I recall well having a small mountain of books as a child, the favorite of which was a small story called "Little Black Sambo". It was among my Learn To Read collection, and I read it far more often than others in the stack.

The tale was rather forthright -- a little kid, about my size, struggling with the "monsters" of Life --

Sambo was full of smiles, had a great attitutude on what's what, and wore these super-cool colorful threads --- but he had a problem --- a Predator Gang lurched in the shadows --- ready to do the kid in !

The 3 tigers chased Sambo up a coconut tree --- and the rest is history.

To make a short story ... even shorter -- Sambo outwitted the Predators by making them believe that each would look just fine as he traded off his purple shorts, red shirt and green umbrella to each of the respective Tigers --- for a bite of time. The Plan worked.

Sambo's next move was to set in motion a "Divide & Conquer" strategy against the Predators --- making each feel as though they'd been shortchanged in the deal. Snarling, they soon grabbed each others tails and spun about the foot of the tree while Sambo laughed above. The momentum of the gyrations became so great that the Tigers soon liquified into a pool of buttermilk --- which Sambo soon churned into a stack of Orange & Yellow striped Flapjacks.

For a 6 year old, it was indeed a great story of an intelligent little kid who warded off disaster with his wits.

The tale was a classic ---- the small & innocent being trounced upon by the aggressive monsters --- such tales eventually lead to lessons about other facets that begin to blossom in our learning stages of life ..... the Tigers perhaps morphing into Corporate Industrialists that wish to suck our blood dry ... or perhaps the Gang that rules the Hood.

Although raised by Freethinking, egalitarian minded parents, I had never met a black kid before opening my copy of Little Black Sambo --- Thereafter, he became a childhood hero figure that I fantiasized eating flapjacks with each morning that M would set a stack before me.

Later, after growing up, marrying and raising my bi-racial offspring, I came upon a television chit-chat show in which a group of older, white librarian biddies were talking about the horrid Black Sambo tale that I had once loved so. I wondered if we had read the same book.

A reader earlier brought up the fact that it is often we adults that teach our children about racism through our own prisims of Reality. We see little emphasis placed in the history lessons our children are taught on the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died on the fields to see to it that black men and women were free'd from bondage --- in a war that killed as many as those in 30 Iraqi Wars put together.

As a kid I recall also finding it a bit disconcerting that after some 4 or 5 centuries Earthilings would continue to segregate their copulatory episodes as clearly evidenced on the show "Star Trek" --- where instead of a nicely homogonized tan-brown crew ... we were presented with a crew of asians, blacks and whites (the latter in command, of course). It was encouraging however to see that at least we would all be speaking the same language --- quite often a barrier to communications within the species.

At least 50% of the population of this society spends billions in an industry whose sole purpose is to make the subject look like .... what she .... doesn't look like.

Some women are seen on the streets with gold rings dug into their lobes, lips and nostrils -- not unlike Cows to be led about ... as Slaves to Fashion, one imagines.

In more recent times we've found that the American male species has increasingly become fixated on the Superficiality of his appearance, his "veneer" (..vanity).

And one might wonder what he sees when he looks into the mirror in the a.m. to set his Ear Ring in place (note: never 2 rings, such would be 'unfashionable' -- unbalanced).

Perhaps he fancies himself as a Pirate !! ... to match the silly cartoon tatoos he paid somebody to carve into his flesh --- dunno -- can't imagine.

From the day the girlies spend their first $$ allowance $$ on a "cosmetic" kit --- they plunge themselves on that long road toward obsessing on the natural decay of the human face and body. Nausiating TV commercials merely highlight for us all this peculiar affliction.

An earlier reader comments on Little Black Sambo's characterization in a small kiddie book as being "racist" art --

Is it so ?? -- With that line of logic --- I guess we could all agree that Warner Bros. depicting of that fat, stupid bald white man who is made the fool by every creature under the sun, is also "racist" ---

Elmer Fudd (& his Pal Yosemite) Sam I suppose ought to be expunged from the American Canvass .... in order to prevent the Thin-Skinned, neurotics from feeling so sad about the raging racism being fed to the poor little white boys ....