You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post about book banning, featuring news and opinion roundups, personal rants, and reviews.
YCRT! Comment
Recent white-wing* book-banning attempts follow such a consistent pattern, news reports take on a depressing sameness. This time around, You Can’t Read That! will concentrate on reports of people fighting back against the forces of darkness: students, teachers, librarians, enlightened parents.
YCRT! News Roundup
I know I just said this post would concentrate on news of people fighting back against book banning, but I can’t ignore these two reports:
An old-fashioned book burning! Pastor Greg Locke’s zealots set fire to sacred millennial texts like Harry Potter and Twilight. This is the same Greg Locke who’s threatening to reveal names and addresses of congregants he calls witches, à la Salem.
Think they’ll stop w/K-12? Think again. Listen to this asshole:
I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.
— Dan Patrick, February 15, 2022
Now for the fighting back, as promised.
A youth group is distributing hundreds of copies of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Art Spiegelman’s Maus in response to Republican-led attacks on those and other books about racism in schools nationwide.
After The Bluest Eye is banned by Wentzville schools, a nonprofit is accepting donations to give copies away.
A Texas school district won’t be removing a Michelle Obama biography after a parent objected to it. I love the adult perspective on display here:
“The inquiry cited was submitted by one parent of the over 89,500 children the school district serves,” Katy ISD Communications Manager Maria Corrales DiPetta wrote in an email.
You know, it doesn’t hurt to look into book-banners’ backgrounds. A Missouri man who sought to ban several LGBTQ books from schools for depicting sexual content is now facing a felony charge of second-degree child molestation.
Tennessee parents and teachers are pushing back against the banning of Maus.
If you can’t read the paywalled WaPo op-ed, The Furor Over ‘Inappropriate’ Books in Schools Is Frightening. But There’s a Thrilling Subtext, here’s the “thrilling subtext”:
“This book-banishing fervor is frightening. But for me, it has a thrilling subtext: Books are still deeply powerful things.”
Two students have sued a suburban St. Louis school district over its decision to remove books from school libraries.
On The Daily Show, LeVar Burton urged kids to read banned books.
As Book Bans Spread, Suburban Moms Who Oppose Them Are Fighting Back:
“Right before Gender Queer was ripped from our school’s shelves, one of my children came out as nonbinary, and Gender Queer is an incredibly important book for them to read, to get comfort from, to help understand how they were feeling and what they’re going through developmentally,” said Jen Cousins, a mom in Orange County, Florida.
NAACP branch pledges to help Haywood chapter in fight against book censorship in schools.
Paywalled Washington Post op-ed: A Surprising Poll About GOP Book Bans Should Light a Fire under Democrats. The poll:
“… 83 percent of Americans say books should never be banned for criticizing U.S. history; 85 percent oppose banning them for airing ideas you disagree with; and 87 percent oppose banning them for discussing race or depicting slavery.”
Here’s a non-paywalled Wonkette post on the same poll: Americans MASSIVELY AGAINST Banning School Library Books? But We Heard … Aw F*ck It
Another paywalled WaPo article (hope you can read it): These Students Helped Overturn a Book Ban. Now They’re Pushing for a More Inclusive Education
Last, and just for fun …
How To Report Subversive Books And Teachers in YOUR School
To Sir Governor,
I sawe my Daughter’s Teachere Mrs. Johnson in a Conference with the Devyl and Many Demones and Karl Marxe was There and He Spoke Of Lascivious Thynges and Seizing The Means of Productyn As Well As Bottoms and Bosomes. I saw Beelzebub Himself and He Laughed At the Proceedings and Ate All The Dodgeballs For Gym Class. Please Burne Mrs. Johnson to Deathe for Her Wytchcraft, She Teaches Social Studies.
Yourse,
Mrs. Verna Brixton Blormton Barbon
Dungannon, VA
*White-wing: not a typo.