Feb.14

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GOP 49

Book 'em, Ronno

Since we're on the subject of the culture wars, let's continue with a look at recent news out of Florida, specifically on the book front. PEN America is an anti-censorship group focused on keeping books of all stripes accessible. The organization just released a list of 176 books that have been pulled from the shelves of schools in one Florida county (Duval), at least temporarily. Here are some of the titles, along with a guess as to what the problem is:

• Chik Chak Shabbat: This is about a Jewish woman who cooks food for her diverse neighborhood. One day, when she gets sick, the neighborhood pitches in to cook the shabbat meal in her place. It would seem that different races and cultures working together is too "political" for Florida schoolkids. It is possible that the fact that the community is helping a Jew is also a problem.
  
  
• Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story: Another one about non-Western-European people cooking non-Western-European foods. Nobody better show these schoolkids the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi; it could well drive them to a life of depravity and despair.
  
  
• Love to Mamá: A Tribute To Mothers: Nothing is more American than mom, apple pie and baseball, right? Well, unless mom is Latina, it would seem.
  
  
• Henry Aaron's Dream: Speaking of baseball, the only possible issue here is that the book briefly mentions that Aaron had to overcome racism in order to play baseball. The same is true of The Hero Two Doors Down: Based on the True Story of Friendship between a Boy and a Baseball Legend, about Jackie Robinson, and Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which are also on the banned list.
  
  
• The Gift of Ramadan: One word: Muslims.
  
  
• Never Say a Mean Word Again: A Tale from Medieval Spain: This one has a Jew and a Muslim forming an unlikely friendship. Can't have that, obviously.
  
  
• And Still the Turtle Watched: No, the turtle is not a peeping Tom. Or a peeping Mitch. The book is pro-environment.
  
  
• The Berenstain Bears and the Big Question: Readers may know that the hundreds-of-volumes Berenstain Bears series is full of references to Christian themes. In this one, the "Big Question" is about the nature of God. We don't know if the book was yanked to show that the censors are "being fair" or if it was yanked because it's not Jesus-y enough (or not Jesus-y in the right way).
  
  
• Carter Reads the Newspaper: "Carter" is Carter Woodson, the father of Black History Month. You can see the issue.
  
  
• Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968: Black agitators and labor activism? Please.
  
  
• Julián Is a Mermaid: Julián is both a Latino and a young boy who questions his gender identity. In this case, two strikes and you're out.
  
  
• Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story from the Border: Presumably, this one would be OK if the book ended with the family on a plane to Martha's Vineyard.
  
  
• My Two Dads and Me: You don't need us to tell you what the issue is here. My Two Moms and Me was also pulled.
  
  
• Zen Shorts: There is one religion that might pass muster in Florida schools. And that religion ain't Zen Buddhism, nor is it Taoism, the two religions from which this book's stories are drawn.
  
  
• Fatty Legs: As long as we're on the subject of religion, this one is about a First Nations girl in Canada who is forced to embrace Christian values. A book about imposing Christian "values" on non-Christians? The person who yanked this book wins the Irony Trophy.
  
  
• Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII: Surely you know that only the Nazis did bad things during World War II.
  
  
• When Spring Comes to the DMZ and A Dream Come True: Coming to America from Vietnam--1975: Surely you also know that the U.S. only wins wars bigly.

We will just point out two conclusions that emerge from this exercise. The first is that, despite the claims of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to the contrary, his policies do not leave room for teaching some of the ugly truths of American history. It would be one thing to remove books that are unusually explicit, or gritty, or politically driven. But, for example, if you can't mention racism when telling the stories of Jackie Robinson and Henry Aaron, you can't mention racism anywhere.

The second is that the policy is working exactly as designed. It is not clear how long these books will remain banned for, or when they will return to their respective schools, if they ever do. But the fact is that there is huge risk to educators in leaving a "problem" book on the shelves—they could literally be subject to criminal prosecution (and don't you doubt that DeSantis is looking for a test case to make a show of). On the other hand, there is relatively little direct cost to educators if they yank a book or ten. So, there is enormous incentive to pull any book that isn't tame enough to be made into a Hallmark Channel movie. Too bad for kids who are of color, or gay, or trans, or Jewish/Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist, and who might like a story once in a while where they can see themselves. (Z)