From Book Riot:
On January 25th, Granbury Independent School District in Texas pulled 100 books for review based on Matt Krause’s list of 850 books he wants banned from school libraries. Five books were pulled from shelves. Students spoke out at the board meeting,
On January 25th, Granbury Independent School District in Texas pulled 100 books for review based on Matt Krause’s list of 850 books he wants banned from school libraries. Five books were pulled from shelves. Students spoke out at the board meeting, saying,
We want to learn about things that may not be the prettiest or the most comfortable, but we as students are entitled to complete knowledge…
In response, superintendent of the district Jeremy Glenn said,
We want to learn about things that may not be the prettiest or the most comfortable, but we as students are entitled to complete knowledge…
In response, superintendent of the district Jeremy Glenn said,
Let’s not misrepresent things. We’re not taking Shakespeare, Hemingway off the shelves, and we’re not going and grabbing every socially, culturally, or religiously diverse book and pulling them. That’s absurd. And the people that are saying that are gaslighters, and it’s designed to incite division.
He went on to discuss “radicals” in school board meetings that he claims are sowing division in the community.
The students speaking out at the school board meeting decided to take these accusations and use them to raise money to fight censorship.
. . . .
They are selling a tee shirt with the text “radical gaslighter” on it, and all proceeds go to the Freedom to Read Foundation.
Link to the rest at Book Riot
PG notes that this particular censorship apparently originated with right-wing critics. In the US in recent years, censorship and book bans have primarily been from the Woke left.
I respectfully disagree with any general statement that any particular viewpoint or ideology is “primarily” responsible for censorship and book bans. It’s been my experience — up close and directly involved, pretty much continuously for over four decades — that ideology is pretty close to an independent variable; the real problem is demand for conformity combined with the souls (so to speak) of bullies. I’ve seen it in such significant pluralities from virtually all ideologies that none of them can claim primacy. There are well-known immediate initiatives from one perspective that are counterbalanced by less-known initiatives from others; and even the publicity whipsaws rather rapidly.
And that irritates the heck out of them; we are, after all, talking about bullies.
I agree completely. The totalitarian impulse is one that seems to be baked into the DNA, transcending all considerations of ideology, politics, gender, race, etc.
So is the impulse to pretend it is only “the other guys” that want to force their stuoid ideas on everybody.
Oddly enough, nobody bothers to lobby for good ideas…
No need.
I’m a bad person…
My response to the rant about needing books in the library that aren’t “pretty” and make the students uncomfortable: “Ah, okay, you are probably right. I’ll have those restored to the shelves right away. Oh, we’ll add ‘Mein Kampf,’ and Ford’s ‘The International Jew’ – the audiovisual selections will also include ‘Birth of a Nation’.”
SONG OF THE SOUTH is abandonware and kids love the songs. Let them see where they come from. 😀
You forgot Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. Just saying, given that Lucas and Verhoeven (and others) used compositions that Riefenstahl used to great effect in Triumph of the Will.
I’ve seen Triumph of the Will and Birth of Nation. The former is iconic film making, the later is laughable theatrics. IMNSHO the way British TV comedy treated Nazis was the antidote to the so called allure of shiny black leather boots, best exemplified by the Nazi Generals sketch. YMMV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Z6tv7cQmM
HOGAN’S HEROES.
Or Wodehouse’s Sir Roderick Spode.
I have a great book that should be every school library:
Brer Rabbit!
(I couldn’t resist when I saw it for a dollar or so at a library book sale).