RE: Book banning
December 11, 2020 at 2:37 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2020 at 2:41 pm by Spongebob.
Edit Reason: corrections
)
Before the thread gets too far along, I want to reiterate that I do not support banning books and this thread isn't really about banning them so much as re-examining some classics in light of more recent, and probably better, works for the purposes of examining things like racism. The title of my OP was not really accurate, but it got your attention at least.
Regarding TKAM, there are numerous articles in the webosphere, both in support of and challenging it's continued value as a teaching tool and up until just recently I was among those who advocated for it's continued use. But no longer, because I have heard some very valid arguments. These don't center at all on the use of vulgar words, although this has been the pretense to ban it from schools in the past. Chief among them is the N-word and discussion of rape. But those are actually important things to discuss with students, so in my view they don't invalidate this book. What does, however, is how the entire story is presented and viewed from the perspective of a white child. This and some dubious motivations for Atticus. Not to mention the machinations used to protect a white man guilty of murder when such protection would never apply to a black man. Black people are not really presented as real people in the book, they are props and we are basically told that they can only be saved by a white man of high intelligence and ethics (though as I said, Atticus is only ostensibly so). For black students, this is a horrible message. For white students it reinforces a familiar message of white superiority. Please understand that no amount of criticism will ever penetrate my love for this book. I own a copy and have read it numerous times and will continue to do so. But I've come to understand that it's message, though presented in a work of high art, is just not the best way to address racism in America. But that's just my opinion.
When educational bureaucrats decide to do things like this, I wish they would be more savvy about it so we don't have to listen to idiots on Faux News rant about free speech, as if the federal government had Harper Lee tied up in the school basement with duck tape over her mouth.
Regarding TKAM, there are numerous articles in the webosphere, both in support of and challenging it's continued value as a teaching tool and up until just recently I was among those who advocated for it's continued use. But no longer, because I have heard some very valid arguments. These don't center at all on the use of vulgar words, although this has been the pretense to ban it from schools in the past. Chief among them is the N-word and discussion of rape. But those are actually important things to discuss with students, so in my view they don't invalidate this book. What does, however, is how the entire story is presented and viewed from the perspective of a white child. This and some dubious motivations for Atticus. Not to mention the machinations used to protect a white man guilty of murder when such protection would never apply to a black man. Black people are not really presented as real people in the book, they are props and we are basically told that they can only be saved by a white man of high intelligence and ethics (though as I said, Atticus is only ostensibly so). For black students, this is a horrible message. For white students it reinforces a familiar message of white superiority. Please understand that no amount of criticism will ever penetrate my love for this book. I own a copy and have read it numerous times and will continue to do so. But I've come to understand that it's message, though presented in a work of high art, is just not the best way to address racism in America. But that's just my opinion.
When educational bureaucrats decide to do things like this, I wish they would be more savvy about it so we don't have to listen to idiots on Faux News rant about free speech, as if the federal government had Harper Lee tied up in the school basement with duck tape over her mouth.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
~Julius Sumner Miller
