-Ng were children (which begs the question – WHY DIDN”T THEY TRY FOR ANOTHER VOICE?). They’re both of the same generations.
Only because I was driving did I not whip out my BINGO card: lessee…
1. able to move “between worlds”
2. “outside” of both
3. BRIDGES between the 2 (assumed) groups you’re a part of (ad nauseum) (“a gift”
4. BRIDGES to groups you’re not even a member of because you pass (I was so sick of BRIDGES by the time I got through the piece)
5. “exotic beauty” (at least Fulbeck clarified that exotic can be negative and othering, but NEITHER the guests nor the host denied that mixed kids are ALWAYS beautiful… GAG)
6. unspoken assumption that mixed kids are 1/2 white (see #5) – all of their examples were people of mixed white ancestry. There was no mention of people with mixed minority backgrounds
OK, so if the narrative for my grandmother’s generation (1950s back) is that mixed folks are confused or the children will be troubles…
And the 1960s-1970s mantra is “mixed (white) children are universally beautiful bridges between cultures that will make us all hold hands and say Pretenama”
What is the 21st Century aphorism re: mixed folks? I really really hope it’s, “Oh, you’re XYZ? That’s cool, I’m D, my cousin is DZ, and my girlfriend is A.”
Just got home from the first night of our daughter’s wedding weekend. She was adopted from Korea at age 7 months and, getting married at 24, chose to have the full Korean ceremony the evening before her western-style wedding, after the rehearsal dinner.
Many friends from the local Korean community turned out for the celebration, and our daughter looked exquisite in her traditional Korean bridal dress, including the “hanbok” skirt and jacket she had made in Seoul last summer. When I walked into the room and saw her fully dressed, complete with bridal crown, I started to cry and thought, this is one of the best moments of my life.
Her gem of a husband-to-be, who is white and traveled to Korea with us last year, joined in with full enthusiasm.
I feel exultant and humbly grateful tonight, that somehow we were able to support our daughter through the journey (often a difficult path) to find her own way home, claiming her full self and a solid footing on the identity continuum between being Korean and being American.
A sweet and deeply rewarding moment in transracial family life.
@Lyonside: That sounds positively awful, I know that Carmen is retired but they should have convinced her to pull a Brett Farve for that interview. Yeesh, what tired notions. I don’t even want to listen to the segment out of curiousity.
@Lyonside
I agree. I have to say I am so sick of prominent mixed race people trying to speak for everyone who is mixed. In particular I find I can’t relate to the ‘hapa’ community I encounter a lot because a) I don’t identify as hapa or ‘half’ and dislike the use of the word, b) the mainstream community is often about exoticizing how we look and saying we’re better than “full people” cause we’re the “best of both worlds”, and c) they just don’t seem that interested or knowledgeable about race.
I’d appreciate it if they didn’t take it beyond a simple: let people identity how they want, according to their own experiences and what feels right to them. It’s totally fine to talk about your own experiences, but don’t try to define mine while you’re at it. That being said, I’m so tired of this “bridge” discourse. I’m not a “bridge” or a symbol for someone to feel better about race relations. In fact I’m a person who’s had a very complicated history which is erased and belittled by this discourse. I know I’m definitely speaking only for myself and the communities I’ve encountered, but this is my perspective of it after attending a conference and hearing Kip Fulbeck speak in person
@ Saena and Zoopath: exactly on all counts. That kind of inane rhetoric is what brought me originally to MMW/Racialicious and MAVIN in the first place, because the “bridge” crap and exotic-so-long-as-you’re-part-white-myth is acknowledged and debunked regularly.
Interestingly, I typed a criticism (better worded than my post above) on Friday. It’s not there. However, there IS the comment about someone calling mixed people “omelets.”
Fetch my pearls, Mabel, I need to clutch them. *sigh* This is me losing a lot of respect for NPR.
Julia,
There is Between the Lions. Awesome show. Has diverse people in it and teaches reading via the love of the stories in books.
It is a show that’s aired on PBS and can be found on DVDs.
Julia,
My son doesn’t really have the attention span for TV, but he will watch Thomas the Tank (which features mostly “male” trains, but has recently increased the number of “female” characters). The show is really obnoxious, but it is a) short and b) doesn’t have characters of any colors so there aren’t any racial stereotypes to combat. Sid the Science kid also seems to have characters of different ethnic backgrounds and its educational.
I find most children’s programming to be obnoxious beyond belief (particularly Dora, Thomas, and Yo Gabba Gabba) but there is something to be said for getting my son to calm down for 15 minutes so I can catch my breath.