The reason for starting this petition is because we should not be passing on racist language to our children. I work in a book store and we are constantly receiving new Mr. Men books in which Mr. Uppity is still a staunch member of the series, despite its deeply rooted racist meaning. We throw these copies in the bin and hope that other book store owners are doing the same.

These days the term uppity is often used as a synonym for "stuck up", "pretentious" or "conceited." But the roots of the word are far more specific and racist. Uppity was a term racist southerners used for black people who didn't fall in to place or acted like they didn't know their place. Basically, any black person who overtly stood up to racism. The most liked and most disliked definition at Urban Dictionary notes that "uppity" is often followed by the n-word. It's 2020, do we not think there might be a better word to describe someone as pretentious?! A word that doesn't have such white privilege attached to it?

Mr. Uppity is a bean shape Mr. Man with brown color skin. Is it just a coincidence that the ONLY brown colored Mr. Men character given that name also has historical racist connotations attached to its moniker? There are numerous lists of terms circulating on the internet about what has racist origins and yet people remain oblivious to these terms.

In an article on The Guardian website they discuss the Black Writers Guild, which major black British authors created in response to being severely under represented in the publishing industry. In an open letter the authors state: “We are deeply concerned that British publishers are raising awareness of racial inequality without significantly addressing their own,” said the letter, in the wake of a slew of Black Lives Matter-related social media posts from the publishers.

HarperCollins chief executive Charlie Redmayne said: “The guild is right in suggesting that action will ‘help nurture a thriving literary culture in this country’ and we support that aim – access to our literary culture is not equal, and that should not be the case. This is something all of us in this industry must work together in partnership to correct.”

So HarperCollins, if you really mean what you said in the news and in your black-squared social media posts saying "we stand in solidarity. We believe in the power of words and stories",  start by REMOVING MR. UPPITY FROM YOUR SERIES OF OUTDATED MR. MEN BOOKS. We should not be teaching children terms which are steeped in racism.