Book Banners are Knocking on Madison County Doors
In 1616, the Catholic Church banned the book On the Revolution of Celestial Bodies, written by Nicholaus Copernicus in 1543. The book violated Church doctrine by asserting the earth rotated around the sun. In 1633, the Church had Galileo Galilei arrested for teaching the Copernican theory, even though he offered visual evidence through the lens of his telescope. It should be noted that the Church’s objection to this book did not stop the earth from revolving around the sun.
Sadly, book banning is still alive and well and being advocated on our doorsteps in Madison County. Recently a Republican candidate for the Madison County School Board posted on her Facebook page objections to the book, All American Boys, by nationally acclaimed writers Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. The reason for removing this book from the school’s library? The post stated “…was purely agenda written. And critical race theory or CRT to no fault of the teacher…”
While I am not sure what the second part of the quote meant, I have to agree with the first part of the statement. All American Boys does have an agenda. I have read fiction for most of my life, have taught literature to eighth graders, and written some books of my own, and I am pretty sure all books have an agenda. That’s why we write books; we want to make a statement about topics that matter to us.
Last night I finished All American Boys, as I wanted to know the agenda the candidate found problematic. The story was co-written by two authors, one White and one Black and included two protagonists, one White and one Black. From my reading, I quickly gathered that the authors objected to violence born out of racial prejudice. In the story a Black teenager is beaten by a White police officer after the boy is falsely accused of shoplifting a bag of potato chips. A White teenager witnesses the beating and is shocked to see that the officer is a close friend. Much of the story explores how this violent episode divides a racially diverse, urban community, where no one can escape the wounds inflicted by racial injustice. The story takes pains to show that police are under great stress, but also notes the difficulty young Black men face when being constantly scrutinized due to the color of their skin.
Now that I’ve read All American Boys, I’m puzzled by the objection. One of the greatest gifts of literature is to expose readers to new and different perspectives, to take us all to places where we physically cannot travel. This includes bringing about a greater understanding of people who inhabit very different environments, helping us understand how others process the world.
Honestly, I don’t understand what this particular candidate is worried about. Does she wish to shield Madison County students from the historical consequences of racism? Does she worry that Madison County students are so fragile that they will dissolve into an emotional puddle when they learn that racism still does great harm? Or does she wish to pretend that racism has never existed in our society? Maybe she hopes that by banning books which address racism, that racism will simply cease to exist. If so, she will have no more luck than the Catholic Church had in pretending the sun rotated around the earth. Like it or not, our nation’s history has a very ugly side when it comes to racial prejudice, and no amount of censorship will change this fact.
Banning books is very bad business, and I do not want to see my county go down this dark path. People have every right to find particular books offensive, but they don’t have the right to deny others the chance to judge books for themselves. Do we really want to model our county after the likes of the Spanish inquisition, Nazi Germany, or the Taliban in Afghanistan? Free and open societies welcome the honest exchange of ideas and perspectives, and I sincerely hope Madison County schools will continue to open the eyes of our students to the wide world beyond our borders. Repeating the mistakes of the 17th century is not a business I wish to see our school board engage in. Our students deserve much better from those who seek to provide academic leadership.