Black parents push back against book bans

Across the United States, classrooms have found themselves in a battle against censorship.

A Jan. 27 article by The New York Times revealed that a Tennessee school board has banned the teaching of “Maus,” a graphic novel that centers around the Holocaust. The Associated Press reported that in Georgia, Republicans have said they will go forward with a proposal that would allow parents to protest books or online material that they feel could harm their children.

These are just a few examples of the onslaught of censorship that schools have been dealing with.

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Miami Times

In Round Rock, Texas, the fight came to a head when a parent complained about a book by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi titled “Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You.” The book is a history of racist ideas that have existed in the United States and won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2016.

The Texas school board considered removing the book from its curriculum, until a group of parents stepped up. The Round Rock Black Parents Association organized a petition to keep the book on the curriculum and acquired more than 3,600 supporters. In short, they won, and the book remains.

“The broader message is that these book bans are not going away because they’re part of a larger effort, in my opinion, to destabilize education,” said Natosha Daniels, a former assistant principal and leader in the Round Rock Black Parents Association, on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.”

Daniels said that when she first heard complaints about Reynolds and Kendi’s book, she went to the presidents of the Black Student Union in her district and asked their thoughts on the controversy.

“One of the first things that a student told me was ‘If they’re trying to ban this book, then why are we reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in eighth grade? Why are they not banning ‘Of Mice and Men’?’ That was their first thought,” she shared. “They were like, ‘They’re never going to ban stories of white saviorism, only stories of Blackness will be banned.’ And I think that’s very telling that they recognize that this is blatant racism, the fact that they’re not banning those other books.”

Black parents push back against book bans

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