Talk:The Story of Little Black Sambo

message: 'Little Black Sambo', in order to be politically correct in todays world of intolerance, should probably be retitled to 'Little Tanned Kid'.  This is because, according to my grandmother who, while growing up in India in the late 1800's to early 1900's, knew both the author and the child 'Little Black Sambo' was based on.  This particular child played outside a lot and had developed quite a healthy tan even for a person from that part of the world.  As a result in order to differentiate this child for others in conversation he was referred to as 'black'  because nobody used the term 'tanned'.  The name 'Sambo' at least when the book as written was a general name given to children much as we use the them 'kid' today.
Sambo is the name of Lord Shiva in India. Its not a racial slur at all. A lot of kids get tanned in India playing outside in the sun. I am not sure what is the racial point or controversy here, specially with anyone from Africa who are not even related to this book. 66.134.42.186 (talk) 06:49, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Political correctness

message: At least one American edition from 20 years ago leaves Sambo's name as "Little Black Sambo", but changes his mother's name from "Black Mumbo" to "Mama Sari" and his father's name from "Black Jumbo" to "Papa Simbu".
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As a child, I had a "Golden Book" that told the story. The illustrations were credited to "Suzanne." (no last name given). In the Golden Book version, Little Black Sambo looked decidedly Indian.  The current article doesn't mention this book.
I had a copy of this when I was a little kid, and looking back I really enjoyed it.
I can understand how the illustrations, especially in the US version, can be considered offensive, but the story to me has always seemed to be an anti-colonial allegory. 
The tigers represent the 'world powers' of the day (Great Britain, France and Germany) and Little Black Sambo represents the oppressed native. (Note also that the tigers are aggressive, quarrelsome and easily duped and Sambo is intelligent and canny. And that Sambo wins and the tigers, no matter how strong and terrifying they are, are defeated.)
Coder Keitaro 14:13, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Published editions 

message: This article mentions that "sambo" is used as a "racial slur against African Americans". However, the Wikipedia article for "sambo" mentions that the word is used as a racist remark in the United Kingdom, as well. I tend to think that the line should mention that "sambo" is used a racial slur against black people, not just "African-Americans", since a black person in the UK most certainly would not want to be called "African American". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.158.61.167 (talk) 13:48, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Misuse of "African-American" 

message: No need to rehash the account of why people object to Sambo. I'd rather see it all in one place. By the way, the book didn't become controversial; people objected to the hero's name and stereotypical appearance. We also might mention that White Britishers referred to Indian natives as niggers. Just thought I'd fan the flames a bit here. I hope it makes you hot enough to melt you into ghee. --Uncle Ed 15:28, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge suggestion

message: I have a copy of a 1979 print of the book, which looks like an "original" (ie. it resembles the description of the original given in the article).  Would it be worthwhile providing scans of any of the images, or copies of the text, copyright permitting?--Iaindb 01:48, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  scans wanted? 

message: I have removed this section:
Although Bannerman's story is set in India, the illustrations in the original edition use darky iconography (see golliwog), portraying Sambo with black skin, wildly curly hair, and bright red lips and I have also removed a reference that singles out African Americans.  Let me explain why.
The removed sentence is nonsense.  The original illustrations by Helen Bannerman show a Southern Indian or Tamil child - grossly caricatured, but recognisable.  Clearly whoever wrote the above passage has never travelled to India. The people from the southern parts of India have very dark skin, curly hair - all as illustrated.  To take the ridiculously Americanocentric view that Bannerman was somehow taking a pop at people of African (and specifically African American) origin is absurd. It shows her European (specifically British) Colonial prejudices about the Indian nation, nothing whatsoever to do with Africa or African Americans.  What happened later in the book's history is another matter, and does have a relevance to black people including African Americans, but no revisionism, please.  The original book was about Indians, and the original illustrations showed Indians. 81.157.194.144 (talk) 16:46, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: My edits

message: Also, I see someone has got the illustrations confused, incorrectly putting the frontispiece of the American edition illustrated by Florence White Williams (1900-1953) (which shows a child of African origin) as the original 1899 frontispiece.  I shall sort it out. 81.157.194.144 (talk) 16:57, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: More edits

message: The following paragraphs were recently added by Kirk Shrewsbury.  While there's information in them that could usefully be added to the article, the tone seemed unencyclopedic, and the user signed them, so it seemed to me that the issues they bring u pwould be more profitably moved here until someone has time to incorporate them into the article.  In particular, the second paragraph seems to be Kirk Shrewsbury's personal opinion, and the parts of it that are factual require citation.  —Dominus (talk) 16:42, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The unfortunate coincidence of the name Sambo with the common African-American male first name Sam, and the practice of making such common first names into racial slurs, should be noted. In America, "Sambo" is in practice little different than Hymie (Jews) and Fritz (Germans) as negative racial generalizations. In fact, noted abolitionist and womens rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton used the term Sambo commonly to refer generically to the supposedly inferior black male fully half a century before the publication of Little Black Sambo. Having spent many years as an abolitionist, then seeing voting rights given black males but not white women, and believing that white women were clearly and inherently superior to black males, she asserted she was disinclined to stand aside and watch Sambo walk through the pearly gates before she did.Stanton, Eighty Years & More, 1997 Consequently, it is difficult to believe that Little Black Sambo is a primary source of this common negative racial Sambo stereotype, although it may have been leveraged to this use.--Kirk Shrewsbury (talk) 08:06, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

text: In the 1970's, the predominate version of the book available in the U. S. was entirely sanitized and fully East Indian in character, featuring an obviously Indian child, tigers (which live in India but not in Africa), and pancakes which appear to be butter nans, a peculiarly Indian bread dish. Whereas the original Bannerman version showed a corpulent black mammy-like character, the mother was now a slender East Indian woman in a sari. Blackness appeared to be nothing more than a personal characteristic, common in South India, as elsewhere.--Kirk Shrewsbury (talk) 08:06, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Additions by Kirk Shrewsbury 

message: I know Shambo is a real Indian name. I suspect  Sambo may be a british spelling. Sometimes the H's are very subtle so words like Satya can also be spelled Sathya.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.177.9.220 (talk) 12:42, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sambo as an Indian word is a modified form of Shambhoo or Shambhu the name for lord Shiva one of the major three deities in Indian mythology, who was self incarnated. Shambhu in turn is derived from Swayambhu which means someone who is self-manifested or created by its own accord. Also Svayambhuva Manu is the first man (analogous to Adam) in Hindu mythology as he is also self manifested. In the story Sambo is shown to be of Tamilian origin, people in Tamilnadu follow Hinduism and hence have Hindu names but being closer to equator have comparatively darker complexion.
However, this appears to be irrelevant to this article. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "Sambo"
was in use in English as a nickname for a dark-skinned person as long ago as 1704.  The OED gives the etymology of "Sambo" as being from Spanish "zambo", or perhaps from Fula.  The Online Etymology Dictionary also suggests the Fula origin.
24.7.57.172 (talk) 10:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Is Sambo really Shambo?

message: Does anyone remember anther cartoon that's more accurate to the book?
I remember one that the tigers actually ran around the tree and turned into butter.
I really want to see it again, but can't find it..  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.110.79.71 (talk) 00:29, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another cartoon 

message: I am from Taiwan and I have read this story in children's book. I look this up because I couldn't remember what exactly I read. I remember the illustration of the boy was black, half naked with short curl hair, but my memory could be distorted. I was amazed to know that this simple story has its own international history. The article mentioned the book was published in Japan, and I know that many stories books I read were pirated from Japan. I wonder if this story I read was pirated from Japan, too.111.251.197.3 (talk) 13:45, 16 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wish someone add the story's history in Taiwan 

message: Had the same problem, located in Lincoln City, Oregon. Originally known as "Pixie Pancakes" in 1957, it was renamed "Lil Black Sambo's" in the 60s after the story & forced to rename itself as "Lil Sambo's". No connection to the chain. And I'm eating breakfast there as I type this. --llywrch (talk) 17:34, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Another restaurant

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I have removed the following comment, which was hidden using html  tags.
This has nothing to do with the subject of the article except for one of the character's names' being similar  In 1957, an illustrated children's book, Come To Eat (בואו לאכול), written by Avigdor Hameiri and illustrated by Mariam Bartov, was published in Hebrew in Israel. It tells the story about Mother Mambo and Father Sambo trying to get their little boy Bambo to eat his supper. Only after Bambo watches a series of animals only too happy to eat his food does he learn his lesson and come home to eat his supper.  The story contains no racist overtones and reads as any number of stories of mildly rambunctious children.--> WotherspoonSmith (talk) 05:29, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  removed invisible comment