Yet another disturbing story about the state of our culture right now:
School districts from Pennsylvania to Wyoming are bowing to pressure from conservative groups to purge library books about LGBTQ issues and people of color, Axios’ Russell Contreras reports.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, told Axios: “I’ve worked for this office for 20 years, and we’ve never had this volume of challenges come in such a short time.”
Librarians are using the hashtag #FReadom to fight book bans.
Why it matters: As the nation’s public schools become more diverse, conflicts over what books students can access — or must read — are posing new questions about free speech and the purpose of education.
Zoom out: A pivotal midterm election year, COVID frustrations and a backlash against efforts to call out systemic racism are turning public schools into ground zero in the culture wars.
Zoom in: In Virginia, just over an hour south of D.C., the Spotsylvania County School Board in November ordered staff to remove “sexually explicit” books from libraries after a parent raised concerns about their LGBTQ themes.
Texas school districts are scrambling to review and ban some library books after state Rep. Matt Krause, a [former — Updated] candidate for state attorney general, asked school superintendents to confirm whether any books on his list of 850 titles were on their shelves.
From the left: Some progressive activists have sought to pull literary staples from school syllabi under the argument that in today’s context, they perpetuate racist or sexist constructs.
Liberal-leaning parents also have called for books to be banned over the use of dated racial epithets and themes of “white saviorism.”
The ALA’s Caldwell-Stone says such challenges are sporadic and nothing compared to the current conservative-backed efforts.
From the right: Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told Axios parents want educators to listen to parents’ concerns and not force certain subjects on children.
She said parents have the right to challenge books from Black scholars like Ibram X. Kendi if they see it as indoctrination.
Justice says Moms for Liberty has 70,000 members in 33 states and plans to expand.
The bottom line: John L. Jackson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said the fight over books is a microcosm of our political divisions.
Yes, there are moves on the left to remove some books from the curriculum and I can’t say I’m in favor of that either. I do think classic literature that contains racist language should be taught in context and be used as a way to open dialog about the issues, but just as a general rule I’m opposed to this concept. (It is, of course, fine to choose different books to teach in schools — times change and there’s nothing sacred about any specific work of literature. but banning from libraries? No. )
But regardless of what’s happening on the left, it’s NOTHING compared to what these right wing zealots are doing all over the country. I would register my shock that they would deny their kids a decent education but they won’t even get themselves vaccinated against a deadly disease so this is child’s play.
The idea that these people are opposed to “indoctrination” is hilarious.