Scholastic, the popular publishing house, has taken proactive action towards the increasing Asian hate that is currently clouding in many places. They have done so by halting the spin-off of the series, “Captain Underpants.” The reason stated by the publishing was that the series carries stereotypes of racism against the community of Asians. It encourages “passive” stereotyping.
Captain Underpants’ Caveman Story Promotes “Passive Racism”
The announcement was made last week. The name of the text from the Captain Underpants series that is halted from being distributed is “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Caveman from the Future.” This belongs to the graphic novel genre. It was published in the year 2010. The author of the graphic novel is Dav Pilkey.
This Captain Underpants series is about the journey of two cave kids. They live in a town called Caveland which is fictional. It takes place in the year 5000,001 BC. These two kids then reach the future. It is there that they discover that their town’s natural resources are getting stolen by one of the evil corporations.
So, one fine day they come across Master Wong who happens to be an instructor of martial arts. The three of them become friends. The kids finally save the town by fighting the corporation under the training of their master-friend.
Scholastic published a statement of apology. They wrote that they have made a “serious mistake” by encouraging passive racism. The publishing house expressed how sorry they were. They also added that the book from the Captain Underpants series had been removed from everywhere.
Scholastic further added that all of the libraries, schools, and their retail partners were being reached out to as well. They concluded by writing that representing the diverse society was their duty that they would continue doing it.