Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland are among a collection of children’s stories that have been given a university trigger warning for “white supremacy”.

York St John University has added the disclaimer to a collection of historical children’s books, including works by JM Barrie, Lewis Carroll and Jules Verne.

Readers are warned that classic tales for children may contain offensive examples of “white supremacy”. Adventure stories and well-known novels written in the 19th and early 20th centuries are likely to include “colonialist narratives”, the message adds.

It warns that the vocabulary and illustrations in these works may appear “racist” and “upsetting and offensive” to modern audiences.
York St John states in the disclaimer for the Rees-Williams Collection of Children’s Literature that it will continue to care for the library to maintain “evidence of the racist marginalisation”.

Around 3,000 items sit in the restricted-access collection given to the university by a former librarian, which contains works including Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter and Wendy, and Around the World in Eighty Days.

An online disclaimer for the collection states: “Within the 150 years of children’s writing which is represented in the collection, there is a widespread occurrence of colonialist narratives which centre white supremacy, and racist and orientalist methods of both fictional and historical storytelling.

“As such, it is possible, if not likely, that items consulted from the collection will include language and visual imagery which is racist, and many people may find their contents upsetting and offensive.”
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