What is a “balanced way” and what is a “highly volatile racist way”?
Why are these books pulled? These are in high school libraries.
A Texas school district has flagged more than 400 library books for review following an inquiry from state Rep. Matt Krause (R). North East Independent School District in San An…
thehill.com
The Cider House Rules (John Irving 1985)
The Handmaid's Tale (by Margaret Atwood)
We Were Eight Years in Power: an American Tragedy (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
AUSTIN, Texas — Outraged at the parents and politicians who are trying to rid school libraries of books they denounce as inappropriate or even pornographic, a band of Texas school librarians is fighting back. Shortly after Texas state Rep. Matt Krause called for the state’s school libraries to...
www.pewtrusts.org
Nearly every book on the list, from children’s picture books to history tomes, features either Black or LGBTQ characters.
…The National Coalition Against Censorship denounced the attacks on the books in a December statement signed by hundreds of authors and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, the National LGBTQ Task Force and the National Black Justice Coalition. According to the statement, most of the books being challenged are about "the lived experiences of racism or of growing up LGBTQIA and experiencing bias, discrimination, hate and even violence."
Out of Darkness,” for example, is a young adult novel about a love affair between two teenagers, a Mexican American girl and Black boy, set against the backdrop of the 1937 natural gas explosion at a New London, Texas, school. The disaster claimed nearly 300 lives.
The 2015 book attracted little or no controversy for several years after it was published. But beginning last fall, its presence in school libraries has been challenged in at least 16 school districts across a half-dozen states. Author Ashley Hope Pérez acknowledged in a phone interview that the novel explicitly deals with subjects such as sexual abuse and racism but pointed out that it has received favorable reviews and literary awards.
These books deal complex and real situations, either facing us today, or in our history. In addition some of these books likely touch upon topics some of these kids may have experienced but can’t talk about.
When I was in high school our reading list included books considered controversial at the time:
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Clockwork Orange
Of Mice and Men
Lolita
Grapes of Wrath
The Diary of Ann Frank
Are kids these days too soft to read anything that sparks controversy, discussion and thought? I don’t think so. I think it is the parents who can’t.
Given that the majority of the books target are either by black authors, feature black charecters or LGBTQ charecters….
why do you accuse me of using the race card?