Kristen Bell faces criticism for her book, The World Needs More Purple People
The 2020 book is about a purple person who apparently "looks for similarities before differences.
Kristen Bell’s call for unity is being perceived as a myopic act. (Source: kristenannebells/Instagram)
The Good Place actor, Kristen Bell has found herself at the receiving end of criticism after her book, The World Needs More Purple People is said to be promoting colour-blindness. The 2020 book is about a purple person who apparently “looks for similarities before differences.”
In a video shared by the Associated Press, the actor 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. 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.” She added, “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.”
Kristen Bell has written her first children’s book ‘The World Needs More Purple People’ about a purple person, who looks for similarities before differences. pic.twitter.com/xKHe7J1gpG
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) June 12, 2020
However, this call for unity is being perceived as myopic, especially in a time when the debate on racism has taken centrestage. People soon shared their misgivings on Twitter, calling the actor out. One user wrote, “Someone tell Kristen Bell the colorblind thing was helpful in like 1971. The big plan to get white folks to stop cracking ni**** over the head by saying ‘wait! They’re not black. They’re PEOPLE.’.” Another added, “Now why, in a world full of actual people of actual colors, would Kristen Bell need to make up purple people to teach children about living in a multicultural society? And why does she think she has the range to do that anyway? Most White people don’t know anyone but Whites.”
Someone tell Kristen Bell the colorblind thing was helpful in like 1971.
The big plan to get white folks to stop cracking niggas over the head by saying ‘wait! They’re not black. They’re PEOPLE.’
— Trill-Scott Heron (@stevehowze) June 12, 2020
Now why, in a world full of actual people of actual colors, would Kristen Bell need to make up purple people to teach children about living in a multicultural society? And why does she think she has the range to do that anyway? Most White people don’t know anyone but Whites.
— Musings on History (@MusingsHistory) June 12, 2020
Some reasons why this isn’t a useful framework for discussions of prejudice and inclusion and is, in fact, not good representation at all. We hope that @KristenBell reads this and takes it into consideration.
AdvertisementReason 1: There are no purple people. https://t.co/cKiQfb7sQU
— Writing the Other (@writingtheother) June 12, 2020
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