Scholastic has pulled a book by “Captain Underpants” author Dav Pilkey that the publisher says “perpetuates passive racism.”
“The Adventures of Ook and Gluk,” published in 2010, served as a spinoff of sorts from his popular “Captain Underpants” children’s series: The two main characters from “Underpants” are listed as the author and illustrator of the book, during which they sought to clear up “science facts” with a story about time-traveling cavemen who train at Master Wong’s School of Kung-Fu.
Pilkey said he created the book to “showcase diversity, equality and non-violent conflict resolution” using “principles found in Chinese philosophy” but had recently been alerted that it “also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery.”
“I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this,” he wrote Friday in a statement. … continued