Another Children’s Book Pulled: Why ‘Captain Underpants’ Spinoff Was Deemed Racist

Another children’s book has been halted from distribution after it was recognized by publisher Scholastic for perpetuating “passive racism.”

The book by author Dav Pilkey is “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future,” a spinoff of the children’s series “Captain Underpants.” The story follows two time-traveling cavemen who train at Master Wong’s School of Kung Fu while they work to clear up scientific facts, USA Today reported.

Scholastic said in a statement that Pilkey has issued his full support for the cease in the distribution of the book, which was published in 2010.

“We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake,” it continued. “Scholastic has removed the book from our websites, stopped fulfillment of any orders [domestically or abroad], contacted our retail partners to explain why this book is no longer available, and sought a return of all inventory.

“We will take steps to inform schools and libraries who may still have this title in circulation of our decision to withdraw it from publication,” the company added.

In a statement published on YouTube, Pilkey said he created the book “to showcase diversity, equality, and non-violent conflict resolution.”

But continued by saying, “it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery. I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends, and family and to all Asian people.

“I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism is harmful to everyone. I apologize and pledge to do better,” he added.

Pilkey said that all of his advance and royalties from sales of the book would be donated to nonprofits including We Need Diverse Books, The AAPI, and TheaterWorks USA for free books, art supplies, and theater for children in underserved communities and organizations that are designed to stop hatred against Asians.

Pilkey is best known for his “Captain Underpants” book series which follows two young boys on a number of adventures to save the world with the help of Mr. Krupp, a grumpy teacher who transforms into Captain Underpants at the snap of a finger, USA Today said. The book was made into an animated film in 2017 with Ed Helms starring as Captain Underpants.

This is not the first time this year that a children’s book has been pulled for featuring racist stereotypes. Six Dr. Seuss titles will no longer be published due to racist imagery.

According to Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the management company behind the author’s legacy, the books, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer,” “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”

The decision to pull the Dr. Seuss books was made with the help of a panel of experts, including educators, that decided that the imagery in the books was racist and insensitive to Blacks and Asians, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said.