You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about censorship and book banning.
Honestly, I don’t know what this article is trying to say. It has something to do with censoring school science textbooks, but it seems to be anti-evolution and anti-creationism at the same time. And what do Rush Limbaugh’s attitudes toward sea turtles have to do with anything?
University of Wisconsin removes bibles from guest rooms after complaint. I’m surprised Reince Priebus isn’t calling for a Republican boycott of the entire Badger State.
A Virginia consumer is being sued over a negative review she wrote on Yelp. These lines from the article make me think the reporter has chosen sides: “The First Amendment allows you to speak freely and express yourself however you wish. But in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it’s becoming apparent you should tread lightly when tossing around negative reviews of local businesses on Yelp – especially if they’re not true.” Is there anything in the article to suggest the consumer’s claims are untrue, you ask? No. No, there isn’t.
The Color Purple survived a 3-2 vote by a school board in Brunswick, North Carolina last year, but the ACLU is digging into what was behind the attempt to ban it. The money quote: “Some Brunswick County officials have suggested that seeking to ban ‘The Color Purple’ may just be a first step in a much larger campaign to purge public school curriculum.” I’m not the only one to see organized political forces behind the recent spate of parental challenges, and I’m happy the ACLU sees the threat as well … one more reason to continue my membership!
Something to keep an eye on: censorship of computer games. Why? For the same reason most of us now include graphic novels and comic books in our definition of literature, and fight attempts to ban Maus as hard as we fight attempts to ban The Color Purple. It’s but a hop, skip, and a jump to computer games, no?
North Carolina again: Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, taught in a 10th-grade honors English class at a Boone high school, is being challenged by a parent who says the book is “filth” and “despicable.” Click here to read Allende’s spirited letter to the Watauga County Board of Education. So far, the school board has resisted the challenge (yay for them!), but the battle is not yet over.
Heh:
More here, or click on the graphic.
In my last YCRT! diary I listed some of the books banned to prisoners at Guantanamo. On that list was John Grisham’s The Innocent Man. Grisham protested the ban in a very public way, with an op-ed in the New York Times. By all accounts the op-ed embarrassed the Obama administration, and the novel was unbanned. Many other works of literature, however — seemingly for the most capricious of reasons — remain banned at Guantanamo.
I don’t know why this story popped up in my weekly Google search for “banned books,” but I love this quote: “We have audience members that come to each show — they must love the literature, as they’ve already seen us naked!” Right. And I’m equally certain that when those audience members get home, they open the latest issue of Playboy to read the articles.
Um, is Playboy still even a thing?