{"id":34582,"date":"2024-05-31T09:48:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T16:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=34582"},"modified":"2024-05-31T10:05:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:05:51","slug":"you-cant-read-that-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=34582","title":{"rendered":"You Can&#8217;t Read That!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post about book banning and censorship. YCRT! features news and opinion roundups, commentary, history, and reviews.<\/p>\n<h5><em>YCRT! News &amp; Opinion Roundup<\/em><\/h5>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet tw-align-center\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">When I\u2019m Secretary of State, I will ?BURN?all books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children. MAGA. America First?? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/m8waKi3yhP\">pic.twitter.com\/m8waKi3yhP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ValentinaForSOS\/status\/1754964444776443937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2024\/05\/conservative-parent-activism-public-school\/678309\/?utm_campaign=one-story-to-read-today&amp;utm_content=20240507&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=One+Story+to+Read+Today\"><strong>Reagan-Era Classroom Battles Previewed Today\u2019s War on \u201cWoke\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (The Atlantic)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">While researching my book on the latest political wars over public education, I came across a 1981 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1981\/05\/17\/us\/parents-groups-purging-schools-of-humanist-books-and-classes.html\" data-event-element=\"inline link\"><em>New York Times<\/em> article<\/a> that sounded as if it might have been printed this year. It described a coalition of suburban residents who, \u201carmed with sophisticated lobbying techniques,\u201d were fighting to \u201cremove books from libraries\u201d and replace history syllabi with \u201ctexts that emphasize the positive side of America\u2019s past.\u201d The article documented efforts by parents\u2019 groups across the country to \u201ccleanse their local schools of materials and teaching methods they consider antifamily, anti-American and anti-God.\u201d Here was a tale of conservative activists waging a national assault on school lessons more than four decades ago, though that earlier generation applied a different label to the threat it perceived than activists do now: secular humanism.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/a-brief-history-of-the-grand-old-american-tradition-of-banning-books\/?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Weekly%2C%20February%203&amp;utm_term=lithub_weekly_master_list\">A Brief History of the Grand Old American Tradition of Banning Books<\/a><\/strong> (Literary Hub)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">In the late 1930s, the children\u2019s book <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/132\/9780448456942\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Story of Ferdinand<\/em><\/a>, about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight a matador, was interpreted as carrying a pacifist political message. But in a whirl of confusion, it was marked as both pro-Franco and anti-Franco\u2014and also as \u201ccommunist, anarchist, manic-depressive, and schizoid,\u201d according to an analysis of children\u2019s book censorship in the <em>Elementary School Journal<\/em> in 1970. In other words, everyone saw what they wanted to see.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/article\/2024\/may\/06\/john-oliver-libraries\"><strong>John Oliver on Public Libraries: &#8220;Another Front in the Ongoing Culture War&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (The Guardian)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cYou do get the sense that people who want to censor these books can have no real idea of what\u2019s inside them or, indeed, if they\u2019re even at the libraries they\u2019re protesting at all,\u201d Oliver said, citing a case in Idaho where activists demanded that more 400 books be removed from the library, even though it already didn\u2019t have them. \u201cAs far as protests go, that\u2019s about as meaningful as marching to the Hollywood sign to demand that Frankie Muniz return his Oscar for Schindler\u2019s List,\u201d he joked. \u201cHe\u2019s not there, he wasn\u2019t in that, and the very fact that you\u2019re protesting this tells me you\u2019re probably not familiar with the material.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/popular.info\/p\/pressed-by-moms-for-liberty-florida\">Pressed by Moms for Liberty, Florida School District Adds Clothing to Illustrations in Classic Children\u2019s Books<\/a><\/strong> (Popular Information)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Stephana Ferrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project said that Moms for Liberty pushed the district to \u201cdeface an illustrator\u2019s work to suit their sensibilities.\u201d She said the group \u201cregularly misrepresents the literary works of award-winning authors as pornography, and now silly, naked goblin butts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wonkette.com\/p\/florida-book-bans-have-really-gone\">Florida Book Bans Have Really Gone Overboard if Even Ron Desantis Noticed<\/a><\/strong> (Wonkette)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">It\u2019s cute the way DeSantis is claiming that he\u2019s not banning books, he\u2019s giving parents the power to object to the books being in classrooms and libraries and using the law to then force schools to remove those books permanently. But it\u2019s not a ban! Don\u2019t you dare call it a ban!<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wvtf.org\/news\/2024-04-11\/hanover-county-supervisors-censor-commendation-for-girl-scout-who-fought-censorship\">Hanover County Supervisors Censor Commendation for Girl Scout Who Fought Censorship<\/a><\/strong> (Radio WVTF\/Roanoke VA)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Hanover County Board of Supervisors spent their Wednesday afternoon meeting approving language to honor a handful of Girl Scouts for completing their Gold Award projects, among other items. But one Girl Scout, whose project was designed to fight what she sees as censorship in the county\u2019s school system, had her commendation \u201camended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/conservative-book-banners-are-redacting-entire-textbook-chapters-in-texas-schools\/\">Conservative Book Banners Are Redacting Entire Textbook Chapters in Texas Schools<\/a><\/strong> (The Mary Sue)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Recently, the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District trustees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/education-news\/2024\/05\/09\/487046\/cy-fair-isd-trustees-vote-to-omit-textbook-chapters-about-topics-such-as-climate-change-and-vaccines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted almost unanimously<\/a> to censor textbooks in schools. &#8230; The board members took issue with chapters that dealt with topics including \u201cclimate change, vaccination, cultural diversity, depopulation and humans\u2019 impact on the Earth and its ecosystems.\u201d They argued that the topics were \u201ccontroversial\u201d and could not be taught to students.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enewscourier.com\/news\/local_news\/limestone-residents-request-state-funding-be-withheld-from-public-library\/article_bfeb4ab0-1788-11ef-b619-73eaaa76b19c.html\">Limestone Residents Request State Funding Be Withheld from Public Library<\/a><\/strong> (The News Courier\/Athens AL)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing here is leaving a loaded handgun around for kids to check out trash from the public library,\u201d Mattson said in January. \u201cWe\u2019re adults and we\u2019re sitting around saying, \u2018Oh, we need to study this for six for months.\u2019 Meanwhile our children are reading pornography and homosexual literature in the library.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idahostatesman.com\/news\/local\/education\/article288836625.html\">An Idaho School District Banned Books. Here\u2019s What a Student Did at Her Graduation.<\/a><\/strong> (Idaho Statesman)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Jenkins, along with other students, had spoken out against the district\u2019s decision to remove books from libraries without input from students and staff, and with little transparency. She sent a letter to district administration urging them to include students in the conversation and suggesting alternatives to book removals, such as having different sections for different grade levels or having a parental consent form for accessing the library, she said. But she said the administration shut down her concerns and weren\u2019t open to compromise. \u201cFrom there, it was a whole school year of students advocating against the removal of different books and trying to protect our libraries,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cThe district did not seem to care specifically about allowing students to be involved in the conversation at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vnhsmirror.com\/220471\/opinion-comment\/book-bans-are-hellish-weapons-of-censorship-and-false-narrative-building\/\">Book Bans Are Hellish Weapons of Censorship and False Narrative Building<\/a><\/strong> (The Mirror\/Van Nuys High School CA student paper)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">This wave of book bans is not, as the politicians and parents claim, a crusade to save children\u2019s innocent souls from graphic depictions of the real world. This is a group of people trying to control the minds of kids by deciding what they should and should not be able to read about and experience. Those leading the book bans want to craft a narrative that excludes some communities and upholds others \u2013 all at the sake of millions of kids\u2019 livelihoods, self-esteem and satisfaction.<\/p>\n<h5><em>YCRT! Comment<\/em><\/h5>\n<p><em>I started posting about banned books in 2005 and, almost 20 years later, find myself still at it. I&#8217;ll continue fighting the good fight, but plan to post less often. I&#8217;ve come to feel my news roundups aren&#8217;t contributing much to the cause. Attacks on knowledge and reading are getting more media coverage than ever. Do we really need yet another podunk blogger culling links to news stories and editorials, most of which everyone&#8217;s already seen and all of which are essentially the same? What&#8217;s happening in Alabama is what&#8217;s happening in Idaho. What&#8217;s happening today is exactly what happened during the Reagan years, and before that during the McCarthy years. Book banners may be more organized than ever, but they&#8217;re the same pitchfork &amp; torch-carrying mob they&#8217;ve always been. And, more importantly, kids and adults curious enough to read what they&#8217;re told they can&#8217;t have an easier time accessing forbidden books than ever, thanks to the internet.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If you want to stay abreast of book banning news, the American Library Association publishes regular news roundups on its <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oif.ala.org\/\">Intellectual Freedom Blog<\/a><\/strong>. It&#8217;s probably the best resource for book banning news out there, and ALA&#8217;s editors do a far better job of it that I can ever hope to.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014Paul Woodford<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You Can\u2019t Read That! is a periodic post about book banning and censorship. YCRT! features news and opinion roundups, commentary, history, and reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[3296,48,4564],"class_list":["post-34582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","tag-bannedbooks-2","tag-censorship","tag-thewaronwoke"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34582"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35084,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582\/revisions\/35084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}