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Captain Underpants author Dav Pilkey apologized for “harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery” in one of his children’s graphic novels, which was withdrawn by his publisher in the midst of a wave anti-Asian violence in the United States.
The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, first published in 2010, follows two cavemen who travel to 2222 and meet Master Wong, a martial arts instructor. Last week, publisher Scholastic announced that it would stop distributing the book and remove all mention of it from its website, saying it had “full support” from Pilkey.
“Together we recognize that this book perpetuates passive racism,” said Scholastic. “We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake.”
In a letter shared on his YouTube channel, Pilkey said he “intended to showcase diversity, equality and non-violent conflict resolution” in the graphic novel. “But this week, it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist images,” he wrote. “I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends and family, as well as to all Asians. “
“I hope you, my readers, will forgive me and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone,” he wrote. “I apologize and I promise to do better.”
The announcement came shortly after Billy Kim, a Korean-American father of two, started a petition on Change.org demanding an apology from Scholastic, citing stereotypes and Pilkey’s portrayal of Wong in his illustrations. .
After the announcement, Kim wrote that he spoke to a senior executive at Scholastic and then to Pilkey, who apologized to him and his seven-year-old son.
While happy that the book was taken down, Kim wrote, “The damage has been done.”
“Every child who has read this book has been conditioned to accept this racist imagery as ‘OK’ or even funny,” he wrote. “It is this type of passive racism that has contributed to the continuing hatred and prejudice experienced daily by Asian Americans.”
In his apology, Pilkey said he would give the advance and all royalties from The Adventures of Ook and Gluk to various organizations dedicated to combating racism against Asians and promoting diversity in publishing.
The move came days after a man shot and killed eight people at three massage companies in and around Atlanta, including six Asian women. Stop AAPI Hate, a group formed to document abuse against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the pandemic, said in February it had received reports of nearly 3,800 incidents in less than a year. year. Community leaders and several Democratic politicians have blamed former President Donald Trump, and his history of racist rhetoric against the Chinese people and the coronavirus, for the increase in violence. Last week, the Anti-Defamation League found that Asian Americans experienced the largest increase in serious online abuse year-over-year in 2020.
Pilkey isn’t the only author to retire his own work this month. On March 2, the estate of beloved children’s author Dr Seuss announced that they would no longer allow the publication of six of their books, due to “hurtful and offensive portrayals of race and ethnicity.” erroneous ”.
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