24020: Benson (reply) RE: 23012: Burnham: (news/review) Toronto Star: Voodoo Handbooks (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Legrace Benson <legrace@twcny.rr.com>

>From LeGrace Benson(Comment)  The Stephanie Earls guest col. In Toronto Star
is a clear example of how an uninformed person can make a wide swath of
damage with just a few words. Ms Earls is not doing this piece of work by
herself, of course, as she has purchased these items from companies that are
equally uninformed. The first time I saw the St. Martins Press book was a
shocker since it was to have been in the gift shop of the Detroit Museum of
African Art during the time that the Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou was on
exhibition.  It was NOT in the gift shop, as an alert and informed curator
caught the shipment before it was put on the shelves.  I have since seen the
book elsewhere, and in fact am making a collection of these offensive works.
The latest I found in an otherwise politically correct bookstore here in
Ithaca:  "Voodoo[sic]Doll Kit from Running Press (they should have run away
from this).  The tiny box contains a green "voodoo" doll ( it is most
certainly NOT a Vodou doll),"... pins, and a 32-page introduction to voodoo
spells and techniques. So get out there and stick it to 'em"  The doll is
marked with pseudo-Vodou veve and carries a tap that says it is made with
all new material and can be washed and line dried.     No matter what your
beliefs and opinions are about Vodou, this sort of thing would not be
tolerated in the US were it to be a take-off or send up of Christianity of
Judaism and there would probably be a hue and a cry were Islam to be
presented this way in our bookstores. This attitude is a factor
contributing, I believe, to our finding it so easy to tolerate an
immigration policy and a tardiness of aid that are in every respect
reprehensible.  These "Voodoo" Kits and Dolls should provide a sharp
exemplification of reasons for the resentment experienced by Haitians during
the first US Occupation