UPDATED 6/15, 12:20 p.m. ET: Kristen Bell took to Twitter to counter claims that her children's book The World Needs More Purple People propagates damaging messages pertaining to colorblind racism. RT.com noted that various people "countered the critics, pointing out that the book is not about race but rather overcoming political and ideological differences," and Bell had more to say along those lines.
The Good Place star told one critic that there's confusion around the premise and she knows she's "not qualified to teach" about race. "Its being looked at like book intended to teach kids abt race, which its not at all, &I am also not qualified to teach on. Its a book abt kids finding things in common, being inclusive, being kind, &being uniquely themselves."
More exchanges ensued:
Bell noted in the same back-and-forth, "Kids books are written 2yrs in advance, and the idea of a purple person was to give kids a road map to not being as divisive politically as their parents are."
To get the full picture and decide for yourself, here’s a video of Jeremy Lin reading The World Needs More Purple People:
“Wow, what a great story,” Lin concludes at the end. “Remember, the world needs people like you—just be as you are.”
See original story below.
Kristen Bell has been slammed for writing a children’s book that promotes being colorblind instead of recognizing actual people of different races and ethnicities.
The book, The World Needs More Purple People, focuses on a “purple person” who “looks for similarities before differences.”
In a video posted by the Associated Press, the actress and author said, “The world loves debate, I do, and debate talks about differences. It’s layering difference upon difference upon difference, ‘I think this,’ ‘no, you should think this,’ it’s just constantly pointing out divisive narratives.”
She continued, “Our kids are absorbing all of that and maybe we needed a bit of a road map to show them that it’s actually great to start with similarities first.”
“Hopefully that will allow kids to have a little bit more of a social identity and be able to see similarities and through that have their mind opened by some people who they thought were different.”
While it appears Bell was using the book as a call for unity, many haven’t been able to connect with her efforts as some wonder why she chose to make up a race of people rather than spotlight real people and their life experiences.
On Thursday, Bell also appeared in an anti-racism PSA, which wasn’t received completely positively. Sarah Paulson, Julianne Moore, Justin Theroux, Stanley Tucci, Aaron Paul, Mark Duplass, Kesha, and many more Hollywood names also shared statements in the clip.
