for Roman

For those of you who doesn't know, I'm attending uni. I'm trying to become a teacher for the older pupils in English and history. A part of our introductory course is ethics though the book that were supposed to tell about this is a bit strange. Beneath follows some examples from the book (american by origin) they are translated, badly, by yours truly. I've only read the book in Swedish.

Mind, none of these quotes are set as 'bad examples' in any way.

"Jazz is dangerous for our youths, there are three facts that supports this theory;
-it's made by niggers
-it's made by drunk niggers
-it's made by drunk niggers living in bordellas."

"They are not destructive, per se, actually they're very constructive. They're trying to build a world free from jews."

"It is known that in ancient times the Egyptians were birght and knowledgeful. Today, though, the entire african race is stupid."

"Since we know that human contact is important for children and their development we make sure that adults shower with the children. In the back of the preschool we also have a 'hidden room' in which sexual games may be played." - About a preschool that doesn't get named.

Is this ethics?

That is strange.

I would take this up with your teacher/professor.

What is the name of the book?

... I could have SWORN I already read the "children and adults should shower together" bit somewhere...

(Kind of hoping that this is just a case of a particularly trippy professor trying to drive a point home )

Is it being presented as a book on American ethics, or an example of a racist history?

I think its trying to point out that ethics are a prodcut of your biases and perspective rather than an absolute --> ie if you think that black people are sub-human then its ethical to treat them as such... Although others who don't think that blacks are subhuman would find this unethical and down right offensive but there you go...

I'll give the authors the benefit of the doubt and assume that somewhere along the way there was a Hungarian/English Phrasebook kind of glitch.

Have you tried running a Google search on the book in connection with racism?

It might provide some clarification.

What is the context of those quotes? I don't understand what the book is trying to teach.

For those wondering why I'm mentioned in the topic, I was on MSN when Mynona first read said book. I was, as her, quite baffled, and figured it would be a good topic to post. A bit of badgering later, and this topic was born.

The problem with googling the book is that it has no mention of its original name or publishing house it the US. So, all we have is Swedish sources. Also, if I remember that MSN convo correctly, the book is from the 1970s.

Now, the question that follows is that if the book was published in Sweden in the 1970s, when was it published in the US?

Myn, could you translate the name of the book, more or less? It's mostly useless, I think, as I doubt the book has the exact same name as it had in the US, but it's still worth a try.

"ethics - do they exist?"

though that's a very strange and clumsy translation so I don't think that it's the correct one. No author is given it just says 'published by the department of education'

Judging from the title, I'm wondering if Spiky is correct. Hopefully, the readers understand that the vast majority of Americans would be totally appalled at those statements!

Would that be the case if the book was written in, say, the fifties?

I'm betting even earlier, such as the thirties or forties. Some really ugly attitudes and beliefs back then. And statements like those would have started out with something like, "Of course, everyone knows..." Well, maybe not the statement about the daycare center. That was just weird, no matter what era we're talking about!

That one wasn't weird, it was scary. Very scary.