Banned Books
“Critical Race Theory”
by Jonathan Harris
“The important thing is to never stop questioning. ”
My parents taught us to read before we started school. Pizza Hut ran promotions that got us to read more in exchange for slices. Reading Rainbow helped us explore new genres and share the reading experience at scale. Our dedicated, but under appreciated, teachers guided us towards finding deeper meaning in every paragraph and page. This reading journey has been one where we have peered from behind the eyes of protagonist of all shapes and colors. We have been with them as they conquered dragons, faced racism head on, rebuilt fallen societies, discovered their own self and identity, and weeped with them at every loss. It comes as a shock then that we are quibbling over the merits of some of the most treasured books we grew up with being controversial today. It is a travesty that children are being denied access to benign titles like the “Harry Potter” series to classics like “To Kill a Mockinbird” and “A Brave New World.”
The architects of the various book bans across the nation embody the clearest representation of cowardice perhaps ever seen. The very same drafters of these bills would rather your kids learn active shooter drills than the accurate history of this country. Perhaps their goal is to keep their own kids from seeing what they as parents, or perhaps the grandparents, were the same people who were confederates, anti-integration, and/or pro-slavery bigots. Instead they hide behind arguments of religious rights, moral reprobation, or a misrepresentation of a M.L.K. speech to suppress truth and knowledge. With one hand they would hide all of the darkest realities of our nation and with the other put forward some structurally weak argument for national pride and looking forward.
The idea that this nation is both one you can have pride in and want to hold it accountable for past mistakes is lost on the book banners. To be an American is a singular maxim for them, divested of whatever truths history holds. They would rusticate the whole country into some idealized Norman Rockwell image where there was never any racism, slavery, Jim Crow, or fascism. But in order not to entirely rail on conservatives, it could be argued that the blame game for the book banning we are seeing is as much a progressive fault as well. We are essentially looking at Cancel Culture being reversed. Perhaps, applied more effectively using legislation instead of social media outrage; again, the right plays Chess not Checkers. As progressives we should learn from this approach and revert our laws to make them unassailable by bigots. I am not saying this to mollify the efforts of right wing groups but to call out that efforts to publicly hold some accountable has been scatter shot at times and the response is being expressed with book banning and legislation against Critical Race Theory.
On the larger topic of Critical Race Theory (CRT), which inspired all of this book banning, what the opponents are really against is Critical Thinking. Conservatives have made CRT the great sin that they will flagellate at the polls in the November 2022 election. Even if they cannot tell you what CRT is or point to concrete examples, it remains their crusade of the moment. In that spirit I have put together my own list if anti-racist / CRT reading that will help you spot a bigot in sheep’s clothing from a mile away. Beyond just reading banned books, I have listed below a number of ways to fight back against this anti-intellectualism movement. The end game, however, remains that we must defrock every conservative politician from their titles and replace them with representatives that understand that are union is made stronger when we acknowledge the truth of our history and build from it.
Participate in Amnesty International’s Banned Books Week.
Join and Support your local library.
Buy from your Local Book Shop instead of big box / online retailers.
Set up a Little Free Library at your house and stock it with banned books.
Wear The Bitter Southerner’s “Read Banned Books” shirt, especially around closed minded people.
Think critically and question everything.
