Little Black Sambo

The Story of Little Black Sambo is a childrens' book by Helen Bannerman, a Scot living in India, first published in 1899. The little boy who had to sacrifice his new red coat and his new blue trousers and his new purple shoes— which the tiger wears on his ears— but outwits the predators in his world, to return safely home and eat 169 pancakes for his supper, was a children's favorite for half a century before it became controversial. The story takes place in a fairy tale India, and the tigers racing around the tree are turned into ghee, rendered as "butter."

The book is treated with contempt today and banned in some libraries as it contains language that is considered to be racist. The original illustrations do portray Sambo in the manner of a golliwog, and a modern printing in 2003 substituted more racially sensitive illustrations by Christopher Bing, in which Sambo is no longer even quite so inky black. But characteristic of the new politically correct racism, Sambo is now portrayed as an "African" child living in India, as if all very dark-skinned people came from Africa. A vocal minority of American readers even take the name "Sambo" as a slur. Dr List of banned books