“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.
At a recent pandemic forced Zoom school board meeting (I’m guessing here that the school board had brains enough not to meet live but that may be giving them too much credit), the Anchorage School District has banned these five “controversial” books:
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Things The Carried by Tim O’Brien
What is wrong with these people? Don’t they know that the best way to get teenagers to do something is to tell them they can’t?
All five of these books had been used in high school classes in Anchorage. The school board voted 5-2 to remove the books from the list of materials for English elective courses. Apparently the five school board members who voted to ban these books for their controversial subject matter (they depict scenes of rape, incest, sexual abuse, scenes of violence, profanity and racial slurs say the board members) know more about teaching curriculum than administrators and educators who actually come up with the school curriculum. One of the school board members, a federal employee, said that “If I were to read this in a professional environment in my office, I would be dragged to the equal opportunity office.” He said this with not a smidge of recognition that an office environment is not a damn thing like a classroom.
One of the arguments put forth by this group of highly respected intellectuals (aka the school board) is that parents don’t read the books and would never approve of them if they actually did read them. If parents maybe won’t approve of books that they don’t read and might find some of the topics in those books offensive then some other group of elected officials can step in for them. That’s how things work in Alaska and, my guess is, in many other places. Wonderful.
Why these five books I wondered? I’ve read all of them. They are all great. In fact, I used to read The Great Gatsby every year just because I loved it. It was and still is my favorite book. The language is breathtaking. The depiction of the era so parallels our own that it should be required reading. Heck, that is what many great books do, they shine a light on you and your time. What are these people afraid will happen if their kids or kids in their school district read these books? Turn into anti-war, anti-slavery, anti-poverty, anti-landed gentry radicals?
I hadn’t even thought this was going on much in our modern world. How naive of me. In fact, I guess it happens enough that the American Library Association keeps a list of all banned and challenged books. It is mind boggling: Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Ulysses, Beloved, Lord of the Flies to name just a few, and a mean just a few. The list is endless. The list is chock full of the greatest literature ever. I guess if we ban books then we might not get an educated populace and then we can get a slew of Donald Trumps as our President for like forever. Who knew that the movie Idiocray was actually a documentary?
Does it make you wonder where we are heading in terms of censorship? I do. Trump and McConnell have appointed nearly a quarter of the active Court of Appeals judges. As Justice Sotomayor said, “the court of appeals is where policy is made.” You want to ban books? Go for it, we’ve got your back say the ideologues appointed by Trump.
Anyway, the First Amendment would make you think you have the right to read and say mostly whatever you want. Except, say, screaming fire in a crowded movie theatre when there is not, actually, a fire. It allows you to take a knee or another knee at a football game, if you so choose. It allows you to wear a flag bikini if that’s your thing. But, let’s make sure we don’t talk about what war is like or the moral fiber of the wealthy in the 1920s or racism and trauma for a young black woman or how racism is an obstacle to achieving a person’s authentic and individual place in the world. But, yeah, let’s make sure we can wear a flag on our asses and boobs. It’s good that the certain chosen get to pick and choose the things we want to defend. That’s freedom, right?
I’m glad I don’t live in Alaska, but sad I live in a world where people think banning books is a good idea and where Donald Trump can become President.