Banned Books
It was awful to read the front page of the N&O on Sunday, about Johnston essentially going through it’s collection and pulling books it finds “offensive”. I hate that word. At least in terms of literature. For one thing, it’s exclusive. I don’t mind cursing or sex scenes in my books, but can imagine there are a lot of people who do. I am not biased by ethnic or religious authors. I think you can read either and both just fine and am not offended. I think that drugs should be a part of YA literature, since they are a part of YA life. So what is offensive? Apparently, it’s whatever Fred Bartholomew thinks. And no one knows what he thinks. When the newspaper talked to them the BOE was very vague about how they were selecting books to pull. Were they selecting all the books that contained sex and drugs or just a few of them? Would all minority authors be up for review, or just those that are filling children’s heads with “filth”. I’m fascinated to see how this unwinds and once again unnerved by the Right. Each time they go into a public situation and use their religious beliefs to override what was set up by the constitution it is one more reason to be a little afraid.
In this particular situation, it was a parent who began the downhill slide of the West Johnston High School Library. His 15 year old daughter was reading “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” by Julia Alvarez, a semi autobiographical novel about growing up Dominican in the US. His daughter was uncomfortable with the subject matter and objected to reading hte book. When asked what the theme of the novel was, he said “pornography” and that his daughter should not be reading it. The teacher offered an alternative assignment for his daughter, but that apparently wasn’t enough. He wanted to make sure that no one at that school was reading that book. So he took it to the board, and in a closed door session, they elected to pull the book from teh shelves. They are the first district in the United States to do so. Curiously enough, the parent was not required to read the book.
As a future librarian and as someone who supports public education, I was literally appalled. How can one parent penalize a whole high school? And it wasn’t further explained why the daughter was uncomfortable. I would imagine that at 15 she knew about sex and am sure that she has read other books with sex scenes in them. My problem with this is that (and this is my unconfirmed POV) I suspect the parents who had this book banned are conservative and religious. Sadly, those didn’t used to be such bad words, but now they are, in my mind. They are the words of fear, of a people who have been taught to fear God and to fear what is transcribed in the Bible. Naturally, they are taught these views by conservative ministers, generally men, since women are often not allowed to be in leadership positions.
I am afraid of the door that Johnston opened. Closed door sessions about curriculum? Pulling the book from the school because one girl opposed it? It seems ludicrous and yet is worse than that- it is True. I only wish it weren’t so.
