By Karen Graham
Published January 31, 2022
Banned book display. Source - Charles Hackey. CC SA 2.0.
Around the country, parents, politicians, school board officials, and activists are challenging the content of books at a pace not seen in decades. In all probability, the effort is being fueled by an attempt to rewrite history.
Rich Barlow, writing a commentary for WBUR, quotes President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been president for six months when he gave the 1953 commencement address at Dartmouth College.
“Don’t join the book burners,” he told the Ivy League graduates. “Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.”
Eisenhower was correct then, and his words are just as correct and meaningful today, especially when the American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.
“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.
Groups today are not going bonkers just because a book might have sexually explicit material in it, but now their list includes books about racism, or about LGBTQ themes considered offensive to some parents’ and politicians’ sense of propriety.
Book burning will not get rid of history.
Banning books has become a political weapon
And somehow, the tactics behind the calls for banning books and the venues where they play out have changed. It has become politicized, with the MAGA crowd leading the way on a war on truth.
“The politicization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
Let’s look at Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has decried “pornography” in public schools and he’s made conservative-minded education a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. Last week he unveiled a “Parental Bill of Rights.”
And while Texas state Rep. Matt Krause, from Fort Worth, has a 16-page list of books that he says will make students feel uncomfortable, Axios contends the move to ban these books stems from fears over Texas schools teaching critical race theory (CRT) and other issues related to race and sexuality.
And Texas is certainly not the only state doing this. If you really look into this book-banning situation, just about every state with a Republican governor and majority GOP legislature is doing the same thing.
And the list of books is growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – voted the best book of the past 125 years in a survey of readers conducted by The New York Times Book Review is a frequent title on banned book lists.
But in today’s political climate, efforts to ban books are more sweeping. Perhaps no book has been targeted more vigorously than “The 1619 Project,” a best seller about slavery in America that has drawn wide support among many historians and Black leaders.
What is the 1619 Project? The project explored the history of slavery in the United States and was released to coincide with the anniversary of a ship carrying the first enslaved Africans to the English colonies.
But, as I have written a number of times – No one can rewrite history, however, we can learn from history. And books are precious beyond words. Banning a book will not make the truth disappear, nor will it alter history.
And somehow, the tactics behind the calls for banning books and the venues where they play out have changed. It has become politicized, with the MAGA crowd leading the way on a war on truth.
“The politicization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
Let’s look at Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has decried “pornography” in public schools and he’s made conservative-minded education a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. Last week he unveiled a “Parental Bill of Rights.”
And while Texas state Rep. Matt Krause, from Fort Worth, has a 16-page list of books that he says will make students feel uncomfortable, Axios contends the move to ban these books stems from fears over Texas schools teaching critical race theory (CRT) and other issues related to race and sexuality.
And Texas is certainly not the only state doing this. If you really look into this book-banning situation, just about every state with a Republican governor and majority GOP legislature is doing the same thing.
And the list of books is growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – voted the best book of the past 125 years in a survey of readers conducted by The New York Times Book Review is a frequent title on banned book lists.
But in today’s political climate, efforts to ban books are more sweeping. Perhaps no book has been targeted more vigorously than “The 1619 Project,” a best seller about slavery in America that has drawn wide support among many historians and Black leaders.
What is the 1619 Project? The project explored the history of slavery in the United States and was released to coincide with the anniversary of a ship carrying the first enslaved Africans to the English colonies.
But, as I have written a number of times – No one can rewrite history, however, we can learn from history. And books are precious beyond words. Banning a book will not make the truth disappear, nor will it alter history.
Karen Graham is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for environmental news. Karen's view of what is happening in our world is colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in man's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.
Georgia pastor crushes right-wing book bans and CRT hysteria in less than 30 seconds
Sarah K. Burris
January 29, 2022
Rev. Matt Laney, the senior pastor at Virginia-Highland Church in Georgia, created a TikTok video bringing down the white fragility argument that comes from those attempting to ban so-called critical race theory, which isn't taught outside of law schools.
Many commented on a photo of a table of banned books that showcased some of the children's volumes that racist Republicans are blocking from school and community libraries. The table included books like the Holocaust book Maus, but it also included books like The Lorax, which few knew was once banned after the logging industry thought it portrayed them in a bad light. Fahrenheit 451 was also frequently banned, even though the book is about extremists banning books and burning them. The Harry Potter series was protested and banned for showing sorcery and witches, which Republicans have tied to Satanism.
In his video, Rev. Laney held up a page with text which appeared to explain that children who feel emotions after reading about atrocities aren't as bad as helicopter parents want the world to believe.
"They are not being harmed," said Rev. Laney. "They are stretching and growing into compassionate, decent people."
See his video below:
By JON SKOLNIK
Sarah K. Burris
January 29, 2022
Rev. Matt Laney, the senior pastor at Virginia-Highland Church in Georgia, created a TikTok video bringing down the white fragility argument that comes from those attempting to ban so-called critical race theory, which isn't taught outside of law schools.
Many commented on a photo of a table of banned books that showcased some of the children's volumes that racist Republicans are blocking from school and community libraries. The table included books like the Holocaust book Maus, but it also included books like The Lorax, which few knew was once banned after the logging industry thought it portrayed them in a bad light. Fahrenheit 451 was also frequently banned, even though the book is about extremists banning books and burning them. The Harry Potter series was protested and banned for showing sorcery and witches, which Republicans have tied to Satanism.
In his video, Rev. Laney held up a page with text which appeared to explain that children who feel emotions after reading about atrocities aren't as bad as helicopter parents want the world to believe.
"They are not being harmed," said Rev. Laney. "They are stretching and growing into compassionate, decent people."
See his video below:
Book banning fever heats up in red states
Schools boards and city officials in
Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee want to purge "objectionable" books
By JON SKOLNIK
SALON
PUBLISHED JANUARY 26, 2022
PUBLISHED JANUARY 26, 2022
Display of banned books or censored books at Books Inc independent bookstore in Alameda, California, October 16, 2021.
(Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Amid the GOP's national campaign to purge "leftist ideology" from public schools, local officials across the nation are now banning certain books that deal with race, sex, and gender, from school shelves.
On Thursday, a Missouri school board voted 4-3 to formally pull Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" from high school libraries in the district. The book, which tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression, includes passages that describe incest and child molestation. Central to the book's premise is the narrator's struggle with society's white standards of beauty, which cause her to develop an inferiority complex around the color of her skin.
Wentzville School Board member Sandy Garber told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she voted against the book to shield her children from obscenity. "By all means, go buy the book for your child," Garber said. "I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see."
The decision comes despite pushback from district staff and residents, who after a committee review advised the board that banning the novel would "infringe on the rights of parents and students to decide for themselves if they want to read this work of literature."
Kris Kleindienst, owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, told a Fox affiliate that the board's vote sweeps important discussions of race and sexual abuse under the rug.
"Kids are growing and developing and should have access to as much material as is out there," Kleindienst said. "It shouldn't be the decision of a few parents what kids should read."
RELATED: "Moms for Liberty" group demands schools ban books with "sexy" pictures of seahorses
The book banning fever has reached a pitch in Mississippi this week as well.
Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is currently engaged in a budgetary standoff with Madison County Library System. McGee is attempting to deprive the school board of $100,000 in funding because the Republican wants to see a spate of LGBTQ-themed books banned from school libraries.
Tonja Johnson, executive director for the Madison County Library System, told The Mississippi Free Press that McGee is withholding the money due to his own personal beliefs. "He explained his opposition to what he called 'homosexual materials' in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there," Johnson said. "He told me that the library can serve whoever we wanted, but that he only serves the great Lord above."
According to the Free Press, McGee specifically demanded the immediate removal of the "The Queer Bible," an essay collection feating the voices of queer figures like Elton John, Munroe Bergdorf, Tan France, George Michael and Susan Sontag.
And in Tennessee, the Williamson County Schools committee has also joined the censorship fold, imposing restrictions on several different books in light of conservative backlash.
After a review of 31 different texts, the committee on Tuesday "removed one book" from the school shelves and "restricted seven others," according to The Tennessean. The committee specifically removed "Walk Two Moons," a 1994 fiction novel written by Sharon Creech. The book centers on the story of a 13-year-old girl with Native American heritage who is reckoning with the disappearance of her mother while traveling from Ohio to Idaho.
The books were reportedly first called into question by the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a right-wing advocacy group that advocates for "parents' rights" in education. The committee concluded that the text contained "objectionable content," which according to Moms for Liberty, included "stick figures hanging, cursing and miscarriage, hysterectomy/stillborn and screaming during labor."
RELATED: Ta-Nehisi Coates on banning books: "That's no longer education, that's indoctrination"
The bans in Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee are part of a larger right-wing movement to crack down on books with "objectionable" works often featuring Black and LGTBQ+ themes. According to the American Library Association (ALA), between June and September of last year, the U.S. saw "155 unique censorship incidents" in cities and districts across the nation.
"We're seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges in the fall of 2021," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, last year. "In my twenty years with ALA, I can't recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.
Jon Skolnik is a staff writer at Salon. His work has appeared in Current Affairs, The Baffler, and The New York Daily News.
Amid the GOP's national campaign to purge "leftist ideology" from public schools, local officials across the nation are now banning certain books that deal with race, sex, and gender, from school shelves.
On Thursday, a Missouri school board voted 4-3 to formally pull Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" from high school libraries in the district. The book, which tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression, includes passages that describe incest and child molestation. Central to the book's premise is the narrator's struggle with society's white standards of beauty, which cause her to develop an inferiority complex around the color of her skin.
Wentzville School Board member Sandy Garber told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she voted against the book to shield her children from obscenity. "By all means, go buy the book for your child," Garber said. "I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see."
The decision comes despite pushback from district staff and residents, who after a committee review advised the board that banning the novel would "infringe on the rights of parents and students to decide for themselves if they want to read this work of literature."
Kris Kleindienst, owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, told a Fox affiliate that the board's vote sweeps important discussions of race and sexual abuse under the rug.
"Kids are growing and developing and should have access to as much material as is out there," Kleindienst said. "It shouldn't be the decision of a few parents what kids should read."
RELATED: "Moms for Liberty" group demands schools ban books with "sexy" pictures of seahorses
The book banning fever has reached a pitch in Mississippi this week as well.
Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is currently engaged in a budgetary standoff with Madison County Library System. McGee is attempting to deprive the school board of $100,000 in funding because the Republican wants to see a spate of LGBTQ-themed books banned from school libraries.
Tonja Johnson, executive director for the Madison County Library System, told The Mississippi Free Press that McGee is withholding the money due to his own personal beliefs. "He explained his opposition to what he called 'homosexual materials' in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there," Johnson said. "He told me that the library can serve whoever we wanted, but that he only serves the great Lord above."
According to the Free Press, McGee specifically demanded the immediate removal of the "The Queer Bible," an essay collection feating the voices of queer figures like Elton John, Munroe Bergdorf, Tan France, George Michael and Susan Sontag.
And in Tennessee, the Williamson County Schools committee has also joined the censorship fold, imposing restrictions on several different books in light of conservative backlash.
After a review of 31 different texts, the committee on Tuesday "removed one book" from the school shelves and "restricted seven others," according to The Tennessean. The committee specifically removed "Walk Two Moons," a 1994 fiction novel written by Sharon Creech. The book centers on the story of a 13-year-old girl with Native American heritage who is reckoning with the disappearance of her mother while traveling from Ohio to Idaho.
The books were reportedly first called into question by the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a right-wing advocacy group that advocates for "parents' rights" in education. The committee concluded that the text contained "objectionable content," which according to Moms for Liberty, included "stick figures hanging, cursing and miscarriage, hysterectomy/stillborn and screaming during labor."
RELATED: Ta-Nehisi Coates on banning books: "That's no longer education, that's indoctrination"
The bans in Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee are part of a larger right-wing movement to crack down on books with "objectionable" works often featuring Black and LGTBQ+ themes. According to the American Library Association (ALA), between June and September of last year, the U.S. saw "155 unique censorship incidents" in cities and districts across the nation.
"We're seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges in the fall of 2021," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, last year. "In my twenty years with ALA, I can't recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.
Jon Skolnik is a staff writer at Salon. His work has appeared in Current Affairs, The Baffler, and The New York Daily News.
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